Wrestling at Rolla Junior High

Have you ever wondered what wrestling is? Well if you’re interested I would recommend joining the wrestling team at Rolla Junior High.

Understanding the Sport

I have always found it easier to join a sport after understanding what a sport really is. So, what is wrestling? Well, wrestling is a combat sport, that requires two individuals to ”fight” under a specific set of rules. Two athletes grapple to gain a dominant position over their opponent, scoring points with the ultimate goal being to either pin the other person’s shoulders to the mat or by the end of the three periods to have the most points.

Every time you wrestle you engage in a full body workout including using muscles in your core, upper, and lower body. While still engaging pulling muscles like the back, biceps, lats, legs, and hips. 

Differences Between Folkstyle and Freestyle

Now that we know a general overview of what wrestling is, let’s get into the two different styles. The Olympics refers to these styles as folkstyle and freestyle. Folkstyle consists of three two minute periods in which you focus on maintaining your endurance while gaining points until you objectively pin their shoulders to the mat. Folkstyle also prevents clasping. Freestyle, on the other hand, is the variation of the sport where you can you clasp as well as using your entire body to score points. The amount of time in a match is the consistent with the exception of with a 30 second break in between.

Practices

Everyday, Monday through Friday, I go to wrestling practice after school. You change in the locker room, put on your wrestling shoes (or just socks) and get on the mat around 3:30pm. You begin with warmups which include running a couple laps, inside and outside shuffling, cartwheels, forward and backward rolls, and getting into your “stance”, the position you’re in when ready to wrestle.

Then we go into the middle circle and the head coach demonstrates on a more experienced kid how to do a specific move. We then grab a partner and practice the move. Near the end of the practice we do “lives” which is where you began applying what you know to a two minute match with your partner until you pin or the time runs out.

This is just my perspective of  what wrestling really is. Everyone will have different experiences but none the less wrestling is truly a great sport to get into shape as well as to connect with others. Personally, I have had a great experience with it, and I strongly suggest you join.