Rules of wrestling, and maybe more

[cashley216]

In watching videos posted here and elsewhere of grappling and bjj matches, I find my enjoyment hindered by the fact that I don’t know the rules. I don’t know what the competitors are trying to do, what they get credit for.

Meanwhile, I do know the basic rules of wrestling as practiced in high school, college and the Olympics. I have noticed that some people who post on this forum about wrestling don’t know the rules. Contrary to various recent posts, nobody in scholastic or international wrestling gets dragged across the mat face first. Nobody gets his jaw broken open, except maybe by a freak accident. Any wrestler who does anything like that that on purpose to another would get disqualified. Also, heartbreaking as this might be to some, there are no scissors. Indeed, there are no moves which are simply designed to cause pain, much less a submission, which isn’t a thing in scholastic or international wrestling. Any position which looks to the referee like it might result in injury results in the action being stopped, the wrestlers being separated and the action being started again.

A wrestler must always be trying to score points or a pin. A pin ends the match. You can score points in several ways, mainly: (1) taking your opponent to the mat when you both start standing; (2) reversing positions when he (or she) is on top; (3) escaping to an equal, standing position when your opponent starts on top; or (4) almost pinning your opponent. The first period starts with both wrestlers standing. The next two start on the mat; each wrestler gets to pick once whether to start on top or bottom.

I post these very basic rules in the hopes that maybe somebody will do something similar with regard to grappling and/or bjj, and in the hopes that those watching the wrestling matches will enjoy them more.

[mermao]

In private matches, which are by far the type most often dealt with here, the "rules" are whatever the parties agree to.

[cashley216]

I wasn't talking about those. I thought that was obvious. Sorry if it wasn't.

[Elbow Escape]

Originally Posted by cashley216 [Only Registered Users Can See LinksClick Here To Register]

In watching videos posted here and elsewhere of grappling and bjj matches, I find my enjoyment hindered by the fact that I don’t know the rules. I don’t know what the competitors are trying to do, what they get credit for.

Meanwhile, I do know the basic rules of wrestling as practiced in high school, college and the Olympics. I have noticed that some people who post on this forum about wrestling don’t know the rules. Contrary to various recent posts, nobody in scholastic or international wrestling gets dragged across the mat face first. Nobody gets his jaw broken open, except maybe by a freak accident. Any wrestler who does anything like that that on purpose to another would get disqualified. Also, heartbreaking as this might be to some, there are no scissors. Indeed, there are no moves which are simply designed to cause pain, much less a submission, which isn’t a thing in scholastic or international wrestling. Any position which looks to the referee like it might result in injury results in the action being stopped, the wrestlers being separated and the action being started again.

A wrestler must always be trying to score points or a pin. A pin ends the match. You can score points in several ways, mainly: (1) taking your opponent to the mat when you both start standing; (2) reversing positions when he (or she) is on top; (3) escaping to an equal, standing position when your opponent starts on top; or (4) almost pinning your opponent. The first period starts with both wrestlers standing. The next two start on the mat; each wrestler gets to pick once whether to start on top or bottom.

I post these very basic rules in the hopes that maybe somebody will do something similar with regard to grappling and/or bjj, and in the hopes that those watching the wrestling matches will enjoy them more.

In BJJ/submission grappling a pin reward no victory, you win by either a submission or, if time runs out with no submission, by points.

A submission is forcing an opponent to surrender, which usually happen with a choke or joint lock.

Points are scored by progressing towards or establishing very dominant and advantageous positions.
A position is considered dominant enough to give you points if in a real fight you could also easily strike effectively in addition to easily apply submissions to the opponent, while he can't do neither to you.

Establishing mount and back control both awards you 4 points, while knee on belly awards you 2 points (since it's less stable and easier to escape than mount and back control)
It shoud be noted that you have to keep the position for at least 3 seconds to ibtain the points.

This is Mount, which is defined by the mounted guy's hips being trapped in between the top guy's legs:





Back control, it's when you are behind your opponent and glued to him by hooking your legs inside his thighs, so he can't turn to face you:





Knee on Belly:



Other ways to obtain points are takedowns, sweeps from the guard and passing the guard.

Takedowns don't need explanation, a succesful takedown awards two points.

The guard is the position where the bottom guy has his legs either wrapped around the top guy or in front of him, eg:




It's considered a neutral position, since if the guy on the bottom know the proper techniques he can use his legs, hips and arms in conjunction to control the opponent and has countless of sweeps and submissions (such as chokes and joint locks that enables him to win from the bottom) that he can do from there, while the guy on the top has almost no submission available to him.

So the objective of the guy on the bottom of the guard is to either submit the opponent from there or to sweep him and get on top, if he sweeps him he get two points.

On the other hand the objective of the top guy is to free himself and get past the legs (aka "pass the guard"), so that he can establish an advantegeous position.
Passing the guard awards 3 points.

Everything we have said regarding the guard still applies to the half guard, which is when the bottom person has both of his legs wrapped around one of the top person legs, eg:



Plus it should be noted that there are very common positions such as side control and north-south that don't score any points, but are still very important.
They offer great control and are very hard to escape, they offer several submissions opportunity and they are also often a necessary intermediate step for transitioning to even more dominant positions such as mount or back control, plus the opponent has no submissions available to him.
The only (very questionable) reason why they don't score points is just because in a real fight you could not punch from there without losing control.

Side control, as the name imply is defined by you being past the opponent's leg and controlling him by his side, with your body inbetween his hip line and his shoulder line.




North-South, which is defined by your body being parallel to the opponent and inbetween his shoulders:



Last but non least, you should be aware that some competitions are submission only, there are no points and if the time expire it's either a draw or there is some kind of overtime.

[cashley216]

I appreciate the effort that went into that post after my request. Thank you.

I'm sure I'm not the first to make this observation, but it's really remarkable how different the required skills sets are in the two sports featured here. We think of them as closely related sports, because they are forms of combat. But in one, the whole idea is to put your opponent on his back, and in the other the first thing many contestants do is go to their back.