I prefer submission over Olympic/freestyle/collegiate/ scholastic for the simple reason that I am better at submission. As one who always seems to land on his back, I was (and I am) a lousy freestyle wrestler. lol
But gosh, do I love to watch a good freestyle match with the guys who are good at it.
... and then of course there is the fetish aspect.
For a lot of guys, wrestling is a form of sex, and submission wrestling is a domination/submission thing. Maybe for them Olympic/GR is a bit vanilla!
The problem I have (as a non-fetish wrestler) is that I used to assume that all the fetish guys were pro. Not so! About 90% of the guys on this site tick the submission box, but it doesn't mean they are looking for fights without sex.
Regarding the British members of this site, our exposure to olympic or GR style is pretty much restricted to the actual Olympics on TV, which rolls around every four years, whereas WWE and British pro (which both have fake submissions) are much more prevalent.
We have had martial arts dojos for many decades, so judo and jj have an influence too. MMA is also growing in popularity.
In the US of course it is different, olympic wrestling is part of the curriculum. How I wish British schools had taught wrestling, I might have actually enjoyed sports!
I went to a few olympic style classes once, it was interesting but not as exciting as submission. I found the restrictions on movement quite frustrating.
Sturdy, you are slightly misinformed. Greco-Roman (GR) — and freestyle are NOT _only_ done once every 4 years and it is not restricted to the Olympics. GR is the "basic" wrestling style in European and Canadian and xxxxistan countries. AND it is virtually a year-round sport. While the US has some modifications to better mesh the predominant scholastic wrestling taught in high schools and colleges, it is still basic international (FILA, now, World Wrestling Union or something) wrestling rules. Additionally every country has many wrestling tournaments in the 9-month wrestling season, including local, state, national, and international tournaments. Every year, there are world champions, where every 4th year, they are called Olympians.
Also, FighterBoyy, the rules are not complex or "longer than your leg" unless you have very short legs. Recreational wrestling rarely uses a scoring system; even so, the scoring is 1, 2, 4 (or 5 in GR). The rules are basically prohibitions for illegal / unethical actions that will injury wrestlers. We want all wrestlers to come back to fight another day. Also, the pin is the overall standard of all forms of wrestling. Fighting from one's back is a bit ass-backwards from a wrestler's perspective. When a wrestler engages a BJJ guy who fights from his back, a weird situation develops: that is the goal of wrestler, to get his opponent on this back. Again, recreational wrestling does not necessarily stop on a pin; we generally just keep going or restart.
I am one of those who prefer submission greatly over freestyle or greco-roman. I mean no disrespect to those who practice these styles, it's the styles themselves that I dislike. Here are my reasons.
The rules are too complex. The list of things that you are not allowed to do is longer than my leg. Any time I tried wrestling with a freestyle practitioner, it was a continuous protest of things that I cannot do. (Nothing extreme, bu the way, like an arm bar, I haven't even bothered with that.) It gets worse with greco.
The scoring is too complex. Points are awarded for moves that, from my perspective, do not accomplish anything in terms of winning a fight. For example, a wrestler could points for "blocking his opponent on one or two outstretched arms, his back facing the mat". Because blocking is awesome. :)
The general action feels unnatural to me. E.g. Back on the mat wins the match, even though it is possible to do some very good offensive moves from that same position.
There are moves that are non sequitur in anything that would approximate a real fight. E.g. laying face down with arms and legs spread is a good defensive position. What?
I met some freestyle / greco wrestlers over the course of my "carreer" as a hobby wrestler, and they were all very strong and skilled. Clearly it is a great sport and part of the olympic traditions. I just find submission much easier to get into. To give you an idea of the difference in approachability: you can explain the rules of submission to a new guy in about 5 sentences. Compare that with olympic wrestling, the rules of which are 60 printed pages.
It is very clear to me that majority of the users here prefer submission/ BJJ to these two styles which have long story and tradition. Although I was discussing this with many of you in our private chats I'd like to hear more from you on this (in my opinion) interesting topic. What is the thing that compells you to make such a choice?
NJWoodbridge (139)
7/09/2014 2:49 PMI prefer submission over Olympic/freestyle/collegiate/ scholastic for the simple reason that I am better at submission. As one who always seems to land on his back, I was (and I am) a lousy freestyle wrestler. lol
But gosh, do I love to watch a good freestyle match with the guys who are good at it.
Al
Ironbull (94)
4/27/2014 10:21 PMI fought freestyle for a while and found it very technical. Submission is also less physically demanding because of the long drawn out holds.
Sturdy (31)
1/27/2014 4:08 PM... and then of course there is the fetish aspect.
For a lot of guys, wrestling is a form of sex, and submission wrestling is a domination/submission thing. Maybe for them Olympic/GR is a bit vanilla!
The problem I have (as a non-fetish wrestler) is that I used to assume that all the fetish guys were pro. Not so! About 90% of the guys on this site tick the submission box, but it doesn't mean they are looking for fights without sex.
Sturdy (31)
1/26/2014 8:50 PMRegarding the British members of this site, our exposure to olympic or GR style is pretty much restricted to the actual Olympics on TV, which rolls around every four years, whereas WWE and British pro (which both have fake submissions) are much more prevalent.
We have had martial arts dojos for many decades, so judo and jj have an influence too. MMA is also growing in popularity.
In the US of course it is different, olympic wrestling is part of the curriculum. How I wish British schools had taught wrestling, I might have actually enjoyed sports!
I went to a few olympic style classes once, it was interesting but not as exciting as submission. I found the restrictions on movement quite frustrating.
rguts (0)
7/06/2014 11:03 AM(In reply to this)
Sturdy, you are slightly misinformed. Greco-Roman (GR) — and freestyle are NOT _only_ done once every 4 years and it is not restricted to the Olympics. GR is the "basic" wrestling style in European and Canadian and xxxxistan countries. AND it is virtually a year-round sport. While the US has some modifications to better mesh the predominant scholastic wrestling taught in high schools and colleges, it is still basic international (FILA, now, World Wrestling Union or something) wrestling rules. Additionally every country has many wrestling tournaments in the 9-month wrestling season, including local, state, national, and international tournaments. Every year, there are world champions, where every 4th year, they are called Olympians.
Also, FighterBoyy, the rules are not complex or "longer than your leg" unless you have very short legs. Recreational wrestling rarely uses a scoring system; even so, the scoring is 1, 2, 4 (or 5 in GR). The rules are basically prohibitions for illegal / unethical actions that will injury wrestlers. We want all wrestlers to come back to fight another day. Also, the pin is the overall standard of all forms of wrestling. Fighting from one's back is a bit ass-backwards from a wrestler's perspective. When a wrestler engages a BJJ guy who fights from his back, a weird situation develops: that is the goal of wrestler, to get his opponent on this back. Again, recreational wrestling does not necessarily stop on a pin; we generally just keep going or restart.
SileX (197 )
1/26/2014 8:18 AMI am one of those who prefer submission greatly over freestyle or greco-roman. I mean no disrespect to those who practice these styles, it's the styles themselves that I dislike. Here are my reasons.
I met some freestyle / greco wrestlers over the course of my "carreer" as a hobby wrestler, and they were all very strong and skilled. Clearly it is a great sport and part of the olympic traditions. I just find submission much easier to get into. To give you an idea of the difference in approachability: you can explain the rules of submission to a new guy in about 5 sentences. Compare that with olympic wrestling, the rules of which are 60 printed pages.
JasonFL (21)
1/31/2014 8:15 PM(In reply to this)
Submission all the way, Pörkölt !
SileX (197 )
1/31/2014 9:57 PM(In reply to this)
Damn straight.
Olympic (25)
1/25/2014 6:10 PMHello folks.
It is very clear to me that majority of the users here prefer submission/ BJJ to these two styles which have long story and tradition. Although I was discussing this with many of you in our private chats I'd like to hear more from you on this (in my opinion) interesting topic. What is the thing that compells you to make such a choice?
Will be happy to hear from you.
Regards:
Olympic.