wrestling Are Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, and US Folkstyle Wrestling really more about physical conditioning and athleticism than martial arts?

[Hopa12]

I am not here to argue aggressively about the wrestling sports of Greco-Roman, Freestyle, and US Folkstyle but am I right in my feeling that wrestlers are really only special in real-life and in MMA due to their physical conditioning?

 

How did I get this feeling?

 

Here's why:

 

I just recently joined my local public highschool's male wrestling team. Of course, the style is American Folkstyle. I am a teenage male. What I remembered from what my coach told me was that he said that highschool wrestling is actually 90% physical conditioning and not techniques or sparring. He said to me that physical conditioning is what we will do 90% of the time. He also said that that is what makes wrestling hard and what also will set elite-level wrestlers especially Olympic level ones and All-American NCAA Collegiate level ones apart from others. He is right. It's tough.

 

Another person who trains in a local MMA gym also told me that Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, and US Folkstyle Wrestling are pretty much generic and are nothing special in terms of techniques, fight IQ, and vastness of skills compared to Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. He also told me the same thing about what my coach told me and that is that Olympic Wrestling and Highschool Wrestling are about physical conditioning and not about techniques, fight IQ, or wideness of array of skills. Speaking of him being an MMA fighter, he trains in Muay-Thai, Freestyle Wrestling, BJJ, and Western Boxing. He is an adult.

 

He also told me that if you aren't an Olympic Wrestler or a US highschool wrestler and are instead a wrestler from independent gyms who either practices Greco-Roman, Freestyle, or US Folkstyle, then you shouldn't continue and instead just choose BJJ if you want to learn self-defense. He told me that BJJ is the real effective form of self-defense from that point on. 

 

He told me that without the infamous extreme exceptional physical conditioning of highschool wrestling and Olympic wrestling such as the physical conditioning HIIT(High-Intensity-Interval-Training), etc., wrestling(Greco-Roman, Freestyle, and US Folkstyle) itself just takes the backseat to other martial arts and combat sports such as Kyokushin, Judo, BJJ, Sambo, Western Boxing, Muay-Thai, Lethwei, Kickboxing, Kempo, Krav Maga, etc. especially in real-life self-defense scenarios. That's what he said.

 

He told me that an Olympic Wrestler or an All-American collegiate NCAA Division I champion wrestler who learned some submissions will defeat a BJJ Black Belt but a white belt of pure BJJ will often submit and destroy an independent gym(not Olympic or highschool level) wrestler no matter what style(either Greco-Roman, Freestyle, or US Folkstyle) is the wrestler even if the wrestler learned some submissions.

 

I kind of feel that all of what he said is true or am I wrong?

 

Then, I tried to argue with him that wrestling styles can be one of the most effective regardless of the level of physical conditioning and the reason I gave him is that bodyslams often KO people in street fights and real-life violence.

 

He then responded to me that instant bodyslam KOs are actually difficult and rarely happen. His reasoning is that knocking out someone by instant KO bodyslamming them becomes rarer and rarer if the person you are trying to bodyslam is as strong as you, is highly aggressive, is very aware of his surroundings, is the same size or bigger than you, has a survivor mentality, is actively facing you and not surprised attacked, and is actually resisting ferociously. He also said to me that instant KO bodyslamming the person is rarer if the person is trained in combat styles especially grappling ones such as Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Aikido, Judo, Sambo, Shuai Jiao, etc.

 

Although I am highly skeptical of what he said, a huge part of me feels that what he just said is right.

 

Most of the instant bodyslam KOs I have seen in real-life and in Internet videos are typically in these conditions and factors below:

 

1. The person slamming is male while the one getting slammed is female.

 

2. The person slamming is far stronger than who he is slamming.

 

3. The person getting slammed is not aggressive or resisting and more like intimidated, trying to stop, trying to de-escalate, and also run away.

 

4. The person slamming is significantly larger than the one getting slammed.

 

5. The person slamming is a well-built adult while the person getting slammed is a kid.

6. The person slamming surprise-attacked and sneaked up on the one who got slammed.

__________

He told me that compared to what's seen on pop media entertainment where dumb huge hulking/fat stupid brutes instant KO bodyslam everyone with ease, executing real instant KO bodyslams in real life actually requires extreme precision, extreme focus, and extreme finesse especially against aggressive individuals or trained combatants.

 

Aside from all of that, I have personally seen or heard reports of some Olympic wrestlers and highschool wrestlers that got into real fights, they won a lot but as for their independent gym counterparts that I have seen or heard reports about, most them got their asses beat and kicked by many individuals who aren't wrestlers.

 

The MMA fighter adult that I talked to also got me to know his brother. The brother told me that Freestyle Wrestling, Greco-Roman Wrestling, and US Folkstyle Wrestling are not really special in terms of technical skills and wideness of skills and are only special due to their physical conditioning. He also told me that if physical conditioning is not in the equation, other wrestling styles such as the obscure Filipino folk wrestling styles of Buno and Dumog are the ones who are highly technical and have a variety of skills compared to the wrestling styles Greco-Roman, Freestyle, and US Folkstyle. He also told me that if physical conditioning is out of the window, Buno and Dumog are the ones who are effective and lethal in real fights. He told me that the reason is because Dumog and Buno are optimized for weaponry and also in real-fights, real violence, street fights, and military wars compared to Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling, and US Folkstyle Wrestling that are built for sport. That's what he said. Is he right?

 

Also, what is Dumog and Buno? Anybody know that? I have never heard of them.

 

My final question is this:

 

Is highschool wrestling and Olympic wrestling really more about physical conditioning? To me it seems that way.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

Edited 13 hours ago by Hopa12

[Hopa12]

Speaking of Buno, he also told me about Harimau Buno and Garimot Arnis. What is that?

These are the only info I got about Buno, Harimau Buno, and Garimot Arnis:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buno_(wrestling)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garimot_Arnis

https://www.kenfuderyu.co.za/Buno.htm

Also, here's an info about Dumog:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumog

 

[Dark Energy]

You missed THE most important part about the three styles.  Your ability to cut weight really really hard right before a ‘fight’ and then rehydrate and bounce back a few hours before the fight.  Just ask Yianni D and his Olympic Trials experience.  He couldn’t do this part well and it is a really really big deal.   

Very practical in real life fights too.  A key aspect of martial art skills.
 

Edited 6 hours ago by Dark Energy