Definitely prepares them if they want to pursue the next level (Olympic/international) competition. My daughter likes folkstyle WAY more though. She says it’s harder and more grueling when you gotta fight to get off bottom and not just lay flat and hope you don’t get rolled, lol. I actually like watching folkstyle more as well, whole other set of nerves kick in when she chooses bottom or the other girl chooses top, freestyle seems like it’s missing half of wrestling
I was always an offensive minded wrestler and slams are my go to. I would sacrifice a lot of energy to drop someone hard. We used to get away with it in folkstyle in the 80's and 90's. Now, even a legal slam gets stopped a lot of times for an injury timeout when they should wrestle until there is a stop in the action, which is usually after the wrestler who got dropped is flat on their back. Where in freestyle, "Does he look dead, no, wrestle on." Haha.
Very true, on the feet freestyle is definitely more exciting. The main reason I think she likes folkstyle is just the fact that she’s trained it way more and feels more comfortable wrestling it. She has great takedowns and known for big double legs where she gets them up high and smashes them into the mat pretty hard. This is from their first meet this year.
So good for them mentally and physically. My daughter had already built up some of the physical/mental toughness through jiu jitsu and competitions but most of her teammates are just girl athletes they grabbed from another sport. Some the coach’s saw in the cafeteria and thought maybe they weigh what we need to fill that spot, lol… the growth I’ve see in those girls from wrestling the last few years is awesome to see. I was never involved in wrestling growing up but glad I am now, my wife and kids also love it.
