The Differences Between Freestyle and Folkstyle Wrestling

Mike Mal breaks down the differences between freestyle and folkstyle.

Follow FloWrestling

[halonaruto]

"If you're wrestling someone from a former Soviet country you gotta win by 4"

[Mr.Goldtop]

He said he was going to dumb it down, and he did! Excellent presentation!

[zoidsfan]

Dude I am glad to have this. I was saying I was doing grecco roman for years because all I remembered was it wasn't freestyle because I couldn't grab for the ankles etc. No-one told me I was folkstyle wrestler lol. Now I know and now I won't be looking like a moron saying that I was a grecco roman wrestler and then talking about how much I love double leg takedowns.

[lifeinblackandwhite]

To any new wrestlers, my son has a youtube channel called HITSQUAD WRESTLING and post his matches, workouts, and some "how to" type videos as well. He just turned 14 and will be going in as a freshman this season but has been wrestling for 5 years.

[DMX-PAT]

Video is almost unwatchable, really tried but just couldn't do it...

[michaelm]

The only real difference I heard was the 3 points of contact = takedown in folkstyle.

[AR-mleo]

Pretty superficial and lame. Less BS and posing, more details and facts.

[dtsolos]

thanks i have a tourny in wisconsin in 2 days (im from illinois)and they are wrestling both freestyle and folkstyle for some reason

[AuraKnight]

When I did Freestyle I learned more ways to take an opponent down which some of them can become very intimidating and sometimes you need to know folkstyle before you learn it. Like most of freestyle has the same moves that folkstyle has but the moves are more extreme. So like a folkstyle double leg is driving them to the Mat but in freestyle your Double leg can mostly make them fly to the mat! Like I’ve seen people during practice in folkstyle take a move and do it correctly but accidentally doing in freestyle.

Story time: back when I was doing folkstyle wrestling the coach taught us how to twist someone onto the mat while standing. One of the Students did it right but instead of pulling them down they used so much force that they threw them back over their shoulder like if they were a barrel! They asked the coach if they did it right but the coach replied “you did it correctly but not for folkstyle” I also accidentally did an extreme move. When I was doing a double leg I accidentally thrusted a student so hard they they went diagonal up like maybe around 110° angle like a little obtuse slightly upwards into the air before being dumped downwards. Which in that moment I didn’t realize he was lifted 3ft off the ground until I looked at him while he was on the ground. Everyone looked at me and said “how’d you do that?” Because in wrestling, Just like Judo you don’t notice the move because your using leverage so it’s not hard when you do it correctly. But from being lifted from your opponent you don’t have control and you get taken down pretty fast. Just like a rollercoaster loop you don’t even notice you’ve been lifted off the ground during a takedown. The takedowns aren’t the things that hurt… it’s what’s after that hurts… you being in a cradle!

That’s why I said they have the same moves but one is just more extreme.

[getyomoneyup]

thx i’m wrestling my first freestyle match tmrw and this really helped

[gunsack]

First of all for folk style you gotta keep them on there back for a count of 5 to get five points and they’ll count to five if your on your back and not pinned

[spditsme]

And why didn't they go over pins?

[notepad]

This seemed like a small amount of informativeness embedded in what is fundamentally a comedy skit full of in jokes for those already in the know. I'm sure it's hilarious for them, but I do hope to find a more serious and informative video on the subject.

[SosukeAizen]

I prefer folkstyle but both are cool to watch and fun. I am more well versed in folkstyle and competed in it in highschool. i wanted to continue vut college isnt for me. Now as an adult male i want to start training again just to keep in shape and brush up on takedowns and take down defense (i work in a job with a high possibility of being assaulted) but there is like no schools to practice any style of wrestling near me.

[dfpguitar]

Missed out headgear.
No one wears headgear in freestyle except for school age Americans who are probably more focused on folkstyle anyway.

[matthewmoore]

“Ass over asics” best advice i’ve ever heard.

[jeffayers]

In freestyle if you get 2 points for exposure and then immediately get a takedown you get 2. But if you get a takedown then expose them to their back you get 4 [2 TD and 2 back].... how does that make sense?

[bruceparker]

You make it sound as though both have the same ground game.

[stealthbombsmith]

Freestyle's scoring criteria is confusing and the people can stall on the bottom

[DemiAndHisSyndromes]

What is the differences in mat? In folkstyle it seems that the surface is harder...