Is High School Wrestling a Good Choice for Sports? A Helpful Guide for Students

Having a physical education class is often a requirement for students before graduating. One of the popular choices for PE is Scholastic Wrestling, which High School Wrestling falls under. Is High School Wrestling a good choice for students? Is it still a good choice for students who are only looking to have some exercise?

Wrestling is a good sports choice for High School students as it helps them get exercise and have fun at the same time. Furthermore, it teaches self-discipline and personal responsibility, which can be used in numerous aspects of life. However, the training in Wrestling is quite hard as you need to balance strength training, cardio exercise, and weight management.

This blog post will discuss a brief introduction to High School Wrestling. What makes it a good choice? Is it an easy or hard physical education class?

Is Wrestling a Sport in High School?

Wrestling is a popular sport for High School students. In fact, it is ranked 6th among High School students, with more than 270,000 participants annually. The sport is practiced in 49 out of the 50 states and is considered the most popular Wrestling style in the United States.

Wrestling is so popular that almost 10,000 schools offer Wrestling classes for students.

However, most don’t realize that High School Wrestling is a little different from other Wrestling styles.

Wrestling has been around for 15,000 years, and cave paintings of people Wrestling were seen in ancient places such as Babylon and Egypt.

With its old age, it branches out into a lot of styles. To be particular, High School Wrestling falls under Folkstyle Wrestling.

Basically, there are three main types of Wrestling: Folkstyle, Freestyle, and Greco-Roman. Freestyle and Greco-Roman are the Wrestling forms you’ve seen in the Olympics, and Folkstyle is what’s being practiced in school.

Folkstyle Wrestling has multiple names, such as Traditional Wrestling, Collegiate Wrestling, Scholastic Wrestling, and High School Wrestling.

What’s different in Folkstyle is its focus on getting takedowns for points. It is also a great form of exercise as it has a regulating body ensuring that the programs are structured to benefit students.

Recommended Read: Discussing the differences among the three wrestling styles can make the post exceptionally long. Thus, if you’re interested in knowing the three main wrestling styles, plus the eight minor styles, feel free to check this post: What are the main Wrestling styles?

High School wrestling is governed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS); they are in charge of setting rules for Wrestling competitions and standard curriculum for learning.

While High School wrestling has a regulating body, there are minor differences in rules across states.

For example, NFHS sets 14 different weight classes for High School Wrestlers. However, some states can have modified weight classes.

Some states can also offer more than 14 weight classes. For example, there is a 180 lb weight class in Texas and a 96lb weight class in New York.

For some, getting into High School Wrestling is a great way to exercise, especially; NFHS regulated High School Wrestling to give some helpful exercise for beginners.

However, is getting into the sport easy or hard? What are the challenges you need to expect when you try the sport? Let’s talk about those next.

Is High School Wrestling Easy?

High School Wrestling is not an easy sport since you have to deal with strength training, cardio exercise, weight management, and studies simultaneously. However, it is a great way to have some exercise while having fun. What’s great is that High School Wrestling’s curriculum is regulated enough to provide the most benefit with as little difficulty as possible.

I’m not a person who likes hurting others. That’s why when I got into wrestling class, one of the comments I usually get is I’m too kind for the sport.

Well, thinking about it, I know I’m not the only one who thinks of it this way. I see martial arts such as Wrestling and currently Muay Thai as a source of exercise.

Some think getting into Wrestling class is a great way to get exercise. They’re right, as I had fun wrestling and, at the same time seeing improvements in my overall physique, endurance, and strength.

However, I also know that Wrestling isn’t easy. The circuit workouts that serve as a warm-up were too much when I started. I can also see others who are already sports giving up at half of the warm-up exercises.

Remember that this is only the warm-up.

Next, you will have some strength training. For example, it might strengthen your leg muscles or give you upper body strength.

If you’re looking for exercise, you will get lots of exercise in Wrestling classes. In fact, you will have them every class.

These exercises aren’t easy. The warm-ups tended to be extremely hard when I started. But, of course, I got used to it after a few weeks.

This isn’t a means to scare you. On the contrary, all exercises are designed to be hard to strengthen our bodies.

What’s great is that High School Wrestling has a standardized curriculum to give us the best return for our efforts.

The exercises are designed to give us the most benefit for as little effort as possible.

One more thing you could encounter while Wrestling is weight management.

Since Wrestling has multiple weight classes, maintaining or losing weight is part of their training.

You will learn to be responsible for not just exercise but also discipline on what to eat.

I appreciated the discipline training I got while learning the sport.

However, don’t be intimidated by weight management. State High School associations set weight control limits to ensure students are healthily losing weight.

For example, male students aren’t allowed to lose more than 7% body fat instantly. 12% if female.

This means students can lose body fat without worrying it might stress their bodies too much.

Thus, while weight management is hard, it isn’t as hard as others, with no regulations on how much weight you should lose.

What makes Wrestling fun despite the challenging exercise is the company I got while practicing. In addition, exercising and learning with friends made me not think of how hard the workouts are.

This made Wrestling tolerable and easy as time went by.

However, I still know that Wrestling is a demanding sport. So let’s talk about that next.

Is Wrestling the Hardest sport?

Wrestling might be one of the hardest sports since it requires strength and endurance training while maintaining weight. Furthermore, strength isn’t enough to be a good wrestler since it involves learning many techniques to win a sparring match. Thus, this sport requires strength, experience, and wisdom to succeed. This makes Wrestling a tough sport.

In Wrestling, strength alone won’t make you win fights. Thus, strength exercises aren’t the only thing you need.

After these challenging exercises, you must learn wrestling techniques to win a match. You will also learn some moves to escape your enemies’ attacks.

All of these while managing your High School grades.

Thus, getting into Wrestling requires a commitment that you will have a new hobby.

When I started martial arts, I was told I was too soft on my opponents. Well, I was into it for the exercise.

As time goes, I became more competitive. I learned techniques to escape and prevent submissions. I also learned how to force my enemies to submit.

This is a long process. I had a lot of challenges when I studied Wrestling. However, despite all the hardships, I must admit that it also contained the best feelings, such as the first time I won a spar or the times I finished a tough workout session.

What’s next? Do you want to get ahead and learn Wrestling at home for free? Well, you’re in luck because I made a guide on how you can learn Wrestling at home with tips on where to get free and high-quality resources. So here is the link if you’re interested: Can You Learn Wrestling at Home for Free?