The Match
A match is a competition between two individual wrestlers of the same weight class. The match consists of three periods totaling six minutes, with an overtime round if necessary if the score is tied at the end of regulation. High school matches are one minute shorter than college and university matches - not having collegiate wrestling's three-minute first period. Additionally, college wrestling uses the concept of "time advantage" or "riding time", while high school wrestling does not. Junior varsity and freshmen matches may be shorter than varsity matches in some states. Any differences in the length of time are explained by the fact that junior varsity and freshmen wrestlers are presumed to be younger, less skilled, and possibly in poorer shape than varsity wrestlers, though this may not always be the case. Period lengths vary for age groups below high school and are different from state to state.
The main official at the wrestling match is the referee, who is responsible for starting and stopping the match; observing all holds; signaling points; calling penalties such as illegal holds, unnecessary roughness, fleeing the mat, or flagrant misconduct; and finally observing a full view of and determining the fall. There can also be one assistant referee (especially at tournaments) that helps the referee with making any difficult decisions and in preventing error. Also, a scorer with assistant scorers are there to record the points of the two individual wrestlers. Finally, a match or meet timekeeper may be present to note the match time, timeouts and work with the scorers.
Read more about this topic: Scholastic Wrestling
Famous quotes containing the word match:
“The ease with which problems are understood and solved on paper, in books and magazine articles, is never matched by the reality of the mother’s experience. . . . Her child’s behavior often does not follow the storybook version. Her own feelings don’t match the way she has been told she ought to feel. . . . There is something wrong with either her child or her, she thinks. Either way, she accepts the blame and guilt.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“I need not say what match I would touch, what system endeavor to blow up; but as I love my life, I would side with the light, and let the dark earth roll from under me, calling my mother and my brother to follow.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)