Home

How a Wrestling Match Is Scored

|
|  Updated:  
2016-03-26 17:56:00
Wrestling For Dummies
Explore Book
Buy On Amazon

The objective in a wrestling match is to beat your opponent. If a pin occurs, the match is over and whoever scored the pin wins. But if neither wrestler scores a pin, the score at the end of three two-minute periods determines the winner. You earn points for the different moves you successfully execute during a match, and your opponent earns points for any infractions you commit:

  • Pin or fall: Victory; end of match

  • Takedown: 2 points

  • Escape: 1 point

  • Reversal: 2 points

  • Near fall: 2 points if you hold your opponent for two seconds; 3 points if you hold your opponent for five seconds or more

  • Illegal hold: 1 point for your opponent

  • Unsportsmanlike conduct: 1 point for your opponent

  • Unnecessary roughness: 1 point for your opponent

  • Stalling: 1 point for your opponent after you receive one warning; disqualification on the fifth stalling violation

About This Article

This article is from the book: 

About the book author:

Henry Cejudo won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In so doing, he became the youngest American — at the age of 20 — to ever win a gold medal in wrestling.

Philip J. Willenbrock, EdD, is athletic director at the Evergreen Campus, a high school within Highline Public Schools near Seattle, Washington. He has served as a head football coach at both the high school and college levels, as well as an adjunct faculty member at Seattle University. He also acts as a consultant, providing leadership curriculum, team leadership assessments, and team leader seminars.