Wrestling rules, without the fog

International bouts in freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling are two periods of three minutes. A fall, both shoulders held to the mat, ends it immediately. If nobody is pinned, the higher score wins. If the score is level, criteria break the tie. Highest-value scoring action. Then fewer cautions. Then the last point.

That paragraph is the whole match, in the sense that a map is the whole city. You still have to walk it. The walk is: who has the hands, whether a back is facing the mat, and whether someone is wrestling so cautiously that the next passivity call is the real score.

What actually scores

A takedown scores. Turning an opponent so the back faces the mat, exposure, scores. A high throw that brings them straight into danger scores more than a controlled finish on the mat. Stepping out gives a point to the other wrestler. The full scale, with the ones and the fours, is the scoring guide. This page is the frame around that scale.

Greco-Roman uses the same idea of value and a different grammar. Attacks to the legs are illegal. The points live in throws, lifts and turns from the upper body. If you are waiting for a shot to the ankle, you are watching a move the rules have removed. Freestyle and Greco-Roman is the page for that distinction. It is shorter than people expect.

Passivity, in one breath

Passivity is a judgement that a wrestler is declining to wrestle. The referee can warn, award a point, or, especially in Greco, order the athletes into mat wrestling. The chart moves. The idea does not. You may defend. You may not disappear. The longer note is for the minute after the call, which is when the bout usually tells the truth.

• Two periods, three minutes each, at senior international level.
• A fall ends the bout.
• A step-out is a point for the wrestler who stayed in.
• Tied scores go to criteria, not to a sudden-death story unless the rule in force says so.
• Leg attacks are legal in freestyle and women's wrestling. They are not legal in Greco-Roman.

A final, watched once

If you have never sat through one, do it without a second screen. The first period will feel slow if you are waiting for a throw. It is not slow. It is the athletes deciding whose grip this is going to be. The second period is where passivity, fatigue and the score you ignored start to speak at once.

When someone steps out, do not treat it as a footnote. A point on the edge is often the result of a minute of positioning. The athlete who wanted the centre kept their hips square. The athlete who wanted the line finally got a foot there. That argument is as much the sport as the four-point throw, and it is the argument a new viewer can actually see.

If a call confuses you, assume you missed the feet or the back, not that the sport is arbitrary. Then watch the next bout and look only at those two things. The mat page is the short version of the line. The line will do the rest of the teaching.