How do wrestling weight classes work?

Answer 1

Weight classes in amateur Wrestling are intended to allow wrestlers to compete against another who is close in weight as weight roughly corresponds to overall body size and muscle power. In the United States, most wrestling programs are called "schoolboy" wrestling and typically include middle school, junior high, high school and college wrestling programs. Olympic-style wrestling includes the two common international formats, called freestyle and Greco-Roman.

It is intended that no wrestler may weigh more than the stated weight class, except that many scholastic and collegiate wrestling authorities allow for extra pounds to be added to the maximum allowable weigh (the weight class) depending on the month of the competition season as well as wrestlers may weigh and additional pound for each day after the first day of a multi-day tournament. Since young wrestlers are still growing, most leagues determine that December shall be the base-weight that corresponds to the numerical weight class. For each month after, a one-pound allowance is typically added to the base weight. For example, a wrestler competing at 160 lb. must weigh no more than 160 lb. in December, but may weigh up to 161 lb. in January and is provided an additional one-pound allowance for each month thereafter through March, if applicable. In contrast, the NCAA starts the season with a few pounds of weight allowance and drops one pound of allowance each month through the NCAA Finals in March, where each wrestler must weigh no more than the "scratch" weight.

A note of safety. For decades it was commonly but incorrectly thought that a wrestler must loose as much "excess" weight as possible in order to compete at his or her greatest potential. In other words, some believed that wrestlers should rid themselves of all weight that is not muscle lest a wrestler be competing in an unnecessarily high weigh class against more a powerful and larger opponent. Wrestlers commonly used drastic weight cutting methods to achieve this mythical perfection including techniques that proved highly damaging to one's body such as rapid and repeated dehydration, insufficient caloric intake and excessive training. Today, not only is this idea rejected as simplistic, but virtually all sanctioned amateur wrestlers may drop weight only under tightly controlled conditions that include body mass indexed-based measurements of hydration levels, body fat percentages and time. No wrestler may use any method of dehydration including, but not limited to, rubber "sweat suits," steam rooms, hot boxes or diuretics. All wrestlers must be certified to be dropping weight no faster than allowed by league rules regardless of the methods used.