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The BEACH WRESTLING Club

Beach Wrestling: A Guide

by

Dwayne Kramer, Vice President

& Solana Schneider, Wrestling Captain

Of the Beach Wrestling Club (BWC)

Of the Hermes Beach Academy

 

Introduction by Petr Thielemann, President BWC

The Hermes Beach Academy has been promoting Beach Wrestling since 1991.  The Academy holds a class from time to time in Beach Wrestling as part of its leisure and Recreation programs. 

 

Academy students, alumni and teachers have easy entry to the Beach Wrestling Club (BWC).  However, the BWC is independent and is a family social club strictly for Beach Wrestlers.  Members are Wrestlers or Fans. 

 

BWC organizes the Saturday family beach event and regular beach sessions. Wrestling is the primary and often only club or club event activity.  (Family events are socials with Wrestling and a Beach Dance & BBQ on the beach; kiddies have a supervised play area.)

 

Dwayne Kramer, co-author of this Note, has been at the Hermes Beach Academy for nearly 10 years now (since 1995).  He is a Hermes Beach Academy Senior Fellow and one of only two teachers of Economics at the Academy.  The other, Chad Danilov, is also an active Wrestler. The men wrestle beach public fights often.  They are also the lead teachers of the Leisure & Recreation Course in Beach Wrestling given at the Academy from time to time.

 

Dwayne is a wrestling pioneer as he has wrestled at the Academy and BWC from the start of wrestling here.  His wrestling is popular.  Joggers and walkers can often see him wrestling on the beach or in his neighborhood. 

 

He is a tough guy to get out from under, I can tell you that from personal experience!! Dwayne is known for long hard fights that have gone past sundown to end in the dusk.  

 

All wrestling fights go through our Wrestling Captain, Solana Schneider.  She listens to every Wrestler’s wrestling desires and woes.

 

Solana has won many beach bikini beauty contests on our beach.  She also wrestles on the beach.  Solana is a popular Wrestling cheerleader for fights on the open beach. 

 

All office bearers of BWC are active wrestlers and must earn and keep their positions through Wrestling before a public audience.

 

WRESTLING RULES

A Essential Basic Principles

We have experimented a lot and found the following to be essential basic principles. We have realized that these need to be always maintained, even in fun on the beach, because Wrestling & Wrestlers need to be respected and given status as a kind of special and priority activity. 

The Principles & Practices are:

1.      When Two Wrestlers enter a Wrestling Fight, whether of a single set or best of several sets, they must accept that they will wrestle till one of them is winner and the other loser.

2.      A Wrestling set should not be interfered with, nor the concentration of the wrestlers disturbed, excepting where essential to prevent or stop a danger or injury or prohibited activity.

3.      Fight sets have no wrestling area boundaries and no time limits except natural ones agreed in advance. (Our saying, “Wrestlers use the Beach and preserve Nature”).

4.      A Set ends when one wrestler concedes to the other while wrestling on the sand, without being victim of a prohibited action or physical danger. The win is a Submission.

5.      A Set also ends when a Wrestler holds the other in a three point Fall or immobilization and after some time, when it is clear that the under Wrestler cannot reverse the situation, the Fight Official decides to end the fight in favor of the Superior Wrestler.  The win is a Submission.

6.      Wrestlers may agree in advance to a maximum length of time for a Set. In that case, they must appoint a person who will decide the winner at his or her own discretion at the end of that time.  So a Set ends within time as per 4 or 5 above or at the end of time, at the decision of the Fight Official.  Such a win by Official’s decision is a Superiority and not a submission.

7.      The place and time span within which the wrestling takes place must be agreed by both wrestlers

8.      A Wrestling Fight must have a public or neighborhood open audience.  When the Wrestlers accept the venue, they also accept the normal audience there.  Beach Wrestling is wrestled in public places or where there is public access.  The audience is under the control of the BWC Fight Officials.

9.      The Wrestlers must invite a Club member to be ‘the Person in charge’ and officiate the fight under Club Rules.

10. Wrestling attire is speedos or equivalent swim briefs. Girls wear bikinis.

11. We set up plastic sun-shades etc and carefully examine fight area.  However any beach area is OK.  The club also has a set up called ‘Life Guard Station’ to handle fight care duties as ‘person-in-charge’, scoring (points sheet is kept for record) and announcing.

 

B The Wrestlers

1 Principle

We do not stop willing wrestling encounters.  We find that Wrestlers who have some similarity of build or size regularly want to fight each other. 

We find the FILA rules would be good guidelines modified as follows as Club Rules.

 

2 Categories

1.      Age Categories

(We practically have to take the following age groups as our members group according to School status naturally): Club members are

-  10 to 14 years Juniors

-  15 to 18 years Seniors

-  19 years and more Adults

 

2.      Weight categories

Wrestlers of the Club will wrestle according to Ranking in the Club and so will not be separated by weight category.

For Tournaments, the Club will follow the FILA rule and arbitrarily divide wrestlers into 2 categories:

-         Lightweight

-         Heavyweight

 

C The Wrestling

Club Wrestling is a Fight. 

Wrestlers must train at Club sessions.

Wrestlers must warm up before fights.

 

1 Wrestling Fights

When two wrestlers agree to a beach fight, they agree that they will wrestle till one of them concedes a Fall for each Set of that Fight.  They also agree on time, place and minimum audience.

 

Wrestlers agree in advance to fight one set or best of three or five sets.  Fights of more than one set can be wrestled with long or short breaks in between and if they run out of time extend from one wrestling session to the next.  Wrestlers agree in advance on the venues and times of fights.  A wrestler must complete a fight, even of many sets, before wrestling with another wrestler.

 

2 Wrestling Attire (dress)

-         We use Speedos and similar. FILA requirement is OK of Swimming Briefs for men without visible strings, buckles or any other accessory (Water Polo swimsuits).

-         We have bikinis only for women; FILA is Swimsuits in one or two pieces for women without any other accessory (Beach Volleyball swimsuits)

-         We have the obvious prohibitions. FILA says a Wrestler is prohibited from covering his body with oily or slippery substances

3 Wrestling Mat (Fight Surface)

The wrestling area should be clearly and fully visible to the public.

 

Fight On sand (similar to Beach Volleyball surface)

 

Starting circle is a tight one of 1-2m diameter

 

No out of bounds:  Wrestlers and person in charge will agree to rough natural boundaries.  If wrestlers are at these, the person in charge will, at a pause, bring them back to starting circle to restart.

 

We have rules regarding being close to or in water.

 

4 Audience & Officiating

FILA suggests that the person in charge acts as referee and his decisions cannot be questioned.

 

As a Club, we have developed the idea of the club audience of adults and senior members as the source of officiating.  We recommend to others starting a Club that the following practices will prevent problems:

1        Wrestling Fight Audience

a.      Wrestlers will invite and have a few Club Members as a minimum audience, called fight guests.  They will by consensus or majority advise and help the Fight Official to end a fight that stalls.  They are required to help the Fight Official, if asked, in officiating decisions and actions controlling the audience (including making space and quiet for the wrestling). 

b.      Wrestlers cannot have a fight without a minimum audience for their wrestling.

 

1        Fight Official 

c.      (BWC term – Recorder) The wrestlers choose one person only who can be as close as he or she wants to the Wrestlers on the sand and ensure the Rules are followed, move audience away to allow ample space on the beach for the fight and audience watching, prevent danger and to end a fight that stalls. 

d.      Usually this is a girlfriend or wrestling buddy of one of the wrestlers. 

e.      The Fight Official’s decisions are final and wrestlers may not question them.

 

2        Wrestling Fight Record keeping

f.        Up to 3 persons (recording, announcing, keeping time) provided by Club (We keep a points score and time tally for the benefit of Wrestlers and to help them improve their wrestling)

g.      Camera recording will also be organized by the Club for the popular wrestling fights.

 

5 Fight Set

A single Beach wrestling fight unit is called a SET.

 

2        Fight Adjournment

(Not allowed in tournaments)

A Beach Wrestling fight may be adjourned for a re-match within the same or next wrestling session after a minimum 30minute break, during which the wrestlers together may request Club Members help on technique corrections.

- ACTION - By decision of Fight Official, advised by fight guests, if despite substantial time in wrestling, the fight is repeatedly deadlocked and stalled and it is clear that neither wrestler is showing aggression. 

 

A Beach Wrestling fight may also be adjourned for a re-match two wrestling sessions or more later (maximum 7 sessions later).  During this time, the two wrestlers must train together daily, at Club training, and return for the fight as directed by the Club trainer.

- ACTION - By decision of Fight Official, advised by fight guests, so that the fighting of the two wrestlers can be improved. 

 

(There are other obvious reasons for adjournment as medical, climate on the beach, etc)

 

6 Prohibitions

The following are strictly prohibited. Wrestlers face expulsion or suspension if they violate these rules.

 

1.      Kick, hit, punch, bite or gouge

 

2.      Body slam, dangerous throws or flips

 

3.      Jumping on, fresh striking attacks on a prone wrestler

 

4.      Attack the face or the hair

 

5.      Holds /actions that can lead to a dislocation or injury

 

6.      Any dangerous actions as choking, blood restriction, etc

 

NOTE

7.      Stopping the match for any reason is forbidden.  A fight once started must be wrestled till one wrestler wins through Submission or Superiority, unless the fight is adjourned officially.

(- Please contact us for any other Practice Notes)