Wrestling: Combat or Sport?

Nearly 3000 thousand years ago, in the ancient world, wrestling was considered the sport of champions. Greece, Egypt, France, and nearly every other ancient civilization shared this belief (Columbia Encyclopedia). These days however, wrestling is seen by people only as a combat form or martial art. While wrestling is an excellent form of combat, it should also commend respect as a challenging physical sport, and as a life changing recreational activity. To start with, it is very obvious that wrestling is a famous, effective, and perhaps even the first form of combat (Columbia Encyclopedia) . Cave paintings in France, Mongolia, and Greece illustrate naked or lightly clothed men grappling with each other ( McNab). In fact in ancient Greece, the Spartans used wrestling as the primary form of training for their soldiers. Spartan soldiers were taught to not only take their opponents down to ground, but also choke and gouge out their eyes. Coincidentally, as brutal as their wrestling was, the Spartans used many of the modern day holds and throws practiced today ( Blakemore). While of course other cultures also used wrestling as a combat form, the Spartans are perhaps the most famously known for combative wrestling. Amazingly, the Spartans success of using wrestling as combative training inspires even today 's modern day military. Wrestling is effective combat training, but just how effective can it really be? The best way to answer this question is to look at a real, modern day military that uses wrestling as combative training, such as the US Army. The exact institutional date of wrestling in the Army is unknown, however it is believed to have been probably somewhere around the 1800 's (Columbia Encyclopedia).
Real first hand information from actual Army soldiers such as PFC Nelson Tate, PFC Harry

Cited: Encyclopedia, Columbia. "Origin of Wrestling". 2008. Web. http://www.columbiaencyclopedia.com/origin_wrestling.html.  Blakemore, Colin “Wrestling”. The Oxford Companion to the Body, 2001. Web. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/wrestling.asp&xgt; Askren, Ben. “Evolutionary Wrestling”. Mississippi State University: 2001. Print. Wrestling, Zone. “Real Wrestling”. 2005. Web. http://www.zone.wrestling.com/topic/wrestling.asp&xgt; McNab, Dr. Chris. “Wrestling”. 1st. Brookmall, PA: Mason Creek Publishers., 2005. Print Sgt. Spears, Todd. PFC Williamson, Harry. PFC Tate, Nelson Interview. “Wrestling in the Army” 10/14/12.