Cornish Wrestling
The Cornish national wrestling style in canvas jackets; a fall called a back decides it and ground wrestling is not allowed.
Quick Facts
United KingdomCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Cornish Wrestling
Cornish wrestling is the traditional wrestling style of south-western England and is regarded in Cornwall as the national sport. It is fought standing in stout, loose canvas jackets: a hold may be taken anywhere above the waist or on any part of the jacket, strangling by the collar is forbidden and ground wrestling does not exist at all. The aim is the so-called back, a fall in which both hips and one shoulder, or both shoulders and one hip, touch the ground at the same moment. A throw that fails to meet that condition counts as a hitch and the wrestlers continue from their feet. That is exactly why the style has such rich leg work: sweeps, hooks and trips decide bouts more often than raw strength. The bouts are watched by referees traditionally called sticklers, and it is from their reputation as unyielding guardians of the rules that the English phrase stickler for the rules comes. A close relative is Devon wrestling, where hard-soled shoes were once worn and kicks to the shins belonged to the game; the Cornish version kept them outside the rules. Bouts are still held at summer country fairs and the competition is governed by the Cornish Wrestling Association. Cornish miners and emigrants carried the style to America and Australia in the nineteenth century. No founder and no year of origin are documented, since this is a folk tradition.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.