Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling
English folk wrestling from Cumbria. The hold is kept from start to finish, so the fight for grip falls away and pure hip work and balance decide.
Quick Facts
United KingdomCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
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.
Catalogs & Databases for Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling
About Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling
Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is an English folk wrestling style from Cumbria, that is from the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland in north-west England. It is defined by a single rule that changes the whole contest: the hold is kept from beginning to end. The wrestlers stand chest to chest, each places his chin on the opponent's right shoulder, they embrace around the body and join hands behind his back, the right arm passing under the opponent's left. This hold is called the backhold. If it breaks, the bout is stopped and begins again. The winner is the one who makes his opponent touch the ground with anything but his feet; if both fall and it is not clear who was first, a dog fall is declared. Bouts are the best of three. This does away with the whole fight for grip that decides matters elsewhere, and what remains is pure work of the hips, the legs and balance; the techniques have names of their own such as hype, buttock, hank and back-heel. The costume is equally unmissable: an embroidered vest and long johns with short velvet trunks worn over them. The main event is Grasmere Sports, held since 1852. The date of origin around the year 1000 and the attribution to Anglo-Saxons and Vikings are tradition; documented history begins in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the sport was organised with rules and prize money.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.