Inuit Wrestling
A set of Inuit strength and grappling games from Greenland to Alaska. They prepared hunters and are today staged at the Arctic Winter Games.
Quick Facts
GreenlandCharacter & 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 Inuit Wrestling
About Inuit Wrestling
Inuit wrestling is not a single discipline with a rulebook but a set of traditional strength and grappling games found across the Arctic, from Greenland through the Canadian north to Alaska. It has no founder and no date of origin; the specific years that occasionally appear are supported by no source, because this is a custom transmitted orally and within families. The purpose was practical. Hunting in the Arctic demanded upper-body strength, tolerance of pain and the ability to sustain hours of effort in the cold, and the games trained exactly those qualities. The strength group includes arsaraq, akratcheak, the pushing contest known as the musk-ox push, and arm or head pulls; the endurance group includes the knuckle hop, hopping on the knuckles of the hands. A separate category covers accuracy and flexibility games such as the harpoon throw and the high kick at a suspended target. Contests were held at gatherings in the qaggiq, the large ceremonial snow house, and on occasions the community marked — the return of a season, a successful hunt, births and deaths. Winning brought neither trophy nor title, because the point was to measure yourself and stay fit, not to build a ranking. Today the games are organised. The Arctic Winter Games have been held since 1970 and the World Eskimo Indian Olympics let competitors compete while keeping the tradition alive; transmission of the knowledge itself still runs chiefly by word of mouth, in families and from Elders.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.