Identification of success factors in elite wrestlers—An exploratory study

Abstract

Identification of success factors in wrestling as well as establishing their hierarchy are crucial from a cognitive and practical standpoint. It may provide a lot of practical recommendations related to wrestling-specific training. The aim of this study was to identify and establish the hierarchy of success factors in wrestling regardless of a fighting style and weight class. This study included 168 elite male freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers. They were divided into two groups: athletes who won medals (successful wrestlers) in high-rank competitions (Polish Championships or higher) and those who did not win any medals (less successful wrestlers) in those competitions. The following elements were assessed: anthropological measurements, body composition, dynamic strength, strength endurance, agility, special endurance, wrestling-specific fitness, response time, technical wrestling skills and anaerobic capacity. For initial data analysis, one-way ANOVA (α = 0.005) was used. Random Forests classifier was employed to identify success factors and to determine the importance of each of these factors in terms of sports performance. Seven key success factors were identified: anaerobic power, strength endurance, response time, special endurance, wrestling-specific fitness and technical wrestling skills performed in a horizontal position. Random Forests turned out to be an effective method of modelling success in wrestling (compared to SVM and KNN, which were also used in the study). These findings suggest that wrestling-specific training can be effectively monitored by controlling several vital indicators of athletes’ preparedness: anaerobic power, strength endurance, response time, special endurance, wrestling-specific fitness and technical wrestling skills (the performance of reverse waistlock from a standing position and trunk grip gut wrench assessed by experts).

Relationships Between Physical Fitness and Wrestling – Specific Fitness in Freestyle Wrestlers

“…One of the characteristic features of achieving mastery in wresting is physical fitness. Many studies demonstrate a relationship between physical preparation and performance of wrestlers during competitions [10,11,12,13,14,15]. It is also indicated that physical fitness profiles of wrestlers differ depending on their wrestling style and sports class [10,16,17] and distinguish medal winners from competitors that do not achieve the highest sport results.…”

“…Yoon [5] showed that in order to achieve the highest results in international competitions, wrestlers have to achieve excellent athleticism and physical fitness during training. According to one study [11], there are seven key factors that influence wrestlers' success. These include peak power of upper limb muscles, strength endurance (pull-ups), response time, special endurance (throws of the mannequin), wrestling-specific fitness (wrestling circle), special technical skills in a horizontal position (trunk grip gut wrench, reverse waistlock from a standing position).…”

Increasing Upper Body Strength of Wrestling Athletes through Bulgarian Bag Exercise

“…Wrestling athletes need strength endurance when defending or attacking (Rahmani & Mirzaei, 2019), because if these components are weak, they will experience difficulties. Strength endurance is one of the factors to be successful in wrestling (Cieslinski et al, 2021), because it is good to support the training process or in matches and to be able to show the best performance (Pdate et al, 2017). In the competition itself, we know that athletes perform an attack or defend movements repeatedly with high intensity and pressure from the opponent, therefore athletes need to have Strength endurance to be able to display the best performance.…”

The determinants for top ranker of Korean Greco-Roman wrestlers

“…Several studies have investigate the physique and physical fitness profiles of wrestlers at various levels to investigate the physical and physiological differences that could contribute to the success of wrestlers [7,[11][12][13][14][15][16]. According to a previous study, wrestlers have a physique of strong shoulder girdles and arms with a long upper body, short lower extremities, and a low lower limb/trunk ratio [17].…”

“…In the case of South Korea, which fosters wrestling as a major sport, it is indispensable to develop programs for predicting and training potential medalists to win medals in Greco-Roman wrestling. Many researchers have focused work on describing physical differences between elite and amateur wrestlers [16,25,27]. However, to the best of our knowledge, the factors that determine top-level performance amongst elite wrestlers have not been reported.…”