On Tuesday, USA Wrestling’s Junior Olympic Wrestling Committee approved the following motion:

Effective immediately, all national tournaments shall implement the newly approved rules of wrestling.  The rules under which regional championships will be competed shall be determined by the respective regions.

The first of the USA Wrestling national events that will use the new FILA rules for freestyle and Greco-Roman will be the ASICS University Nationals and FILA Cadet Nationals, May 23-26.

Other national events this year which will utilize the new FILA rules include:
• Schoolboy/girl National Duals in Indianapolis, Ind., June 5-9
• Cadet National Duals in Daytona Beach, Fla., June 11-15
• ASICS U.S. Senior and Junior World Team Trials in Stillwater, Okla., June 21-23
• ASICS Kids Freestyle and Greco-Roman Nationals in Orem, Utah, June 24-26
• Junior National Duals in Oklahoma City, Okla., June 25-29
• ASICS/Vaughan Junior and Cadet Nationals in Fargo, N.D., July 12-20

The new FILA rules have some important similarities to the folkstyle wrestling procedures in the United States, including a cumulative score for bouts and two points for a takedown.

To read the rule change proposals passed at the FILA Extraordinary Congress Click here

There are four Regional events remaining on USA Wrestling’s national schedule, in which the leaders in each Region will determine whether to use the old FILA rules or those which were passed by FILA this weekend.

PLEASE NOTE: The Southeast Regionals in Atlanta, Ga. this weekend, May 23-26, will be conducted under the old rules.  

The decision on the rules used for the three remaining Regionals will be announced immediately on TheMat.com once it is available. This includes the Southern Plains Regionals in Dodge City, Kan., May 31-June 2,  the Northern Plains Kids and Cadet Regionals in Waterloo, Iowa, June 13-15 and the Cliff Keen West Kids and Cadet Regionals in Pocatello , Idaho, June 16-22.