For the 2024-2025 wrestling season, significant changes are coming to the high school wrestling rule book.
“The new rules are going to change the game a lot,” Cole Cooper said.
The change in the rules varies in each state depending on if the states decide to adopt the rule. With three significant changes in the rule book, Idaho is one of the states that has made the change.
The high school wrestling rulebook and the college rulebook have had different point systems, boundary lines and weight classes.
The National Federation of High Schools announced that the board of directors had approved several prominent rule changes making collegiate-level and high school-level wrestling very similar.
The point changes are happening one year after the NCAA increased the value of a takedown. After seeing the success at the collegiate level, high school begins to mirror the rules.
The takedown points are changing from two points to three for each takedown.
“They are going to reward the wrestlers who are more aggressive on their feet,” Matt Neff, athletic director at LHS, said. “It is going to make wrestlers get better in neutral. It will incentivize them to go out there and get the first takedown.”
86 percent of matches are won by whoever gets the first takedown.
The near-fall point structure will also mirror the collegiate level with the chance to get four points with counts instead of just three in five seconds. One for one second, two for two, three for three, and four for four.
“I think I will not choose bottom as much,” Cooper said. “I am very excited about the three-point takedown because takedowns are my strong suit. I get a lot of near fall, so the new rule will benefit me a lot.”
The new point system makes getting a technical fall much more achievable for high school wrestlers.
“I think it will be easier to tech fall someone because the points are more,” Caleb Adams said. “I am going to work on my takedowns more. They become more important with the new points because it is harder to come back after getting taken down.”
The boundary rule for high school will also mirror collegiate wrestling.
“The new boundary rule will make an improvement to the wrestling world because before, it was just the ref’s opinion if you were out or not,” Adams said.
The wrestlers will be considered in bounds if one has one point of contact inside the boundary line. The new boundary change will make it easier for the referees to keep the calls consistent.
It will also give the refs more time to watch the moves being made instead of focusing on whether the wrestlers are in or out of bounds.
With the new rules comes a new set of weight classes. The new weight classes have only changed for the wrestlers over 138 up to 220. Making the lightweights and heavyweights stay the same.
