Story: Douglas Johnson
Boys and girls in Year 5 at Pye Bank School have been learning freestyle wrestling techniques such as grappling, pinning and tag-wrestling, with Tony Philips, a grassroots wrestling development worker.
For this traditional sport, wrestlers must be agile and quick, nimble and balanced – rather than big or heavy. It teaches coordination, control and discipline and therefore offers something to children (as well as having fun and not getting told off for it).
Students also got free tickets to the GB freestyle wrestling cup at the English Institute of Sport, where athletes from Finland, Canada, Japan, Belarusse, Poland, Hungary, Germany and Britain competed. As a special reward, Simon Johnson, Michael Johnson, Zahoor Muflahi and Hamda Deria, (Pye Bank’s star wrestlers) were chosen to carry the medals to the podium. Some of these athletes will be hoping to win more medals later this year at the Olympics.