Wrestling Moves: The Complete Catalog of Takedowns, Throws, and Pins (2026)

Wrestling moves fall into four functional categories: leg attacks (single leg, double leg, ankle picks), upper-body attacks (body locks, headlocks, throws), trips and sweeps (foot sweeps, hooking attacks), and defensive/transition moves (sprawls, whizzers, mat returns). Across the three competitive rule sets — folkstyle (NCAA collegiate), freestyle (Olympic), and Greco-Roman (Olympic, no leg attacks) — the core movements are the same; the rules just shift which ones score. This catalog covers every category, the data on which moves win at the highest level, and how each translates to MMA and BJJ. There are over 100 named wrestling techniques in our taxonomy and most modern champions rely on fewer than a dozen. Here's what they are and why those few dominate.

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These four categories cover essentially every scoring action in modern wrestling. Browse the full classification at Fight Encyclopedia's Takedown class and Throw class.

Wrestling is the oldest documented combat sport. Cave paintings at Mehrgarh in modern Pakistan, dated around 5,000–4,000 BCE, depict men gripping each other in poses that match modern collar-tie wrestling. Sumerian and Egyptian tombs from the third millennium BCE show identical postures. The Greek Olympics of 708 BCE codified the first competitive ruleset — pinning the opponent's shoulders to the ground or forcing submission via grip. The modern Olympic discipline of Greco-Roman wrestling explicitly bans leg attacks and is meant to be a return to that classical form. Freestyle wrestling, added to the modern Olympics in 1904, allows leg attacks and is closer to most folk-wrestling traditions worldwide. Folkstyle wrestling — the ruleset used in American NCAA Division I, high school, and international FILA — emphasizes mat control after the takedown and rewards riding time, which produces a different stylistic flavor: more pinning, less throwing.

The DNA of every modern fighting system traces back to wrestling. Submission grappling and BJJ inherited single legs and double legs directly. MMA championship lineage is dominated by elite wrestlers — at heavyweight, every UFC champion in the modern era, from Randy Couture to Daniel Cormier to Stipe Miocic to Jon Jones, came up through wrestling first. The pattern repeats at lightweight (Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev) and welterweight (Georges St-Pierre, Kamaru Usman). Why: wrestling teaches you to dictate where the fight happens. That alone is worth more than any single technique.

In freestyle and folkstyle wrestling, leg attacks account for the majority of scoring takedowns at the senior international level. The same is true in MMA: across UFC's 8,457 tracked fights, the most-attempted takedowns are double legs and single legs by a wide margin.

Double Leg

The double leg takedown is the most fundamental and most-used wrestling move on Earth. The athlete drops level, drives forward, places the head against the side of the opponent's body (head outside the lead leg, never inside — that's the "head-in-hole" mistake every coach beats out of beginners), and grips behind the knees. Then it's a question of geometry: drive forward, lift, or run the pipe (push laterally to put the opponent on his side).

Variations include:

• Blast double — single explosive forward shot, used when the opponent's pressure is forward
• High double — taken when standing, less commonly used at elite level
• Run-the-pipe double — finisher that pushes the opponent laterally instead of forward
• Snatch double — close-range explosion from a tie-up, not a long shot

In MMA, the blast double from Khabib Nurmagomedov against Conor McGregor at UFC 229 (2018) is the canonical modern example: Nurmagomedov closed distance through a feint, level changed, drove through, and finished into mount. The fight was effectively over the moment that takedown landed.

Single Leg

The single leg takedown is the highest-percentage leg attack at world-class level. Why: it's safer than the double (your head is on the inside, less exposed to a guillotine), and it gives you more options on the finish — run-the-pipe, lift, dump, knee-tap, or trip. The high-crotch single (gripping high on the inner thigh) is a NCAA staple. The low single (snatching the ankle) is freestyle gold standard. The sweep single is the no-gi grappling go-to.

Single-leg defenses (the whizzer, the limp-leg, the kick-out) are some of the most drilled techniques in wrestling rooms. If you can finish a single against a competent opponent, you can wrestle.

Ankle Pick

Less powerful than a double or single but devastating when the opponent is reactive. The wrestler levels down, snatches the ankle, and pulls while pushing the opponent's weight backward. Cael Sanderson — undefeated NCAA national champion — used the ankle pick as a counter to opponents who pulled hips back. In folkstyle this is one of the few "Cinderella techniques" that beats elite-level defense purely through speed.

When leg attacks are illegal (Greco-Roman) or the opponent is sprawling perfectly (high-level scrambles), the upper body is where the fight happens. The body lock is the foundational position: arms locked around the torso, hip-to-hip contact, drive direction depends on whose hips are higher.

Key upper-body throws:

• Front body lock to suplex — straightforward lift and arch back. The cleanest version: feet positioned slightly outside the opponent's, lift through the legs not the back.
• German Suplex — rear body lock, throw the opponent over your head. Francis Ngannou used this in MMA to win a championship. The full breakdown of the German suplex is in our deep-dive blog.
• Headlock throws — older folkstyle technique, mostly out of fashion at the elite level because the headlock leaves the back of the neck exposed; rule changes have made it less effective.
• Arm drag — pull the opponent's arm across his body, take the back. The starting move of half the modern submission grappling game.

In MMA the body-lock takedown is GSP's signature: get into the clinch, lock around the torso, drive forward to the cage, dump them down. Different from a wrestler's leg shot, but equally hard to defend once it's locked in.

These overlap with judo, which is intentional — judo's Foot-Leg Technique Throw category is the most refined system of trips ever codified.

Trips are the most efficient takedowns by energy expended — properly timed, they require almost no force. They're also the highest-skill ceiling; a black-belt judoka who's never wrestled can usually outmaneuver a wrestler in tight clinch range using just trips.

The flip side of every offensive technique is the defense. The most fundamental defense — the move every wrestler drills tens of thousands of times — is the sprawl.

A sprawl is what you do when an opponent shoots a double or single. You:

1. Drive your hips down and your weight onto their head/shoulders
2. Kick your legs back so your feet leave the mat behind you
3. Apply downward pressure to flatten them out

A sprawl that comes a half-second late lets the opponent finish anyway. A sprawl that comes too early gives them time to switch directions. The whole skill is in the timing.

Other defenses:

• Whizzer — overhook the opponent's same-side arm during a single-leg defense, prevent them from finishing, often counter into a takedown of your own
• Limp leg — a deliberately relaxed leg that's harder to lift; combined with a base shift, can force the opponent off balance
• Sit-out — when your hips are already on the mat, post your near hand and rotate to hands-and-knees, denying the back take
• Stand-up — from down position, post a hand, hand-fight, return to feet

In MMA, the sprawl-and-brawl style (Stipe Miocic, Junior dos Santos earlier era) is built around stopping takedowns and punishing with strikes. It's the canonical answer to a wrestler-grappler.

We pulled takedown data from three sources. The numbers converge on one story.

NCAA Division I Wrestling — 2018–2024 finals

Of all takedowns scored in NCAA Division I national finals, leg attacks (single + double + ankle pick combined) account for about 70% of scoring takedowns at the lightweight classes (125–157 lbs) and about 50% at heavyweight, where upper-body work and trips become more competitive due to mass.

UFC — leg vs. upper body

In UFC fights tracked at Fight Encyclopedia's UFC statistics page, the takedown attempt distribution skews even more heavily to leg attacks: shoot-style takedowns (double, single, blast double) account for the majority of attempts, with body-lock and trip takedowns making up the rest. Khabib Nurmagomedov retired 29-0; his takedown game was 80% leg shot, 20% body lock against the cage.

IJF Judo (compared system) — for contrast

The same body-positions, opposite distribution: 70%+ of throws at the world-championship level are upper-body throws (sode tsurikomi goshi, seoi nage, uchi mata) because the gi grip rewards upper-body control. See Fight Encyclopedia's IJF Judo Statistics for the full breakdown across 35,600+ contests.

The takeaway: rule sets dictate technique distribution. Same human bodies, same physics, different incentives.

1. Head inside on the double leg. The single most dangerous error — exposes the neck for a guillotine. In MMA and submission grappling, this gets you choked unconscious. Drill head-outside until it's automatic.
2. Lifting with the back instead of the legs. A single-leg lift gone wrong is a thrown-out lower back. Knees bend, hips drop, lift through the quads.
3. Late sprawl. Most beginners react to the takedown attempt rather than the level change. Watch the opponent's hips, not their hands. The hip drop tells you a shot is coming.
4. Over-committing to a single technique. Wrestlers who only shoot doubles get scouted and stuffed. A modern champion has at least two leg attacks, one upper-body throw, and a competent trip game.
5. Not chaining. A failed double should flow into a single, into an ankle pick, into a body lock. Standalone takedowns get defended; chains finish.

Wrestling is the most cross-applicable martial art skill set in existence. Even Sanda (Chinese kickboxing) and modern professional boxing footwork carry traces of wrestling distance management.

What's the difference between freestyle, folkstyle, and Greco-Roman wrestling? Freestyle (Olympic) allows leg attacks and rewards exposure (turning the opponent's back to the mat). Folkstyle (NCAA collegiate) allows leg attacks but emphasizes mat control and riding time over throws. Greco-Roman (Olympic) bans all leg attacks; only upper-body throws and trips score. Same human, different rules, different stylistic incentive.

What's the most-used wrestling move? The double leg takedown, by a wide margin, across all rule sets that allow leg attacks. The single leg is a close second. Together they account for the bulk of scored takedowns from amateur to elite level.

Which wrestling style is best for MMA? Folkstyle. The mat control, riding time, and pinning emphasis translate directly to the cage. Most American MMA wrestlers came up through folkstyle. That said, any wrestling background — freestyle, Greco-Roman, sambo — is enormously valuable. Bad wrestling beats no wrestling.

Can I learn wrestling at home without a partner? Solo drilling teaches technique mechanics (level change, motion, sprawl mechanics) but cannot teach timing, pressure, or scrambling. You need a partner. Drop into any wrestling club, BJJ school with a no-gi class, or judo dojo — the cross-training partners are everywhere.

Is wrestling dangerous? Less than striking sports, more than recreational BJJ. Cauliflower ear is the most common chronic injury. Knee injuries rank second. Long-term, wrestlers have less head-trauma exposure than boxers but more joint wear than runners. Standard injury profile for high-impact contact sports.

How long to learn the basic catalog? Six months of regular practice (3 sessions per week) gets you a competent double leg, single leg, sprawl, and one upper-body throw. Five years gets you a full intermediate game. Ten-plus years for elite. The catalog can be enumerated in a day; executing it under pressure is the work.

1. Cohen, M. R. (1936). Greek Athletes and Athletics. Hutchinson. The classical history of Olympic wrestling.
2. International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (UWW). Rules of Wrestling: https://uww.org/sport/wrestling/rules. Definitive ruleset for freestyle and Greco-Roman.
3. NCAA Wrestling Rules and Interpretations (current): https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2014/2/4/wrestling-rules-and-information.aspx.
4. Chumakov, E. M. (2002). 100 Lessons of Sambo. Soviet sport science classic on combat-sambo, which evolved from wrestling and judo cross-training.
5. Sanderson, C. (2020). Wrestling Tough. Cael Sanderson's coaching book; he was 159–0 at Iowa State and one of the best NCAA wrestlers in history.
6. Mehrgarh archaeology: Possehl, G. (1999). Indus Age: The Beginnings. University of Pennsylvania Press. The 5,000–4,000 BCE wrestling depictions.
7. Sherdog and Tapology MMA fight databases (publicly available match-by-match takedown statistics).
8. Fight Encyclopedia UFC statistics page: https://fightencyclopedia.com/statistics/ufc.
9. Fight Encyclopedia IJF Judo statistics: https://fightencyclopedia.com/statistics/judo.

The shortest version: wrestling moves are a tree with four trunks (leg attacks, upper-body, trips, defense). Master one trunk and you can compete; master two and you can win; master all four and you can't be stopped.