A man does not get preoccupied by what doesn't concern him.
It's funny; one can find no shortage of people pretty much all over otherwise disparate parts elsewhere in the martial arts world, that each love to bag on the proverbial 'wrestler' in their verbal effusion (a imaginary construct that really exists more in their heads than having anything to do with actual people who happen to participate in wrestling sports); something that is probably not unrelated to the fact of the endemic dominance and winningness in competitive outlets of persons learned in such matters.
Wrestling, broadly construed, is the core and the center and the source of martial arts; it is the primal and the ancient; it is the sinews that hold the varietous limbs of the body of combat together. The resentful ignorance of it by those uninitiated in it's mysteries, is akin to the foolhardy son acting out his adolescent rebellion against the perennial wisdom of the father.
Such eloquent poetry for sherdog.
But I think we need to clarify - body control is one of the hearts of combat.
Grappling arts focus on this, in that sense Judo, freestyle,Greco and catch are all forms of 'wrestling'.
But this is the difference with regards martial arts- awareness of positions for submissions and strikes.
A clueless amateur wrestler who dives in to 'out wrestle' his opponent for a takedown in a fight but leaves his head exposed to a guilotine is akin to a child attempting to enter the man's world of combat.
In this regard, grappling systems designed with submissions in mind such as Judo are already incorporating that, which is why freestyle wrestlers must learn Judo positions (BJJ) to have any chance at being successful.
I think it was said by Olympic freestyle great Mark Schulz that "
wrestling, is supposed to be submission wrestling"
Interestingly Schulz says he went 20 minutes with Rickson without getting tapped even not having submission experience. But he had learned a bit from Judo to keep his elbows in and chin tucked and this was enough to keep him safe.
https://www.bjjee.com/bjj-news/wres...tz-promoted-to-bjj-black-belt-by-pedro-sauer/
In that his point was made, and the history of freestyle in being a watered down version of catch originally supports this. Although I would say that safely controlling and throwing your opponent is an integral part of this also.
This is why one cannot stand seeing a BJJ tourney where one guy is clinging onto an arm while lifted upside down - oblivious to the fact he can be slammed into his head on the floor, utterly ridiculous and as unbalanced as a martial rookie freestyle wrestler leaving his neck open to a choke.
Judo, catch, and wrestlers trained in submissions present the natural return to what grappling was always supposed to be.
