How to Score a Wrestling Match
Scoring a wrestling match can be difficult. The rules are complex and the action can be fast and furious. Referees are supposed to use standardized hand signals. This doesn’t always happen. Scorers should be properly trained. This, too, doesn’t always happen. Event managers sometimes provide poor assistive tools in the form of paper and pencil. Overbearing corner coaches can make a difficult situation worse.
When it all goes south and the score is wrong, the consequences can be most unfortunate.
Takedown Scoring and Stats offers considerable help to scorers by embedding wrestling’s complex rules into the scoring logic. By engineering the rules into the scoring interface, Takedown improves scoring accuracy and prevents scoring sequences that, by rule, can not occur.
Yet, the scorer still needs to recognize referee signals and tap the appropriate selection in Takedown’s Scoring screen. The goal of this page is to help Takedown users navigate and use the Scoring screen with special attention to converting referee hand signals to on-screen taps.
Understanding Takedown’s Scoring Screen
In Takedown Scoring and Stats, all scoring activity occurs in the Scoring portion of the app.
Access Scoring by tapping the Scoring icon at the bottom of the screen. The Scoring screen is broken down into six sections:
Header
Scoring transcript
Match control and error correction
Specialty clocks
Scoring buttons
Shot counters
In the video below we describe each of these sections in more detail. Understanding Takedown’s scoring interface is the first step in learning how to score a wrestling match.
How to Score a Wrestling Match -- Part 1
Understanding the Scoring Interface
Clock Related Scoring
Wrestling referee hand signals are documented in the NFHS wrestling rules book and fall into four general categories:
Clock related
Non-penalty
Penalty
Informational
In the video below we cover clock related wrestling referee hand signals.
How to Score a Wrestling Match -- Part 2
Clock Related Scoring
Non-Penalty Scoring
Surprisingly, there are a very small number of non-penalty ways to score points in a wrestling match. Non-penalty scoring includes:
Takedown - 2 points
Reverse - 2 points
Escape - 1 point
Near Fall - 2, 3 or 4 points
In the video below we review non-penalty referee hand signals.
How to Score a Wrestling Match -- Part 3
Non-Penalty Scoring
Penalty Scoring
Most of the referee hand signals are related to penalty scoring. In the video below, we review these hand signals.
How to Score a Wrestling Match -- Part 4
Penalty Scoring
Information Only
Remaining referee hand signals are for information only and don’t require any scoring activity. Nonetheless, some of these signals are useful in that they convey the “state” of the match which should correspond to a specific arrangement of enabled/disabled buttons in Takedown.
These information only signals are:
#8 Neutral Position — same buttons should be enabled for both wrestlers
#9 Indicates No Control — same buttons should be enabled for both wrestlers
#11 Indicates Wrestler In Control
Controlling wrestler — Near Fall, Pin, Penalty enabled
Controlled wrestler — Escape, Reverse, Penalty enabled
#17 Interlocking hands or grasping of clothing — this is simply detail about a Technical Violation (#19). It has no relevance to scoring.
Scoring a wrestling match can be difficult and stressful. Takedown can make the experience much less stressful and even empowering. You need to be able to recognize and translate referee hand signals into taps on the scoring screen, but that’s relatively easy compared to memorizing the mind-numbing complexity of the rules book.
