To organize a wrestling competition, affiliate your club with FFLutte, choose the level and the disciplines (freestyle, Greco-Roman, women's wrestling), declare the event, define the weight and age classes, open registrations, run the weigh-in, choose between a pool and a single-elimination bracket with repechage, recruit the referees, schedule the mats, then publish the podiums. Allow 3 to 6 months of preparation.
Step 1: choose the governing framework and the rules
Which governing body for organizing a wrestling competition in France?
In France, the FFLutte (Fédération Française de Lutte et Disciplines Associées, FFLDA) is the national governing body for wrestling. It applies the rules of UWW (United World Wrestling) and also oversees associated disciplines such as grappling, sambo, gouren and beach wrestling. An official competition requires licensed wrestlers and a set of rules laid down by the governing body and your committee.
Your first choice shapes everything else: the level of the competition and the disciplines open. An internal club tournament or a friendly inter-club leaves freedom over the format and the awards. A qualifying competition (departmental, regional, national) follows the FFLutte specifications, with accredited officials, licence checks and a run of play compliant with the UWW rules.
Decide on the disciplines early: freestyle wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling (reserved for men, with no holds below the waist) and women's wrestling. Each has its own weight grid. Check with your departmental committee and your league: they validate the entry on the calendar, provide the officials and specify the requirements (open categories, mandated format).
Step 2: define the categories, the disciplines and the durations
What weight and age classes in wrestling?
Wrestling matches athletes by sex, weight and age, across three disciplines. UWW seniors: men's freestyle 57, 61, 65, 70, 74, 79, 86, 92, 97, 125 kg; Greco-Roman 55, 60, 63, 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 97, 130 kg; women's wrestling 50, 53, 55, 57, 59, 62, 65, 68, 72, 76 kg. The age classes run from U15 to veterans.
The UWW age classes, adopted by FFLutte, are tiered into U15, U17, U20, U23, seniors (20 and over) and veterans (35 and over, in brackets). The youngest have their own weight grids, and the bout durations are reduced. Check the exact thresholds of the current season with FFLutte before publishing your categories, as they are harmonized every year with UWW.
As for the run of play, a senior bout is contested over two periods of three minutes separated by a thirty-second break. A bout ends before time by fall (both of the opponent's shoulders on the mat, immediate victory) or by technical superiority: a ten-point gap in freestyle, an eight-point gap in Greco-Roman. Otherwise, the winner is the one leading on points.
Step 3: set the date, the venue and the budget
How long does it take to organize a wrestling competition?
Allow 3 to 6 months. Book the venue and set the date right from the start, taking your league's calendar into account to avoid clashes. File the event declaration within the legal deadlines. Open registrations 6 to 8 weeks before, and set a closing date to lock the categories and prepare the weigh-in and the brackets.
The venue must accommodate one or more wrestling mats with their protection zone, a warm-up area, a weigh-in space set apart, locker rooms, a scoring table per mat and public space. A wrestling mat is 9 m in diameter (combat area), with a protection zone of 1.5 m around it: plan the surface accordingly if you set up several mats.
The budget depends on the number of wrestlers, the number of mats and the equipment you already have. Build it item by item (venue, mats, officials, awards, insurance, communication, catering) rather than as a single figure. The breakdown of items appears further down. Do not announce any licence or entry-fee amount without having verified it at the official source, as the scales are revised every season.
Step 4: check the rules, the governing body and the authorizations
What authorizations to organize a wrestling competition?
Declare the sporting event. A competition under a national governing body, with a ranking, is declared to the prefecture at least three months in advance if it is held on public roads; an indoor event with more than 100 participants is declared to the town hall at least one month in advance. Take out civil-liability insurance. On the federal side, follow the FFLutte specifications and check the licences.
The declaration is made online on declaration-manifestations.gouv.fr. For up-to-date rules, rely on service-public.fr and sports.gouv.fr (organizing a sporting event), and attach the civil-liability insurance certificate.
On the participation side, each wrestler must present a valid FFLutte licence: the licence includes civil-liability insurance, and the governing body requires a medical certificate of no contraindication to issue it. Since March 2022, the medical certificate is no longer systematically required for adults unless the governing body asks for it; for minors, a health questionnaire most often suffices. Check the arrangement in force with FFLutte. Date every step on your countdown plan.
Step 5: open registrations and lock the categories
How do you manage registrations for a wrestling competition?
Open registrations online: each wrestler chooses their discipline (freestyle, Greco-Roman, women's wrestling), their weight and age class, and indicates their club. Also collect, depending on your rules, the licence number. Approve or reject each request, set a closing date, then lock the categories to prepare the weigh-in and the brackets. Software avoids double entry and the Excel list to cross-check.
For the competition, plan to collect from each entrant: name, sex, date of birth (for the age class), discipline, target weight class, club and licence number. This information helps you check eligibility and compose the categories. As coaches enter a whole club, plan to input lists in one go rather than registration by registration. Plan a clean closing date, because a category that moves the day before disrupts every bracket.
On weigh-in day, the actual weight may shift a wrestler from one category to another: anticipate this margin. Competition management software collects these registrations online by category, where an Excel sheet forces you to copy everything by hand. You keep a clean list, filterable by category and by status, with search by name, ready for the weigh-in and the generation of the brackets.
Step 6: choose between a pool and an elimination bracket
Pool or elimination bracket for a wrestling competition?
The choice depends on the headcount of each category. Below a handful of entrants, the pool (round-robin) guarantees several bouts to everyone. Beyond that, the single-elimination bracket with repechage is the way to go: the wrestlers beaten by the two finalists go into repechage, and the winner of each repechage faces a beaten semifinalist for a bronze medal (two bronzes).
The pool has all the wrestlers of a category face one another: it is the fairest format for small categories, since no one is eliminated after a single defeat. The single-elimination bracket, for its part, suits the large categories, and repechage fixes its main flaw: a wrestler beaten by a future finalist is not definitively knocked out, they can aim for the bronze. The two beaten semifinalists move directly on to the bronze-medal bouts.
Drawing these brackets by hand, recomposing them at each result and tracking the repechage on paper is the leading source of error and delay. A software tool that automatically generates your wrestling bracket produces pools, single elimination and the repechage bracket (two bronze medals) in one click, and advances the winner as soon as you enter the result of a bout.
Step 7: organize the weigh-in and schedule the mats
How does the weigh-in work in wrestling?
The official weigh-in takes place before the competition, with officials present and away from the public. Each wrestler is weighed to confirm their weight class. Plan a sufficient slot and a margin: a wrestler may shift category depending on their actual weight. A quick medical check (skin, nails) often accompanies the weigh-in.
Build your schedule around the weigh-in and the number of mats. Distribute the categories across the mats so as to run bouts back-to-back with no dead time, grouping what can be grouped (same age brackets, neighboring categories). Display an indicative timetable per mat for the clubs and the public.
When several categories run in parallel, tracking who wrestles, on which mat and at what time quickly becomes unmanageable on paper. Recording the weight of each wrestler at the weigh-in and re-seeding them into the right category, then assigning a combat area and a time to each bout while detecting slot conflicts, is exactly the kind of task that competition management software takes on, keeping the schedule up to date as the bouts progress.
Step 8: recruit the referees and the officials
Who referees a wrestling competition and how?
Each mat is run by a refereeing team: a mat referee on the mat, a judge and a mat chairman who validate the points and settle disputed situations. The referee awards the points (takedown, exposure, grand amplitude), validates the fall and the technical superiority. Also plan a scoring table and a timekeeper per mat.
The score is built on points: a takedown is worth 2 points, an exposure (back exposure) 2 or 3 points, a turn 2 points, a step-out of the mat 1 point, and a grand-amplitude throw 4 or 5 points. The fall ends the bout on the spot, and technical superiority stops it at a ten-point gap in freestyle, eight in Greco. The refereeing team handles this on the mat; your role as organizer is to give it the right conditions and to relay the result to the table.
Around the referees, plan for the other roles: a sporting director who oversees the run of play and the rules, a scoring table per mat (result entry, calling the competitors), a timekeeper, a weigh-in manager, a first-aid post and volunteers at the welcome desk and the refreshment stand. For a club tournament, the organization is lighter; for an official competition, the officials are accredited and provided or validated by the league.
Step 9: prepare the mats and the equipment
What mat and what equipment for a wrestling competition?
You need a UWW-compliant wrestling mat: a combat area 9 m in diameter, including a central wrestling surface of 7 m, an orange passivity band 1 m wide inside the circle, and a protection zone of 1.5 m all around. At the center, a circle 1 m in diameter. Add a scoring table and a timer per mat, and a score display.
The mats must absorb falls and stay stable: check the assembly so that no gap opens during the bouts, clearly mark the passivity band and the protection zone with contrasting colors, and ensure consistent lighting on each mat. If you are short on mats to set up several areas, borrowing from another club is common: anticipate the logistics of transport and assembly.
Round it out with the sound system, a display of scores and call-ups, signage, a first-aid kit and a care post, the officials' table, a scale for the weigh-in and what you need to hand out medals and awards. A warm-up area close to the mats keeps the call-ups flowing.
Step 10: communicate and fill the competition
How do you communicate about a wrestling competition?
Create a public page with the presentation, the date, the venue, the rules (open disciplines and categories, level) and the list of entrants by category. Share it with the clubs, your committee and your league, and on social media. Specify the registration conditions early (licence, disciplines, categories) to avoid back-and-forth by email.
The wrestling audience is local: neighboring clubs, families, departmental committee. Relay the announcement to the clubs of the league, which gladly spread the word about the competitions on the calendar. Clearly indicate the level, the disciplines (freestyle, Greco, women's) and the open categories, as these elements determine who can register. A public page with a presentation and a list of entrants by category gives a serious image and limits the questions.
Step 11: manage the weigh-in and the bouts on event day
How do you track the bouts of a wrestling competition on event day?
After the weigh-in and the licence checks, launch the pools and the brackets. On each mat, the referee runs the bout and designates the winner (by fall, technical superiority or on points), which the scoring table records. The winner advances to the next round, the pool ranking updates, the repechage fills up, and the public follows brackets and podiums with no paper sheet.
Event day moves fast. Welcome and administrative check, weigh-in set apart, confirmation of the categories, then the mats start. For each bout, the table calls the competitors, the referee runs and settles, and the result is entered right away. With a repechage, remember to open the bronze-medal bouts only once the finalists are known.
Centralized tracking changes the day. When the table enters the winner, that wrestler advances automatically in the bracket, the eligible loser joins the repechage, the pool ranking recalculates, and the public page updates automatically for the clubs and the public. This removes scattered sheets, makes the brackets reliable and keeps the hall informed.
Step 12: publish the rankings and do the wrap-up
How do you establish the ranking of a wrestling competition?
In a single-elimination bracket, the winner of the final is first, the finalist second, and the repechage designates two thirds (two bronze medals). In a pool, the ranking is done on points (three per win), broken by the differential. Publish the podiums on the public page; entrants, pool ranking, schedule and final ranking export to CSV.
Wrestling classically rewards a first, a second and two thirds per category, a direct consequence of the repechage. Once the podiums are established, thank the officials, referees and volunteers, do the real financial wrap-up against the forecast, gather feedback from the clubs and archive results and registrations. Export the list of entrants, the rankings and the schedule to CSV for your archives and for handover to your committee.
How much does it cost to organize a wrestling competition?
How much does it cost to organize a wrestling competition?
The budget is built item by item: venue rental, mats, officials, awards, insurance, communication and catering. The venue and the mats weigh the heaviest when they have to be rented. Revenue (entry fees, refreshment stand, sponsors, subsidies) often balances a day. Verify each federal amount at the source before announcing it.
Here are the items to plan for, with indicative ranges to adapt to your context. The amounts tied to the governing body (licence, entry fees, insurance) change every season: confirm them on the FFLutte site or with your league before any announcement.
| Item | Indicative range |
|---|---|
| Venue rental | often the 1st item, varies by municipality |
| Mats (rental, transport, assembly) | variable, heavy if several areas |
| Officials and referees | allowances and expenses, depending on the league |
| Civil-liability insurance | per contract (FFLutte federal framework) |
| Awards (medals, cups) | varies with the number of categories |
| Communication and printing | variable |
| First aid and catering | variable |
| Contingency margin | 10 to 15% |
On the revenue side: entry fees per wrestler (to confirm with your league), refreshment stand, local sponsors and a possible subsidy from the town hall or the department. A well-run refreshment stand often covers a notable share of the costs over a full day.
Countdown plan and checklist to organize your wrestling competition
A countdown plan avoids oversights on the authorizations, the weigh-in and the mats.
- D-6 to D-4 months: choose the level and the disciplines, book the venue, set the date according to the league's calendar, build the provisional budget.
- D-4 to D-3 months: file the calendar request with the committee and the league, prepare the sporting-event declaration, secure mats and equipment.
- D-3 to D-2 months: open registrations online, define the weight and age classes by discipline, communicate with the clubs, recruit referees and volunteers.
- D-1 month to D-2 weeks: close registrations, lock the categories, prepare the weigh-in, the pools and the brackets, plan the distribution of the mats, finalize the equipment checklist.
- Event day: welcome and check (licence), weigh-in, launch of the pools and the brackets, refereeing, result entry, automatic display.
- After: publish the podiums, export entrants, rankings and schedule to CSV, give thanks, do the financial wrap-up, archive for the next edition.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Underestimating the weigh-in. The weigh-in determines the categories: plan a sufficient slot, reliable scales and a margin, because an actual weight can shift a wrestler from one category to another.
- Mixing the disciplines. Freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling have distinct weight grids: clearly announce the open disciplines and keep separate categories.
- Declaring too late. The sporting-event declaration has its legal deadline, far longer on public roads (at least three months) than indoors. Anticipate the procedure and the insurance certificate.
- Forgetting the repechage. In a single-elimination bracket, wrestling awards two bronzes via the repechage of those beaten by the finalists. Do not draw a flat bracket without planning for their return.
- Undersizing the mat's safety. Count the combat area of 9 m, the passivity band and a protection zone of 1.5 m, compliant mats and sufficient lighting.
- Managing the brackets on paper. Redrawing the brackets and tracking the repechage by hand, across several mats, quickly distorts the results. Centralized entry makes everything reliable.
FAQ: organizing a wrestling competition
Do you need software to organize a wrestling competition?
It is not mandatory, but strongly recommended once you have a few dozen wrestlers. Between weight classes by discipline and by age, the weigh-in, pools and single-elimination brackets with repechage, bouts running back-to-back across several mats and the ranking to keep, manual tracking quickly becomes unmanageable. Software generates the brackets, advances the winner automatically and publishes the podium.
How long does a wrestling bout last?
For seniors, a UWW wrestling bout is contested over two periods of three minutes, separated by a thirty-second break. A bout can end before time by fall (both of the opponent's shoulders on the mat) or by technical superiority (a ten-point gap in freestyle, eight in Greco-Roman).
What are the weight classes in wrestling?
The UWW rules set, for seniors, ten weight classes in men's freestyle (57, 61, 65, 70, 74, 79, 86, 92, 97, 125 kg), ten in Greco-Roman (55, 60, 63, 67, 72, 77, 82, 87, 97, 130 kg) and ten in women's wrestling (50, 53, 55, 57, 59, 62, 65, 68, 72, 76 kg). The Olympic classes are a subset of these.
How does repechage work in wrestling?
The wrestlers beaten by the two finalists go into repechage. The two beaten semifinalists move on to the bronze-medal bouts, where they face the repechage winners drawn from the wrestlers beaten earlier by the same finalist. This system awards two bronze medals per category.
Which governing body for wrestling in France?
In France, the FFLutte (Fédération Française de Lutte et Disciplines Associées, FFLDA) is the national governing body for wrestling. It applies the rules of UWW and also oversees associated disciplines (grappling, sambo, gouren, beach wrestling). Follow the specifications of the governing body and your committee.
Can you organize a wrestling competition for free?
You always pay for certain items (venue, mats, officials, insurance, awards). The management tool, however, can be free: CompetHub is free to start, no credit card. You handle registrations, weigh-in, pools, brackets with repechage, bouts and podium with no software cost, which eases the budget of a first club tournament.
The software to organize your wrestling competition
Once the method is in place, the tool does the rest. CompetHub links every step of this guide: online registrations by category, bulk entry of club lists (records without accounts), weigh-in with re-seeding by weight, pools and a two-bronze-medal repechage bracket generated automatically, winner entry and automatic advancement, podium, pool ranking, schedule by combat area, branded public results page and CSV export of entrants, ranking and schedule. Organize the competition. We bring it to life.
To compare the features in detail, see the page wrestling competition software.
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Registrations by category, weigh-in, pools, single-elimination brackets with repechage, bout tracking and podium: everything is brought together. Free to start, no credit card.