Scholastic wrestling

Scholastic wrestling, commonly referred to as folkstyle wrestling or wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practiced at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. It has often been referred to as the "toughest sport in the world" because of the extensive physical conditioning, mental preparation, complexity, and intense nature of its one-on-one competition that requires physical power, speed, quick mental processing and reaction, and enormous preparation.According to an athletics participation survey taken by the National Federation of State High School Associations, boys' wrestling ranked eighth in terms of the number of schools sponsoring teams, with 9,445 schools participating in the 2006–07 school year. Also, 257,246 boys participated in the sport during that school year, making scholastic wrestling the sixth most popular sport among high school boys. In addition, 5,408 girls participated in wrestling in 1,227 schools during the 2006–07 season.Scholastic wrestling exists at the high school level in all 50 U.S. states and the national capital of Washington, D.C.