Welcome to BeforeTheMat.com! Our tagline says it best:
Explore the traditional wrestling styles that shaped modern grappling.
This is a project dedicated to exploring how grappling looked before it was consolidated into the major styles that we know today.
A look into the past…
Historically, most nations have had their own styles of traditional wrestling (or folk wrestling). These were much more diverse than you would expect. In some cases there seem to be very clear patterns of inheritance directly to contemporary grappling styles. While in other cases these traditions have faded into obscurity.
…and a glimpse at the future
As the saying goes “everything new is well-forgotten old”, and learning about aspects of wrestling, that have been neglected over time may help us complement the styles of today, thereby making them more complete.
Unique, but unfinished
BeforeTheMat.com is currently the only place on the web where you can directly compare two traditional wrestling styles side by side via our COMPARE app.
Information for it, and the articles on the site, has been meticulously gathered from the Internet and other sources, and is expected to evolve over time. Since we are still “a work in progress”, we welcome you to visit our CONTRIBUTE page if you happen to have further knowledge of a certain style or if you have spotted a mistake that needs to be corrected.