amateur wrestling Amateur wrestling is a variant of wrestling practiced in collegiate, school, or other amateur level competitions. There are two international wrestling styles performed in the Olympic Games: freestyle and Greco-Roman. Both styles are under the ...

, a technical fall, or technical superiority, is a victory condition satisfied by outscoring one's opponent by a specified number of points. It is wrestling's version of the

mercy rule A mercy rule, slaughter rule, knockout rule, or skunk rule ends a two-competitor sports competition earlier than the scheduled endpoint if one competitor has a very large and presumably insurmountable scoring lead over the other. It is called th ...

. It is informally abbreviated to "tech" as both a noun and verb.

High school and college

scholastic wrestling Scholastic wrestling, also known in the United States as folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practiced at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially collegiate wrestling wit ...

, a differential of fifteen points ends a match regardless of when it is reached. In

collegiate wrestling Collegiate wrestling (also known as folkstyle wrestling) is the form of wrestling practiced at the college and university level in the United States. This style of wrestling, with some slight modifications, is also practiced at high school and mi ...

, a

pin A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch de ...

may still be awarded as a continuation of a near fall even if the necessary point differential is reached while achieving it.

United World Wrestling

Under the old rules of freestyle and

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...

wrestling, a ten-point differential ended the match. Under the rules adopted in 2004–05 by

United World Wrestling United World Wrestling (UWW) is the international governing body for the sport of amateur wrestling; its duties include overseeing wrestling at the Olympics. It presides over international competitions for various forms of wrestling, including ...

(then known as FILA), the international styles moved to a three-period system similar to a best of three series; the technical fall won only the period, as opposed to a

, which ends the match entirely. However, if a wrestler won two out of three periods in this way, he was then the winner of the match by technical superiority. The international styles moved to a two-period system in 2006, with scoring continuing to accumulate throughout the match until its end. Accordingly, a technical fall was once again awarded once a specified point differential was reached. As of 2019, UWW rules specify that a technical fall, officially termed "technical superiority", occurs once a wrestler leads by 10 points in freestyle or 8 points in Greco-Roman.

Notes

Amateur wrestling {{sport-stub