INDIANAPOLIS – Starting with the 2013-14 season, forfeits in high school wrestling will no longer count toward a wrestler’s daily match limit.

Currently, wrestlers are limited by rule to five matches in one day.

This change in Rule 1-4-2 was one of five rules changes made by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Wrestling Rules Committee at its April 8-10 meeting in Indianapolis. The changes were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

“The limit on the number of matches permitted in any one calendar day was established as a safeguard to prevent any wrestler from undo fatigue, thus increasing the possibility of injury,” said Dale Pleimann, chair of the NFHS Wrestling Rules Committee and former assistant executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. “Since there is no fatigue or exertion involved with accepting a forfeit, the committee felt that it was not necessary to count forfeits in the match total for any wrestler.”

In other revisions, the committee altered Rules 1-1-4 and 10-1-2 to allow the use of electronic devices for video recording and review by the wrestler or coach unless prohibited by the state high school association. Also, the use of electronic devices that enables communication between a coach and athlete during a match is still prohibited (Rule 4-3-6).

In Rule 4-5 regarding weigh-ins, the committee approved a new article concerning wrestlers who have been approved to wear an artificial limb. Rule 4-5-9 states that the wrestler must weigh-in with the artificial limb if he or she chooses to wrestle with it on. In addition, once the wrestler has weighed in while wearing the artificial limb, it cannot be removed during competition. With these revisions, competitors who have been approved by their state associations to wear an artificial limb have the option to wear or not to wear the artificial limb during competition, but must weigh-in accordingly.

“The concern was that if a wrestler weighed-in with an artificial limb (and) then decided to remove the artificial limb for the match, the wrestler’s weight without the artificial limb might not qualify the wrestler for that weight class,” Pleimann said. “The changes require that if the wrestler weighs-in with an artificial limb, then the wrestler shall wear the artificial limb when competing.”

The committee approved an addition to Rule 5-1-1 that allows for bad time if a wrestler is not given the choice of position after a two-point stalling penalty. In addition, Rule 6-6-2d was approved and adds “after a two-point stalling penalty” as an instance when an error occurs in positioning wrestlers that would result in canceled points during bad time.

In other revisions approved by the committee, Rule 4-2-1 states that starting with the 2014-15 season, if a hair cover is worn by a wrestler, it shall be attached to the ear guards. The intent of this rule change is to help maintain continuous action during competition.

“The Rules Committee feels that the sport of high school wrestling is in very good shape and, therefore, made only a few minor changes to the rules for the 2013-14 season,” Pleimann said.

Wrestling is the sixth-most popular sport for boys at the high school level with 272,149 participants in 10,407 schools during the 2011-12 season, according to the NFHS Athletics Participation Survey. In addition, 8,235 girls were involved in wrestling in 1,441 high schools.

This press release was written by Taylor Wilkerson, a 2013 spring intern in the NFHS Publications Department.