Guide
Freestyle, explained from the shot outward
Legs are legal. So is the throw. The bout is an argument about which one the athlete can actually finish.
Freestyle is the international style that uses the whole body. You may attack the legs. You may throw from the clinch if you get there first. A senior bout is still two periods of three minutes, and a fall still ends it. The permission to shoot is what makes the posture different from Greco. Hips stay a little more available. The level change is always in the conversation.
A specialist can hide for a while. A pure shot artist can be thrown if they stand up in the wrong tie. A pure thrower can be taken down if they never change levels. The finals worth staying for are arguments between those economies, not exhibitions of one of them.
Folkstyle is a relative
American scholastic and collegiate wrestling is not freestyle in a different singlet. It pays for control and riding. Freestyle pays for exposure. Athletes cross every year. The crossing is a story we cover. The pipeline piece is the current version. This page is the ruleset they are crossing into.
Olympic men's freestyle weights are 57, 65, 74, 86, 97 and 125 kilograms. Worlds add more. Women's wrestling uses this ruleset and a different set of weights. If a broadcast says 'freestyle' and the athletes are women, you are not in the wrong sport. You are in the women's half of it.
To watch it, pick the hands for twenty seconds and the hips for the twenty after that. If the hips drop, a shot is coming or being sold. If the hands clamp and the forehead gets heavy, someone is trying to throw. Both can be fakes. The second one, the one they commit to after the fake dies, is the wrestler.