With the wrestling season officially underway, interested elementary school professionals had the opportunity on Tuesday to receive a firsthand lesson about proper technique and teaching methods for the sport at an Elementary Wrestling Clinic, held at Holy Family Elementary from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

The goal of the clinic, taught by local wrestling legend Bob Sharp, was to educate and improve upon the skills of the participants, so they can transfer that knowledge to students who they will be teaching the sport to at the elementary level.

"What we are trying to do is build up interest in wrestling," said Holy Family principal and co-event organizer Ted Hupe. "That was the main purpose today. What we are trying to do is raise the awareness, raise the skill level so more schools get involved because if you get more schools involved it is more fun and the level of skill will just increase."

Anyone at the elementary school level was welcomed to attend the event. In total, seven schools were represented, which was an increase of two from last spring's Yukon Championships in wrestling.

Participants at the clinic were taught a wide variety of both offensively and defensively minded techniques used in the sport.

These were illustrated in two general areas of moves. Takedowns are when a person is standing up and you have to bring them down to the mat. Ground wrestling is when a competitor tries to tip their opponent over so that their back is towards the mat.

Wrestling games were also taught at the clinic in an attempt to make the sport more fun for kids, while still teaching them the basics at the same time. The event ended with a video that broke down specific techniques in slow motion and in a step-by-step structure.

Hupe said another clinic is being planned for referees and will probably occur in early April, before the Yukon Championships are held later on in the same month. The officials would be used at the tournament, which will be hosted at the Canada Games Centre.

Hupe believes there are a lot of advantages to teaching wrestling at the elementary school level.

"My belief is over the past number of years we have begun to bubble wrap kids," he said. "We don't let kids roughhouse. We want to keep them safe, we don't want anyone touching anyone because safety is an issue.

We have to keep our school safe, but as a result we have kids who, in my opinion, are becoming less risk takers, they are uncomfortable in a lot of athletic endeavours and so what we have found with wrestling is we have eliminated roughhousing on the playground.

Kids naturally like to wrestle, they like to roughhouse and if what we can do is put some structure and rules and a format in place where they do it in a certain way, in a safe way, then we are going to remove it from the playground. Kids want to wrestle and we want to keep them involved."

Hupe said the wrestling games ideas he picked up during the clinic will be very helpful throughout the course of the season. He was also pleased with the number of people who attended the clinic.

"I am happy that we can share a philosophy of keeping kids active and fit, but also showing that wrestling doesn't have to be scary, it's not showboat WWE," he said. "It is just one more physical endeavour that kids can get involved in, and it doesn't cost them any money. As long as they are wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt they can participate."

Ron Billingsley is a teacher at Christ the King Elementary and was one of the participants at the clinic. He said he was glad about attending his first wrestling clinic.

"I just wanted to help out and try to get the kids into wrestling and add another sport to our school," he said.

This is Billingsley's second year at Christ the King and he is more confident about teaching the sport to the kids after participating in the clinic.

"We haven't had wrestling (in a while), so they are looking forward to it," he said. "The kids are excited about it."

Billingsley said there are a lot of benefits to teaching wrestling. He believes that it makes a positive difference in the lives of the kids.