In the old days most Bashkir boys received their first lessons in kuresh wrestling from their close relatives: their father, older brothers. The famous kuresh wrestlers in the vicinity taught local children the tactics of wrestling.

Teaching Bashkir children kuresh wrestling is reflected in Bashkir oral folk art. In the epic «Kuzyjkurpes and Mayankhylu» Karabai taught his son Kuzyjkurpes wrestling, forcing him to wrestle with his peers.

Sports competitions in previous centuries were included in the program of folk (iyiyn, sabantui, etc.) and religious (Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha) holidays. Today kuresh wrestling is always the highlight of the program at sabantui.

Ethnographer Sergei Rudenko described in detail the course of the kuresh combat.

Gradually getting carried away, dozens of pairs of wrestlers gather in the arena. Only when two equally strong opponents wrestle, all the attention of the audience is focused on this pair.

The winning wrestler approaches one of the old men distributing awards and receives from him a couple of eggs, a handkerchief or just a piece of cloth.

He immediately gives the prize to someone from the honorary persons: his father, uncle or an old man, who, in turn, presented the winner with a coin.

Trans-Ural Bashkirs strictly observe the rule – a wrestler who is defeated once no longer wrestles. This is the idea of the rite, its essence: a wrestler must wrestle with dignity, not hoping for leniency, not on the off-chance – a chance to win is given once.

The ethnographer N. V. Bikbulatov describes the kuresh of a later period in this way:

The kuresh wrestling excites everyone who has ever seen it.

In 1841 writer and poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy wrote:

Wrestling competitions have always had a certain etiquette.

A mandatory element of the kuresh is the greeting of rival wrestlers.

Bowing and greeting is a gesture of the worthy people. Pressing his right hand to his heart and slightly tilting his head, the man showed respect for the opponent. On the maidans this ritual is observed especially accurately. Folklorist, researcher Rozaliya Sultangareyeva believes that the traditional cry of batyrs should return to the trappings. «Alysh barmy, kuresh barmy?» («Fighting or wrestling?») «Kuresh!» – the batyr answers. So it is not a fighting for superiority that is being chosen, but a rivalry in the name of an honest assertion of the rights of a strong man.

After the combat the wrestlers also shook hands.

Among the Bashkirs, according to their customs, the victorious wrestler extended his hand to the defeated opponent. The absolute winner of the competition with the main prize − a live ram on his shoulders – walked around the circle of the wrestling maidan. And today the best wrestler at sabantui is awarded with a live ram.

The modern rules of the kuresh wrestling competitions provide that «at the end of the competition the wrestlers remain on the mat, after the announcement of the result they shake hands and leave the mat. A wrestler who refuses to give a hand to an opponent is removed from the competition».

In the old days kuresh competitions were held as follows: in order to become the absolute winner of the competition a wrestler had to win alternately over three rivals. From the wrestlers who have defeated dozens of opponents a group of strongmen is selected, who begin to compete with each other, and as a result one or two of the strongest batyrs remain.

Sometimes wrestling competitions become so famous that they gather participants from the farthest villages.

In the case of two successful combats, but if defeated in the third combat, the batyr was deprived of both the reward and the opportunity of further participation in the competition.

The wrestling took place on a flat surface with a natural coating, around the wrestling arena there were people who supported their wrestlers with shouts and applause. The combat was judged by the aksakals, those who in their youth were themselves popular wrestlers and amazed the people with their strength and dexterity.

The wrestler went to the middle of the circle waiting for the opponent, the opponent could enter the wrestling arena himself. If there were several of them, then drawing procedure decided the question of choosing an opponent.

Russian researcher Ivan Ivanovich Lepyokhin describes the specifics of the kuresh wrestling:

In the past there were no weight differences in the kuresh, and the strong and dexterous man won.

According to modern rules, «a clean victory is counted to a wrestler if he, having torn the opponent off the mat, threw him on his back (with both shoulder blades) on the mat by any of the permitted techniques. At the same time the attacker conducts a technique in the attack without loosening the belt».

Currently kuresh wrestling competitions are held according to the Olympic system (with elimination): among adults in 10 weight classes, among boys in 9 weight classes. Now there are classes up to 65 kg, 90 kg and over 90 kg, and wrestlers compete strictly in their weight classes.

«This is done in order to save a person, not to cause injury to him. Because if a 60-kilogram wrestler is thrown to the ground by a 90-kilogram strongman the consequences can be unpredictable», – explained the master of sports R. G. Murtazin.

The combat lasts 3–5 minutes.

Rozaliya Sultangareyeva in her book «Bashkirskiy narodnyi kuresh» («Bashkir folk kuresh») writes that the competition assumed a rigid organization of one's own capabilities, hardening of breathing, emotions, managing feelings for the absolute control of one's self.

In fact, kuresh is a method of upbringing of a person, a strong-minded disciplined Bashkir.

The constant norm of the Bashkir traditional kuresh is to assert oneself in the action of an active wrestling, and in no other way. Avoidance of the wrestling, slowing down the pace, deception, craftiness – unacceptable qualities in the ethics of kuresh wrestling.

According to the norms of the national kuresh, exclamations of approval or condemnation were allowed only from the audience, this cheers up the wrestlers, gives strength. However, the shouts and exclamations of the wrestlers themselves were prohibited.

Based on noble competitive principles, the process of strength competition did not allow violation of the yola (rules and norms) of wrestling.

The yola of wrestling is the concentration of will and strength of temperament, inner energy, even and calm breathing, quietness.

All this required a huge concentration of thought, inner spiritual work, compressed into silence. In Bashkir kuresh the shout was equated with defeat, because «the shout scared the good − kot, soul, strength». Now this prohibition is being violated everywhere.

«I tried to ban shouts, reduced points, added penalty points. Alas! The shout begins to enter the trappings of the wrestling», – Robert Murtazin complains.

According to custom, the batyrs wrestled for no more than 10–15 years. In order not to show a decrease in their strength they abandoned the wrestling arena after the first defeat.

At modern competitions wrestling fans with respect and delight pronounce the names of Kharis Yusupov, Vakil Ilyasov, Dim Safin, Fanis Urazbakhtin, Galimzyan Kudakayev, Yuriy Sabanov, Robert Murtazin, etc.

He never crawled on his knees, tripped, shouted, he immediately challenged his opponent: «The first jerk is yours, the second is mine, and the third is someone's who will have time».

The traditions of G. Utyashev were continued by his countryman Gali Bukharbayev. A surgeon by profession, he became an absolute champion among heavyweights.

The President of the Federation of kuresh and belt wrestling of the Republic of Bashkortostan Vakil Ilyasov spent more than 30 years on the mat and devoted his whole life to popularizing this sport.

Now Vakil Ilyasov is 60 years old. He still retains good physical shape – most recently he performed the «sun» element on the horizontal bar. Having fought for 30 years on the republican wrestling mat without losing, Vakil abandoned wrestling at the age of 50.

According to him, over the past three decades the kuresh has changed noticeably – this is the requirement of the time.

In 2013 kuresh was included in the official register of sports of the Russian Federation, and now athletes can be awarded ranks and honorary titles.