The way to get better at anything is to put in the time. Mat time is mat time. Freestyle is still training your muscle memory, reactions, etc. It is still wrestling. Both of my brothers and I wrestled freestyle not because we liked it (we didn't), but because it was the best way to get extra experience. I guess all we have to show for it is 5 (hopefully 6) high school state championships between us. I don't know if you were at Rocky Welton this weekend, but my brother (a former freestyle state champ) won the 160 bracket, so I will let you decide for yourself about the quality of freestyle champs. Speaking from my experience wrestling in Colorado, yes, sometimes the freestyle brackets were lacking in numbers but many of the kids that were wrestling were high school state placers or eventually became placers because they put in the mat time.
