Hong Kong will be sending up to five athletes to compete in freestyle wrestling at the National Games, an intensely physical sport which takes just minutes to determine a winner.

Vincent Li, who was introduced to the sport just a few years ago, is one of the wrestlers who will be representing the SAR.

"I started with jiu-jitsu, and I saw a poster for a tournament in wrestling, and they had free trial classes. So, I registered for the tournament, and I did those classes, and I really enjoyed wrestling, and it was a lot more physically demanding, and mentally, it was tougher for me. That's why I really like wrestling," he said.

A typical freestyle wrestling bout lasts two periods of three minutes each, with a short 30-second break in between.

Freestyle wrestlers can also attack each other's legs. That's why they usually adopt a low stance to protect their lower body.

Li said the goal of the sport is simple: score the most points within the six minutes.

"The aim of the sport is to take someone down and control them and to try to pin them or try to get as many points as you can," Li said.

He went on to describe the different types of takedowns.

"The most basic one is a two-point takedown. It's where you take your opponent's legs and take them to the ground, and a bigger takedown would be a four-point takedown. It's taking your opponent from their feet to their back, so a throw or a big takedown where you bring them, where you lift them up and throw them onto the ground."

Li's teammate Alvin Pao described freestyle wrestling as an ancient sport designed to unify different styles under one set of rules, with a particular focus on takedowns and control.

"Wrestling is a sport that's conservatively, I guess, thousands of years old. Every culture has its own form of wrestling since, I guess, you could say since civilisation started, and so, as you can imagine, there'd be many different rule sets in each culture's wrestling," he said.

"So when the Olympic Games started, in order for there to be an integrated rule set of wrestling so everyone could be judged by the same rule set, they came up with freestyle wrestling."

The SAR team has been training in the lead up to the four days of competitions starting on November 10 in Qingyuan.

For Pao, who competes in the 86-kilogramme category, the strategy is to trust his preparation, and rely on his knowledge from the moment he steps onto the mat.

"I'm an anxious person, so I tend to tell myself that I've done everything I can, with what I can. And so, as long as I perform to the level that I know I am, then whatever happens, happens."