Three Waikato/Bay of Plenty wrestlers are among the team of seven who will be grappling for gold at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.

Ana Moceyawa trains at the Tauranga Judo Club in Moreland Fox Park where the team was announced today.

Originally from Christchurch Ana's been working towards the games for three years.

The judo black belt focussed on wrestling following a rule change in competition judo. You can no longer grab the legs, and against a taller opponent the legs are a ready target.

'When I came into judo we were allowed,” says Ana. 'It was almost like wrestling but with gi on.

'Now you can't touch below the belt at all, you are disqualified straight away. You can use your legs, but you can't use arms, you can't do grabs.

'I actually wanted to cross train in wrestling for my judo but I kind of fell in love with it. Coming into wrestling, being a little more free to do different techniques, really worked for me.”

Ana is the 2016 and 2017 Oceania champion and won a bronze in December 2017 at the commonwealth championships in South Africa wrestling under 57kg.

Her judo coach wants her to take her Nidan grading (second degree black belt) this year.

National coach Pete Pouri-Lane spotted Matamata's Michelle Montague training in Hamilton and suggested she try wrestling.

She was training the MMA gym, MMA, Ju Jitsu.

'I was there from 6-9pm at every class back to back. Whatever was on I would just train for it because I was so keen for it all,” says Michelle.

A rugby player since she was four, Michelle grew up with a big brother and a father that encouraged physical sports.

'Growing up playing that sort of stuff and wrestling the calves on the farm, I'm used to it. It is very comfortable for me.

'I have done sports that don't involve that (physical contact) but not for long.”

Michelle is wrestling freestyle at 68kg. She also won gold at Oceania in Tahiti, and plays for Waikato women's Rugby Team and has won four gold medals at the NZ grappling nationals in the past two years. Michelle trains in Hamilton with Pete the national coach and with Dave Macbeth from Hamilton Hawks wrestling team.

Toby Fitzpatrick is a policeman in Hamilton who has wrestled since he was a kid though high school and university.

He transitioned to MMA and did that for a few years, and really enjoyed it. The change back came after the last commonwealth games.

'The New Zealand team did really well, and they were guys I used to train with and wrestle with back in the day. And I thought well hey, maybe that's something I could do. That's why I made the decision to retrain for wrestling again.”

Toby has since represented New Zealand in South Africa, Paris, Tahiti and Azerbaijan and trains under national coach Pete and is a member of the Hamilton Hawks wrestling team. He also coaches wrestling art Core Mixed Martial Arts Hamilton.

Pete Pouri-Lane says most MMA and martial arts background wrestlers find wrestling gives them a good base to work from and a good work ethic.

'We don't have any striking or kicking, they don't have to worry about issues, they can train 100 per cent don't have to worry about kicking or striking and because of that they can work a lot harder,” says Pete.

Other team members include Brahm Richards, Akash Khullar, Palmerston North; Tayla Ford, Nelson; Sam Belkin.