#development

Albanian Wrestling Federation working to grow and develop wrestling

Friday, November 18, 2022 - 21:56 By United World Wrestling Press

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TIRANA, Albania (November 18) -– The Albanian Wrestling Federation, in partnership with the Albanian Olympic Committee, are working to grow and develop wrestling in their country.  After achieving the first gold medal in history of Albania, they decided to organize courses for their coaches and referees to help further their training.  The coaches participated in a Level 2 Course from 2-7 October.  The referees were originally scheduled to conduct the Introduction to Referee Course during the same week.  Due to unforeseen issues, the course was postponed until 3-5 November.

The Level 2 Coaching course was conducted by Mr. Mohamed Abdelfattah (USA/EGY) – UWW Coach Educator and former Olympian.  The course had 22 participants (20 men and 2 women).  “The participants were very disciplined, excited, and asked questions.  It was great to work with the Federation and coaches on their goal to win more medals in the upcoming Olympics.” said Mr. Abdelfattah.  The coach participants focused on many topics surrounding the idea of developing training sessions for wrestlers.  Some of the topics included coaching the basic skills or wrestling, introduction to performance analysis, theoretical framework to planning, practice plan essentials, strength and conditioning, and nutrition and weight management.  During the course, the coaches participated in practical assessments to demonstrate their knowledge.  “I want to say that it was a fantastic course something that all the coaches are thankful this opportunity.  In particular, I want to thank Mr. Mohamed for doing a wonderful job showing his passion.  His knowledge will definitely make us better.”  Mr. Sahit Prizreni – President of Albanian Wrestling Federation.

The Introduction to Refereeing course was conducted by Mr. Sherif Halawa – UWW Educator, IS and Olympic Referee.  This course had 14 participants (11 men and 3 women).  The referee participants focused on skills that would provide a solid foundation as a referee.  The areas they focused on were:  evaluation of holds, starting and ending matches, referee mechanics, positioning, safety of the athletes, and controlling the bout.  The participants learned these areas through theoretical and practical applications.  Then at the end of the course, the new candidates refereed their national championships.  This allowed them to use the skills that they learned during the course.  “I was so happy conducting this course in Albania with those new referees. They are really nice guys and they will be the future of refereeing in Albania and I am sure in the next few years many of them can be international referees.” said Mr. Halawa

#WrestleBelgrade

Wrestling scores 443% engagement growth as UWW+ makes World C’ships debut

Monday, October 30, 2023 - 11:43 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (October 18) –– United World Wrestling (UWW) trebled its year-on-year (YoY) digital viewership and recorded more than five times as many social engagements at this year’s UWW World Championships (WCH23) in Belgrade, Serbia, as the sport debuted an upgraded digital portfolio, including the new UWW+ over-the-top (OTT) service.

The multi-tiered, premium subscription streaming platform registered 4.36 million livestream views throughout the 2023 edition of UWW’s flagship event, held between September 16-24. The event also recorded 25 million social engagements (+443% over WCH22) and 155 million video views across its digital platforms (+203% over WCH22).

The impressive growth coincides with the redesign of the UWW website and the introduction of an enhanced fan-data ecosystem to help personalize and deliver an easy-to-navigate fan experience across web, social media, and UWW’s dedicated mobile app. Overall, WCH23 grew its digital reach by 63% to 296 million and attracted over 404,000 new followers.

Nenad LALOVIC, UWW President, said: “By diversifying the fan experience at this year’s World Championships, UWW has once again proven the power of digital transformation for driving engagement and expanding wrestling’s global audience. The latest numbers demonstrate the importance of digitalization and to lay the foundations for expanding the sport’s digital audience.”

Gordon Templeman, UWW’s Director of Commercial Operations and Communications, said: “UWW is establishing a digital portfolio which allows us to offer a personalized fan experience. To do this, we have diversified by investing in customer-facing digital products which enhances the digital experience for wrestling fans and enables UWW’s sponsors and commercial partners to build a direct relationship with our global audience.”

UWW
Key highlights from the WCH23 data analysis include: 

  • 25 million social media engagements (+443% over WCH22)
  • 155 million total video views (+203% over WCH22)
  • 404,000 new followers (+167% over WCH22)
  • 296 million digital reach (+63% over WCH22)
  • 4.36 million livestream views on UWW+

The UWW+ streaming platform is integrated within UWW’s website and mobile app, as part of the upgrades to UWW’s digital inventory and marks the latest phase of the International Federation’s collaboration with N3XT Sports, the end-to-end digital transformation consultancy. UWW has identified and prioritized digital transformation as one of the five pillars for its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which was presented and approved at the 2021 UWW Congress.

Motasem El Bawab, N3XT Sports’ Chief Information Officer (CIO), said: “Our team at N3XT Sports offers an end-to-end service plugged into UWW’s wider digital team. In addition to UWW+ and wrestling’s new, first-class streaming offering, our team also supported every aspect of UWW’s digital operation throughout WCH23, across digital marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), while optimizing the fan journey through data analytics and the assistance of artificial intelligence-driven software solutions.”

Click here to review the 2023 Senior World Championships case study.