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Brazil hosts women’s coaching course

Friday, February 10, 2023 - 16:06 By United World Wrestling Press

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (9 February 2023) - The Brazilian Confederation of Wrestling (CBW) organized a Women’s Coaching Course from 25-28 January in Uberlandia, Brazil. This course brought women coaches from different regions to learn and develop as a wrestling coach.  Many of the coaches came from other backgrounds that included Ji Jitsu and Judo and all had athletes competing nationally. The course was designed to help improve their technical knowledge of wrestling.

The course was led by Jessica Medina (USA Wrestling National Developmental Coach). Jessica has been coaching at USA Wrestling since 2019 and was the coach for the 2021 U17 and U20 world championship teams. “It is great to see other federations provide opportunities for female coaches. President Flavio Neves and the group of coaches were welcoming and excited to bring wrestling to Uberlandia, Brazil," said Medina. "The participants traveled from different regions of the country to focus on their development on and off the mat. They had great enthusiasm, questions, and a hunger to learn. It made me enjoy the experience even more.” 

This course was organized by Flavio Neves (President of CBW) and Aline da Silva (Vice President of CBW). “We expect in a few years to have more female coaches in the national team, more female athletes competing, and therefore more women in leadership positions in Brazil in Wrestling,” said Aline da Silva. 

Aline was a 2014 world silver medalist and competed in the two Olympic Games. She is also a current participant in the WISH (Women in Sport High-Performance) programme. Jessica Medina was a graduate of the WISH (formally known as WSLA-HPC).  The WISH Programme is designed to equip women coaches to succeed in elite coaching and leadership roles within their sports. 

“I am grateful that UWW is a federation that is looking to empower more female athletes and coaches. Because UWW gave me an opportunity to be a part of the WISH program, formerly WSLA, I can apply my leadership skills in mentoring others," said Medina. It was great to travel to another country and collaborate with other female professionals of different cultures. I am confident these women can make an impact in their federation.” 

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Introduction to Refereeing course hosted on sidelines of FISU Combat Sports

Monday, October 3, 2022 - 13:22 By United World Wrestling Press

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SAMSUN, Turkey (October 3) -- Introduction to Refereeing Course was held from September 23 to 27, 2022 in Samsun, Turkey on the sidelines of the FISU University World Cup Combat Sports.

The course, held with the collaboration of FISU for the first time, was supported by the Turkish University and the national federation. It was conducted by UWW Educator, Levent SEN.

UWW Referee Commission member Ibrahim CICIOGLU and FISU Wrestling Technical Committee Chair coordinated the composition of candidates who were from different universities in Turkey.

The first purpose of this course was to bring the young student-athletes, who gave up wrestling at a young age, back to the wrestling family. A total of 16 university students [10 men and six women] attended the course.

FISU President Leonz EDER and President of Turkish University Sports Federation Dr. Mehmet GUNAY attended the opening session of the course. 

After the course, Eder said that FISU emphasizes collaborations with the international federation and the course is a good chance for the former athletes to turn and serve their sport in a different aspect. He also thanked UWW President Nenad LALOVIC for giving this opportunity to the students.

TUSF President Gunay said he is very happy to be involved and facilitate such a course and will always provide support to improve wrestling at the university level.

During the course, both the theory and practice were conducted with presentations to depict all things refereeing. In the practical session, every trainee had one minute for refereeing. Their performance was video recorded and the UWW Educator reviewed their refereeing mechanism and gave his assessments for the same.

The trainees also had the chance to feel the atmosphere of competition as all of them attended the FISU World Cups competition from September 26 to 30. They were the referee candidates for two days.

All 16 of them were present to analyze the weigh-in procedure of the competition, the meeting of the referees before the bouts and the bout itself. They also got the experience of sitting next to the timekeeper and working as a timekeeper.

Other activities included drawings by the trainees of what a referee looks like, making a house of cards using only one hand inside the time limit which was 10 minutes and four different puzzles [for every group one puzzle].

The goal of these activities was to improve team coordination and find solutions when faced with problems.

A rock, paper, scissors tournament was also used to explain the pairing system. Every trainee took numbers from the draw and placed them in a bracket. According to the pairing system, they competed in the rock, paper, scissors game.

From the elimination to the bronze and gold medal matches, the trainee who won two of the three games was the winner. For the bronze and gold medal matches, a best-of-five system was followed.

To work on mechanics, a mirror activity was conducted with one person walking around and others who must do exactly what he does -- hold a whistle, change levels, score points, start using a whistle and likewise.

Finally, a shadow game during the practical session included a trainee practicing refereeing on the mat without wrestlers to imagine the situation that can arise during the bout.