UWW Academy

UWW Academy Launches Three New Programmes

By Eric Olanowski

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (September 22) – United World Wrestling’s IT and Development Departments launched three new programmes on UWW Academy, the official educational learning platform for coaches, referees and athletes. 

The United World Wrestling Academy is an integrated online learning portal designed to provide information, tools and resources in order to support and enhance the knowledge and value of the discipline of wrestling. 

Periodization in Planning, Coaching Philosophy and Programme Development are the three programmes that launched in English on Wednesday morning.

“The IT and Development Departments of UWW are very excited to launch these additional programmes on the UWW Academy” said UWW’s Development Director, Deqa Niamkey. “The wrestling community worldwide has shown great interest for the platform, and therefore, we must continue to pursue these developments to further expand wrestling knowledge worldwide.”

‘Periodization in Planning’ looks at the basics of implementing periodization into training. It covers the benefits of periodization, different methods for periodization, and covers key points and questions regarding the implementation of this planning. 

‘Coaching Philosophy’ will help coaches develop their coaching philosophy.  It is an interactive course where coaches will learn and answer questions regarding their philosophy.  The coaches will learn about three areas: self-awareness, their purpose, and the different types of leaders.  Then, they will use their answers to draft their coaching philosophy statement. 

‘The Programme Development' course focuses on the key concepts on how a coach would develop their program or team. The course begins by helping them develop a plan and set goals.  It then extensively covers how to develop and implement a training plan.  The course also helps coaches develop a vision statement, budget and financial strategies, use social media for promotion, and create a risk management plan. 

Outside of the newly-released Periodization in Planning, Coaching Philosophy and Programme Development programmes, other helpful UWW Academy resources and courses included: 

 Courses:
- Ready to Wrestle
- UWW Online Rules Test 
- Introduction to Coaching and Safety   
- Introduction to Practice Planning  
- Introduction to Refereeing 

Resources: 
- Wrestle4Fun
- United World Wrestling Coaching Pathway
- United World Wrestling Referee Pathway 
- Anti-doping and WADA Programs 
- IOC Programs 
- E-Journals and Performance Analysis for UWW Competitions 

For more details on the educational courses and resources that the UWW Academy has to offer, please visit www.uwwacademy.org.

#WrestleBelgrade

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

By United World Wrestling Press

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.