#development

Indonesia learns tricks of the trade in refereeing, coaching and IT

Thursday, June 29, 2023 - 14:49 By United World Wrestling Press

Share this article

JAKARTA, Indonesia (June 29) -- The Indonesia Wrestling Federation recently hosted three comprehensive courses ahead of its national championships in Jakarta. From June 21 to 25, these courses took place at the Gedung Olahraga Universitas Negeri Jakarta.

Conducted in collaboration with United World Wrestling, Olympic Solidarity, Indonesia NOC, and the Indonesia Wrestling Federation, the courses covered different areas of expertise. Vincent AKA led the coaching course, Zach ERRETT conducted the referee course, and Youssef BOUAZIZ organized the IT course.

The Level 1 Course (Introduction to Coaching and Safety), a technical course for coaches, had a total of 42 participants, consisting of 35 men and seven women. Throughout the course, the coaches delved into various topics, including discovery games, introducing new techniques, coaching skills, providing feedback, risk management, and understanding age and developmental stage characteristics. The coaches actively practiced and honed their skills through practical evaluations, establishing a solid foundation for effective coaching methods that can be implemented in their respective provinces.

"The coaches and referees came together to work as a team," Aka said. "We tried to provide the skills that they need to be successful in their jobs and as a federation. Now, it needs to keep moving forward."

Hadi Rizky HANAFIAH, one of the participants, shared his newfound confidence as a coach.

“As a young coach, I feel more confident in managing my athletes and helping them to be the better wrestlers," the West Java coach said. "Hopefully UWW will be able to come to Indonesia so all Indonesian coaches can have valuable knowledge in the future."

IndonesiaParticipants during the Introduction to Referee course in Jakarta. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

The Introduction to Refereeing Course had 19 participants, including 15 men and four women. The course focused on the fundamental aspects of being a referee, covering athlete safety, hold evaluation, referee mechanics, positioning, and bout control. Zach ERRETT commended the referees for their hard work and improvement throughout the course.

“The course went very well," Errett said. "The referees worked hard and showed improvement by the final day. The group was eager to learn and very receptive to feedback. It was great to watch them apply their skills successfully during the competition," he said.

The IT Course, attended by 20 participants, provided insight into the workings of the UWW's IT system during international competitions and continental championships. The participants gained knowledge about BlockChain draw, streaming tools, and the dissemination of public information. They also had the opportunity to design an IT setup for a simulated competition.

"This was my second course as an IT Educator in Southeast Asia," Bouaziz said. "There are many young people around the world, especially in SEA, who want to learn and work in event management. The participants asked many questions about the details of the programs and their functionalities. I was delighted that there were 20 participants in the course and I hope that we can conduct more courses to prepare the next generation for wrestling's future technological advancements."

IndonesiaParticipants of the three courses implementing their skills during the U20 National Championships in Jakarta. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

Following the courses, the Indonesia Wrestling Federation organized the U20 national championships, attracting 157 participants who competed in 200 bouts. This competition provided coaches and referees with the opportunity to apply their newly acquired skills. The IT course participants took the lead in organizing the competition system.

“The IT course will help the Indonesia Federation IT Division," Ronny GUNAWAN, IT Chairman of IWF, said. "We were able to share and learn about the latest developments in IT. Sharing knowledge in Indonesia can be challenging because we live in various provinces spread across islands. Hopefully, we can have future courses with UWW to further enhance our capabilities."

marketing, #development

Wiebe inspires next gen at UWW-IIS camp in India

Saturday, February 15, 2025 - 08:21 By Vinay Siwach

Share this article

KARNATAKA, India (February 15) -- Erica WIEBE (CAN), the 2016 Rio Olympic champion, usually doesn't take it around but for her India trip, she made sure to pack her gold medal from Rio.

Call it luck, the gold medal turned out to be the highlight of her trip.

In India for a masterclass at the international women's wrestling camp organized by the Inspire Institute of Sport and United World Wrestling, Wiebe got mobbed by 50 young wrestlers as she showed them her medal. Wrestlers from Jordan, Estonia, South Africa, Mauritius, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and hosts India, all part of the camp, wanted to touch it, feel it and may be keep it.

"To see the looks on their faces and in their bodies responding to what it felt like to hold the kind of weight of your dream in your hand, I got emotional with them," Wiebe says. "It was so surreal for me to share the medal with the athletes because it brought me back to where I was at that time, and how it felt like winning an Olympic gold medal was just like this impossible dream that would never happen. It's really important for me to come here and do things like this to remind these women that, these crazy, unimaginable things are real. They can happen and to encourage them to continue to dream big."

No wrestler could walk away without a photo. A few even got emotional as they took the medal in their hands.

"God, I don't know how many times I have dreamt about that in the night," U17 world bronze medalist Lisette BOTTKER (EST) says. "When I got the medal on my hands, I was also trying not to cry but the feeling is awesome."

Maya QUTAISHAT (JOR) adds, "It seemed like the dreams of most of us wrestlers in front of us. Like getting the Olympic gold medal."

UWW and IIS organized the camp for wrestlers from around the world from January 15 to 31. It was hosted by IIS at it's world class facility in Vijayanagar, a township in Ballari district of north Karnataka, India.

Wiebe held a masterclass for the wrestlers along with training sessions with IIS head coach Amir TAVOKKALIAN, a former world silver medalist and Asian champion.

"It's a really amazing development opportunity for a young wrestlers from all around the world," Wiebe said. "There's several nations here, and it's so incredible to see the level of talent and passion of these young athletes. At the camp this week, we've had a number of sessions kind of leveraging different unique styles, having the different countries lead different warmups. We're here at the Inspire Institute of Sport which is a phenomenal world class facility. We don't have anything like this in Canada, there's very few facilities like this in the world. It's really exciting to see that India has this.

"Not only that, they have this for their athletes training, but they've invited many countries around the world to share in this moment and to leverage the resources that are available here on this site."

IIS President Manisha MALHOTRA also visited the camp and threw some light on the partnership with UWW to grow the sport.

"We're very passionate about the sport from an Indian ecosystem point of view," Malhotra said. "But what we realized is that, we need to start looking outside India to bring in expertise, look in partnerships. With that in mind, I think there was no better partner than UWW.

"They’ve done a phenomenal job with wrestling worldwide and growing the sport very well. The idea was to have a very good mix of people, whether they are from a very developed wrestling nation or from an underdeveloped wrestling nation, it needs to be a common platform where people can extract some sort of benefit for everybody. That was the main premise with what we worked with."

Apart from the training, wrestlers at the camp used the high performance center at IIS and indulged in sightseeing.

"Training here is very strong. We come out of the mat sweating a lot, and it's very tough," Qutaishat said, "The girls here are very high level. When I wrestle them, I learn a lot of techniques and so many things that I usually don't see back in my country. But I get to explore more as I go out to the camps."

Wiebe had an advice for all wrestlers, especially coming from smaller countries to the development camps.

"I told the athletes the goals are: to have fun, and to get better," Wiebe said. "And how do you do that? You find strength on the edge of failure. You have to put yourself on the line. Wrestling is not easy. You see it on the athletes bodies. They're pushing themselves to their limits, physically and mentally. They are tired. I remember being that way as an athlete. You always have to find another level to yourself."