In a significant development for Wrestling across the UK, Andreas Michaelas has been recruited to British Wrestling to work as Club Development Manager.

Andreas has now begun his role and will work part-time (3 days per week,) funded through the good offices of Sport England, with the aim of supporting clubs across England to be ever more effective, safe and child friendly clubs that follow the BWA Diversity and Equality Policies.

Andreas will also promote, in clubs and to coaches, the British Wrestling Talent Pathway and the Athlete Award System that underpins it.

However, all materials and experience gained by British Wrestling through Andreas’ activities will be available to all the Home Nations.

Support for funding applications will be an important and welcome area as it takes a certain skill and knowledge to identify sources of funding and complete application forms with the best chance of success.

Other areas in which Andreas will take a leading role include, communications and social media (with his interactions with clubs, the sourcing of interesting material will enable the resumption of a Wrestling Newsletter in due course). The need for clubs to register a positive impact in their local communities is more important now than ever.

Twitter: @GBRWrestlingNGB (link)
Instagram: British Wrestling (link)
Facebook: British Wrestling – Club Support (link)

Andreas will also get involved with the Regional Committees to support them in their quest to improve safeguarding structures and increase the number of inter-club competitions which will provide BWA members with more opportunity for competitions – and without the usual need to travel long distances.

Underpinning all of Andreas’ work will be seeking to improve the governance of clubs and Regional Committees to ensure that British Wrestling is resilient and goes about its business in the right way at all levels.

Andreas is already well known to many as a tutor in the Weightlifting for Wrestling Continued Professional Development Programme (CPD) for the UK Coaching Certificate. It is hoped that Andreas will continue with this.

Andreas comes to British Wrestling from British Weightlifting well qualified. There he worked as their Development Manager (North). He has supported numerous clubs from various sporting backgrounds to help them grow and become sustainable.

Projects that Andreas has worked on include Sport England’s “Club Matters” and “This Girl Can” campaigns. He has also worked on safeguarding initiatives brought to clubs to help safeguard our children – including the Home Office’s Project “CTZN” and the “It’s Not Okay” campaign with Greater Manchester Police.

We wish Andreas well in his time at British Wrestling and I am sure that everyone will welcome and support him in his activities.

Clubs requesting assistance with funding applications and governance support can contact Andreas via:-

e-mail: clubdevelopment@britishwrestling.org
telephone: 07494 162414