British Wrestling held its latest Open Member Forum on Saturday 1st November at the British Wrestling Academy in Salford. Chief Executive Craig Anthony welcomed members to the forum and presented an overview of the Annual Report, details of the Governance Structure Review and a call for engagement in the next strategy development. Below is an overview of the presentation followed by questions and answers from the forum.
Annual Report Overview
The British Wrestling Annual Report for 2023-24 showed positive results in several areas:
Governance
- Appointment of two new Independent Non-Executive Directors Ian Da Cunha and Judith Duffin
- Sir Gary Hickinbottom was appointed as Judicial Chair.
- Introduction of a new Disciplinary Code and procedures.
- Completion of a Governance Review with Darren Bernstein.
- Achievement of Code of Sports Governance Tier 3 status, CPSU Safeguarding Status, and compliance with the UK Anti-Doping Assurance Framework.
Finance
- Turnover increased to over £1m due to increases in funding and wrestling-related income.
- Additional funding was secured to support the renovation of the British Wrestling Academy, delivery of the GB Grand Prix and UWW Level 3 coaching course alongside ongoing funding from Sport England and UK Sport.
- Wrestling income increased through affiliation, memberships, and competitions.
- Loss of sponsorship that previously funded the Office Administrator role.
- A financial loss for the year due to the use of reserves for the academy renovation.
Sport
- Membership grew to over 2200, with a new membership structure implemented and the successful launch of the Home Nations Showdown.
- 1900 competition entries were recorded across 16 competitions.
- The organisation secured additional grant funding for initiatives like academy renovation, the GB Grand Prix, and coach training.
- Successful development projects were delivered, including the ALDI club promotional campaign and the 2022 Legacy project, resulting in new participants and coaches.
- A strong workforce was built with a coaching conference, updated training courses for referees, and an increase in the number of Level 1 and 2 coaches.
- Performance highlights included the appointment of a new Performance Manager, Kieran Malone, and notable achievements by wrestlers like Danoush Jowkar and medal wins at the GB Grand Prix.
Governance Review Project
The Governance Review Project has been completed by Darren Bernstein
- Darren completed 21 interviews producing 632 pages of transcription and an additional 62 completed surveys
- The review identified a general environment of apathy and a lack of effective communication and weak governance at Nations & Regions level is evidenced throughout by three recurring themes;
- Structure
- Democracy & Representation
- Trust and Transparency
- The report has identified 25 recommendations to address these issues which the Board has developed a timeline for implementation over the next 18 months
New Strategy
Looking ahead, British Wrestling plans to implement a new strategy for the sport from 2025. This will involve:
- A refresh of the existing Strategic Plan 2021-2025, which has guided the Association’s work for the past 4 years.
- Consultation events to ensure the new strategy captures the views and ambitions of the members.
- A focus on articulating the organisation’s purpose and direction for the future.
Questions from Members
Craig Anthony then opened up the session for questions from members. The questions are summarised and not attributed to any individual. Responses have been summarised and expanded where information was not provided on the day.
How can we ensure that the best wrestlers are able to access our national championships rather than a first come first served approach? Can we create an appropriate ranking for wrestlers to ensure we are recognising the best wrestlers?
Individual competition organisers set criteria for entry, the reasons for early bird entry deadlines are to assist with knowing the number of wrestlers competitions are able to cater for on the day, being able to communicate early with wrestlers who may have a walkover and ensure that competitions are financially viable. From a national competition perspective, the British Wrestling Technical Committee has committed to look at the potential for qualification through both attendance and results at qualifying competitions for the British Championships.
At this stage with the current numbers, a ranking at junior ages with the constant shifting of ages and weights may not be possible but we can certainly look at it from a senior perspective.
The star system for competitions is designed to try to support people to make good choices about what competitions to enter. In essence, we need more competitions to run and for clubs and volunteers to step forward to host more competitions.
How we are to have trust and confidence that the 25 recommendations from the governance report will be taken seriously and implemented?
The Board instructed the review based on some of the feedback we had received. One of the reasons for publishing the recommendations is to be transparent and the Board has established a timeline for implementing them. The Board will regularly report on how the recommendations have been delivered and where we possibly are facing challenges. The Board is committed to making the changes and expects to be held to account by the members.
A number of clubs don’t feel they are being listened to, what are you doing to improve the ability for clubs to share their views?
Sorry to hear that, as a member organisation, we are here for our members. We welcome constructive criticism and encourage you to engage in your region to provide this feedback. If there are particular concerns then we have the processes and procedures for dealing with complaints and concerns in our complaints policy and disciplinary code.
Why are we not more successful internationally why isn’t there more investment in talent and performance to improve the international competition level? Why is the pathway North West centric?
British Wrestling has increased its investment in the pathway over the past few years. However, developing athletes capable of success internationally is challenging and takes a long time. We recognise the need to reach as many people in the country as possible, which is why we have moved English competitions away from the North West for 2025 and beyond.
Squad selection is made of the best wrestlers and is not geographically limited. All athletes on the podium at the English and British Championships last year were flagged to their nation or region for nomination for national squad selection. However, the majority of domestic national squad delivery will continue to take place at the British Wrestling Academy as our centre of excellence.
What are you doing to increase participation at the grassroots and in schools? Why don’t the competitions support grassroots participation?
We agree there is a need for growth of grassroots wrestling which is why we have supported the growth in the number of qualified coaches and clubs over the past few years.
The Sports Committee will look again at junior weight categories; the 10% rule has limited weight cutting and supports greater bracket sizes rather than having more walkovers. If feedback from members is that competition rules aren’t working for the sport the Sports Committee should look at this and will do so.
What funding does British Wrestling receive for talent and performance and how is it spent? Why are athletes having to contribute to pathway delivery?
Funding from UK Sport is received for Performance, quantified as one to three athletes working towards Olympic qualification. Sport England funding is for the England talent pathway which includes regional squads and National Potential and National Development squads.
In 2023-24 British Wrestling received £71,139 from UK Sport and £48,000 from Sport England. The combined funding supports the staff resources as well as the delivery of the pathway. Whilst funding has increased compared to previous cycles there is not enough to support the level of delivery we believe necessary to reach our goals.
If we can’t afford the pathway can our athletes request access to their UWW license to attend comps they can with clubs?
Only athletes on the squads can access international licences, representing Great Britain is a privilege and responsibility that is borne out of selecting the best athletes. If an athlete can’t afford to be on the squad athletes and parents should speak to the Performance Manager directly to discuss solutions as we want selected athletes to be on the squad.
How are the squads selected?
The National Potential and National Development Squad selection process took place in July with physical, technical and tactical tests conducted by the University of Salford Sports Science Department and British Wrestling.
Senior squad has recently been set up and the offer to be part of the squad has been made to anyone on a podium at the British Championships.
All selection criteria are published on the website – https://britishwrestling.org/gb-wrestling/selection/
We need a female coach to contribute to the pathway to support female athlete development.
We agree and we are looking at this as to how we can integrate either as additional support or a formal position on the coaching group.
How do we better recruit more people for clubs? Do we have resources to increase the awareness of our sport at a national level? Can we get wrestling on the TV regularly?
We are looking at how we can increase the profile and awareness of the sport across the country. This is something that we see as an important part of our strategy refresh and anticipate directly more resources into this area in the next strategy. There is always the challenge of getting cut through in national consciousness as a niche sport.
We understand and share the desire for TV coverage however there is a real challenge given the size of the sport and perceived potential audience. The lack of Commonwealth Games reduces the potential to achieve this and whilst coverage and exposure from Birmingham was good the intervening period and ongoing coverage is a challenge.
How are we increasing the number of people delivering wrestling? Every MMA or Grappling school should have a wrestling coach.
One of the reasons we’ve seen such growth in clubs and in the number of coaches in recent years is that we are doing this but it takes time. It remains a continued area of focus for us to engage with other combat sports to position wrestling as a foundation sport. This is however dependent on clubs and individual’s engagement in our policies and procedures that are a requirement of being a safe sport.
Members are encouraged to connect those clubs with the British Wrestling team for support in training coaches and affiliating clubs.
Thanks, And Next Steps
British Wrestling Chair Steven Esom thanked everyone for attending the forum and for being so open in their feedback. Craig Anthony confirmed that notes from the forum will be shared on the website. It’s our intention to host another open forum in the Spring 2025.
