On Saturday 9th July, for the first time in over a year, the Southern Region saw a total of 21 senior athletes take part in an intense wrestling session.

The session was delivered by Jatinder Singh Rakhra on behalf Anatolii Kharytoniuk (Team England National Coach) who structured the training schedule.

The athletes got to experience first hand what it was like to train as a national team with some wrestlers coming down to the session from the Northern Region.

The Saturday session was the first of a pair of Commonwealth Games 2018 Team England Training Sessions.  The second, on the Sunday, was held at Sharples Wrestling Club in Bolton.  Eddy Kavanagh, England Team Leader introduced both sessions.

The session brought back the fire in the Southern Region and sparked an interest for future regular regional training sessions.

On the back of the day the Southern Region will be running regular ‘Train like a champ Saturday’ sessions, open to juniors, seniors, male and female.

All wrestlers (who are members of the British Wrestling Association) from Great Britain are invited to train and most importantly, the session will be FREE.

We understand the difficulties wrestlers face with training and competitions within Great Britain as we are a minority sport. By setting up regular training sessions for wrestlers it will give us the opportunity to share best practice between one another.

The sessions will be led by Jatinder Singh Rakhra, Leon Rattigan (an England Commonwealth Games double Bronze medallist – Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014) and Anatolii Kharytoniuk.

Sessions will last approximately 90 minutes, followed by matches and an opportunity for questions and answers at the end.

The next Southern Region session will be taking place on Saturday 6th August 2016 at 1:00pm. Registration starts at 1pm and the session will begin promptly at 1:15pm.

Fight Zone London
16-22 Pritchard’s Road
London, E2 9AP
Nearest over ground station is Cambridge Heath.

If your club is interested in hosting a ‘Train like a champ Saturday’ please contact Jatinder Singh Rakhra.
The picture features wrestlers from: Slough OWC, West London WC, London Shoot Fighters, Legion, Tokei, Sharples WC, Fight Zone and Bedford Wrestling Club.
Written by Jatinder Singh Rakhra