The annual International Network of Wrestling Researchers (INWR) World Championship Scientific Symposium was held last month during the 2015 Wrestling World Championships in Las Vegas. The program consisted of a distinguished faculty of presenters from seven countries. United World Wrestling President Nenad LALOVIC and 10 members of the United World Wrestling bureau attended the opening of the conference and heard the Rayko Petrov Honorary Lecture, delivered by Dr. Boris PODLIVAEV.

Mr. Tzeno TZENOV (BUL) presented the beautiful bronze Petrov sculpture that signifies the honor lecture event. Following the presentation of the trophy, Dr. Podlivaev shared some of the knowledge he has gained from his long-time work with the women of the Russian national team in his lecture entitled: “Women's Wrestling - Some Observations from a Coach and Scientist."                      

The conference also included lecture by:

• Dr. Carole Maître-gynecologist and sport physician from the National Institute of Sport; INSEP, France delivering “Caring for the Female Wrestler: What her Coach Needs to Know.” From her work, the INWR will be producing several informational documents that will be shared with women’s wrestling programs around the world.
   
• Dr. Menia Gioftsidou and Dr. Ioannis Barbas of the Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece, in their presentation entitled “New Structures for Youth Wrestling – Wrestling Plus!” unveiled a warm up training program that can be utilized in youth programs to minimize athletic injuries.
   
• Dr. Fikrat Kerimov and Rashid Burnashev of the Uzbekistan State University of Physical Culture presented “Application of Biophotonic Measurement Techniques During Wrestling.” These non-invasive techniques offer great promise in monitoring the training of athletes.
   
• Hadi Habibi (IRI-Women’s Belt Wrestling in Iran) and David Curby (USA-Possible Wrestling Uniform Designs for Muslim Women), offered perspectives on the future of women’s wrestling in Iran.
   
• Dr. Milrad Dokmanac & Momir Petkovic presented “Preventative Wrestling” in the Greco-Roman Style-an analysis of the championship matches in the 2015 European Games in Azerbaijan. Their analysis showed that the time spent in the position of holding and interlocking fingers was almost 75% of the total match time in the standing position.
   
• Patricia SAUNDERS, Lee KEMP and Momir PETKOVIC, great champions of the past, ended the proceedings with their perspectives on what science should do to help wrestling progress.

Additionally, there were 22 Poster Presentations from 13 countries, selected for display at the INWR Scientific Symposium. All of these presentations, along with the keynote lectures, are available at the INWR website.

http://inwr-wrestling.com/2015/10/successful-scientific-symposium-in-las-vegas/