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Showing posts with the label Sports Authority of India

“Journey to greatness can’t be explained, it can only be experienced". – Late. Balbir Singh (Sr) Dosanjh.

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Acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the 2012 London Olympics, Late. Balbir Singh Dosanjh aka  Balbir Singh (Sr)  was named among the  World’s 16 Greatest Icons across all Sports . He was amongst the few who took Olympic movement to newer heights, similar to what he said on  “Walk the Talk”  with Mr. Shekhar Gupta, "It is really special for someone to experience your team winning & your national flag is going higher & higher in the sky." Being a sports fanatic & a keen follower, we often come across weird stories & instances that an athlete shares about him/her or their team members. One of the strongholds of Late. Balbir Singh (Sr) was that he was obsessed with hockey - because of the history he has with the sport, and also because his father was obsessed with the National Flag  [Source:  Hindustan Times ] .   The obsession, which the athletes & sports management professional like to call it th...

How do we strategize to progress in sports, without a Strategic Plan?

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Image Source: https://cfnrv.org/event/strategic-planning-creating-a-road-map-for-the-new-year/ "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail" Benjamin Franklin I keep acknowledging the quote again and again, as leaders across different countries & different dimensions of sports along with respective organizations, associations or federations speak a common language. The language of goals and objectives which is, precise and to the point, with No if’s, No buts and No etc . Being in touch with Industry leaders and decision-makers in Sports from multiple countries and while discussing with them, I realized they all speak the same language and this language not similar to what we generally use to communicate in our daily lives. It’s the language of the,  Strategic Plan or Strategic Planning.  Sports is often compared to different industries. These industries must and always have a plan, which is reflected in each of their move towards achieving ...

Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model, Stage 4 'Training to Train'

We often see a lot of debate on, whether talent is natural or it's sheer hard work of that individual to be the best in the business. The fact that matters the most is that, it's a 'process' no matter if she is a natural or if he spends extra time on perfecting his moves to gain that competitive advantage whenever and where-ever required. Even the naturals spend time and drain energy in strategizing and implementation in various situations (debatable) whereas, the hard-workers tend to develop an instinctive response since they have been practicing specific moves for a longer duration giving them leverage over the opponent (debatable). We have been discussing different stages in my previous articles starting from, Belief  having an early start for better results, which moves on to developing  FUNdamentals helping the child to be aware of ABC'S of athleticism with the major area of focus being the FUN element, and then moving on to Learning the Art of Traini...

Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model, Stage 3 'Learning to Train'

Michael Jordan  Jordan, M. (2019) , “Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”  Whenever there is a roadblock in your way, it is mainly psychological. When you place some sort of mental roadblock, it becomes something to fear. You may doubt that you can reach the next goal or milestone, but that is just your mind playing little games on you (Jordan, M. 2019). We, discussed about FUNdamentals in the last article where the major learning and area of focus is ‘FUN’, which should be an intrinsic reward for any child for participation in any sport or recreational activity, rather than parents pressuring their daughters or sons to pursue such activities, to get rid of their own problems conflicting with their objectives as well as intentions of their children.  For many, it is a process. For some, it is a ritual. While growing up, for me it was all about having the place to run around from one corner to the other, with all t...

Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model, Stage 2 'FUNdamentals'

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky (‘The Great One’) Similarly, we miss 100% of extraordinary, fearless and amazing moments of our lives, ‘If’ we stop having fun in what-so-ever task or work or a job we do or intend to do. So, the question again would be, how can we have fun in anything and everything we do or intend to do? In our previous discussion regarding ‘ Belief ’, we discussed ‘what makes legends different from the ordinary’. Ronnie Lott, known to be the most mentally tough player said:  “If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.” In early stages of our lives, we always cherished to enjoy no matter what we do, we lived in the moment not thinking about what anyone else is thinking about or are they even looking at us. All we did, was to make the best out of that moment. Parents/guardians play a crucial role in developing such awareness at a very young age. As a kid, we are very much moody in doing or not doing things at a p...

Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model, Stage 1 'Belief'

We all have been hearing about ‘believing’ and also been taught to ‘believe’ in ourselves before we take up any duty or a profession or start a discussion or maybe talk in front of 10,000 personalities. Is that easy to start ‘believing’ in something without being uncomfortable? As a child, we all are much-admired and praised to take the first step or do something on our own. That’s when we start to ‘believe’, Yes we can do it! We are supported by everyone around us to make us comfortable taking that first step, making that first move towards a task. Steadily over the time, we start to make our decisions in various different situations whether it be comfortable or uncomfortable for us, with minimal support of people around us which we also ‘believe’ is life, full of opportunities with some high’s but many low’s, resembling our heartbeat. Initial juncture of any sports-persons journey who wishes to make history through his\her dedication not just towards the game, but to...

Is it really cricket versus other dimensions of sport, in India?

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There have been multiple discussions and debates on social media platforms and we have been watching people share details of athlete's achievement in their respective sport and in the caption, they often describe cricket, being the only reason for that sport and the athlete for not getting the respect she/he deserves or request the viewers to pay attention over the win of other dimensions of sports specifically when Indian Cricket registers a win.  Personally, I am totally against the fact of criticizing just one game to be the sole reason, why other sporting dimensions are unable to make that impact without people noticing the efforts and story of those athletes, because of endless reasons.  Is it really cricket that is responsible for other sports not growing in India or is it the people of India not accepting the culture of being a sports-educated society who gives equal importance to studies as well as physical activity for our children to grow both physic...