ADDING STRUCTURE & CURRICULUM TO SPORTS TRAINING

Being a sportopreneur & also an avid sportsman, I’ve dabbled my share in the sporting world, the key areas of which are essentially technology, human capital development, assessment, performance & post-career placements.

I’ve also had the rare privilege of interacting & gaining a third person’s perspective & analysis of the components of my sport: Archery. Essentially I’ve noticed a singular lack of structured training imparted to the athletes.

As we all know & acknowledge the fact that even though they might be categorized on the age criterion, there might exist one or more skill levels in the athletes present in that particular age group. According to Linchon & Barchowski in their brief on Sports Training & Performance, say,

“..In order to ensure optimum performance of a group, the athletes must be trained & imparted the same level of training; assessed & then categorized into skill levels & trained & reassessed & reorganized. This procedure might be repeated several times to ensure uniform skill distribution in all subjects..”

This is very possible, but it is yet questionable as to why is training yet not structured across training institutions. We have two very standard concepts:

1. Tournament Based Training;
2. Athlete Based Training.

In both the cases, a standard form or structure could be introduced, which could them be customized & wrapped around the trainee/subject.

Since my sport is Archery & I know its dynamics better than I’d know other sports, I’d say that a structured curriculum which includes theory, as well as practice, is a must & shall prove immensely beneficial in making all archers start on a stable foundation & with the right technique, bringing uniformity & greater efficiency to the sport.

Like, Dhanurved, offers the CTP-Coach Training Programme, with a basic first year course consisting of the following:

• Human Anatomy & Physiology
• Physical Training & Conditioning
• Introduction to Sports Medicine
• Bow-Mechanics & In-Flight Dynamics of an Arrow: Understanding Your Foundations, Understand Your Equipment
• Tuning your equipment for perfection
• Maintaining & repairing equipment
• Bio-Mechanical Principles
• In Field Skills: Shooting, Pre-Shot & Post-Shot Techniques
• Technical Analysis: Technologies, Techniques & Execution
• Coaching Principles: Techniques & Best Practices
• Sports Psychology: Principles, Applicable Techniques, Remedial Psychology
• Competitions: Preparation, Strategies, Planning & Execution
• Inspiring Excellence™ – Excellence Development Programme for Personality Enhancement of Archers

This is just an example as to what can be done to start with. Similarly the athletes would also be trained into the theoretical & practical knowledge of the essence & techniques of archery. This would vary with the skill levels and would be evaluated at regular intervals, say 3 months/6 months, with written, oral & practical tests.

Hope to see more people react & comment on this, further.

Published on 26th August 2011.