The Minister of State for Youth and Sports, Sri Kiren Rijiju recently launched the ‘High Performance Coach Education Programme’ which is focused on athletic training under the auspices of Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports Patiala. The seven-module course will last six months and as many as 250 top coaches from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) will form a core group to train the country’s top talent.
The course, launched specifically for training and equipping Indian coaches with the best skills, is vast in its importance. It will expand the high academic and technical values in the Indian professional sports coaching segment.
With the programme, the government aims to build a pool of elite Indian coaches while bolstering the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision. Its application across the board will make sports Atmanirbhar too. The long-term goal of the step is to put India among the top 10 nations in the Olympics, according to Minister Kiren Rijiju.
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The High-Performance Coach Education Programme will enable the mastery of Indian coaches across all disciplines in Indian sports and give them an edge over foreign coaches.
High-Performance Coach Education Programme Pedagogy
During the programme, participants will have a two-week hands-on course at various high-performance centres across the country. The size of each class will be limited to 20 students.
The teaching methods of this six-month course include lectures by top coaches and sports organisers in India and abroad. Theoretical approaches will consist of case studies, research work and interactive lessons.
Leading sports science experts, sports coaches, athletes, state sports managers and resource experts from national sports federations and private sports organisations will interact with students.
What is the benefit of the programme for the business fraternity?
While the programme will help in the rise of Indian coaches and enable a lower reliance on foreign coaches, it will also boost the coaching fabric of India on a national level. As more coaches get equipped with the best skills, the entire system will encourage excellence.
Coaching is already a well established Indian industry; Kota is proof enough of that. Private coaching industry players can also get on board with the programme’s portfolio and start new channels to include sports coaching as a mainstream part of their business.
Including sports, athletics and other physical sporting segments into the coaching industry will vastly help the Indian sports image to improve globally and make the players more confident of a future in sports than just in traditional academia.
An ecosystem of coaching consultants can also be initiated by industry stakeholders, which will improve the basic structure of sports coaching in India. Furthermore, the coach education programme will produce an entire industry of excellent-level players who can pursue a career as coaches and expand the scope of sports on a national level.
