Naval Tata Hockey Academyorganisesa webinar on ‘The Future to Peak Performance’

• Some of the most renowned sports personalities discussed the future of Indian Sports and budding athletes 

Bhubaneswar : Continuing with its first anniversary celebrations, Naval Tata Hockey Academy (NTHA) Odisha, today,organisedan interactive webinar on ‘The Future to Peak Performance: How High Performance Centres, Performance Analysis and Sports Science is shaping up Indian Sports for a better tomorrow’. The webinar saw renowned sports personalities from around the world discuss the evolution and future of Indian sports. The platform served as a great opportunity for sports enthusiasts across the country to hear the panelists speak and share their views on the renewed focus on sports in India and how it is preparing to compete with international athletes in the times to come.

The webinar session witnessed participation ofesteemed panelists including Olympian Floris Bovelander,Technical Director, Hockey Ace Foundation & NTHA Odisha, Olympian KazemPanjavi, Chief Coach, Odisha Weightlifting HPC,Tenvic Sports Education Pvt Ltd,RushdeeWarley, CEO IIS & Program Director, OdishaJSW Swimming HPC, Heath Matthews, Head, Sports Science & Medicine (Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Institute), DrDigpal Singh Ranawat, Director,AbhinavFuturistics and AbhinavBindra Targeting Performance Centres, and AjitMarkose, Endurance coach, Reliance Foundation Odisha.The webinar was co-moderated by Rajiv Seth, Project Director of NTHA Odisha and renowned freelance journalist Diksha Tiwari. Athletes training at the NTHA Academy in Bhubaneshwar also participated in this webinar and asked questions to their favourite coaches and experts. The experts responded to their queries with their experienced opinions.

Floris Bovelander spoke very highly about the popularity of sports in the State of Odisha and said: “It is important to build the right environment to build the sporting spirit in the State. Race for winning medals does inspire the young athletes and motivates them to remain committed to their craft and focus on their goal. NTHA Jamshedpur and Odisha have done tremendous work in reaching the grassroots in the past few years. We have reached about 7000 grassroots players via 2 hockey academies and HPCs. It is admirable to see the passion put behind this programme by Tata Steel and the State Governments.”

KazeemPanjavi spoke about the current state of the weight lifting sport in Odisha. He added: “There is tremendous talent in the local athletes in the State and the HPC in Bhubaneshwar has been able to bring out some of the best talent through the grassroots programme. I am glad to be associated with this team and be a part of this incredible transformation to bring sports to center stage.”

Heath Matthews, Head Sports Science & Medicine (Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital & Research Institute), spoke about the approach towards building a sporting ecosystem. He said: “I strongly believe that four key elements namely Athletes or talent, Corporates, Sports associations or professionals and the State Governments together make a great combination to creating a great sporting ecosystem. Odisha is blessed with the best combination of corporates, experts, leadership and Government support. In Bhubaneswar, we are building athletic HPCs with a completely innovative and a holistic approach. We not only train the athletes and kids for playing the game but also educate them on the game, nutrition, health and mental preparedness.”

RushdeeWarley, CEO IIS & Program Director, Odisha JSW Swimming HPC, spoke about the improvement in infrastructure for swimming. He said: “Swimming as a sport is at a very developed stage right now in Odisha and I am glad the State government has provided us with the right facilities to coach the athletes. Creating a sporting environment, access to pools, upgradation of the HPCs will help in elevating India’s performance in the upcoming games.”

Dr. Digpal Singh Ranawat spoke about the initiatives and partnership with these HPCs in Bhubaneswar and said: “Our partnership has enabled access to expert health professionals and right approach toward treating a sports injury in any athlete. The role of the State Government has been very significant in setting up our health institute and help athletes to recover from injuries and come back to the game with confidence. We have trained the coaches in giving first aid treatment on ground which makes it simpler for our experts to treat the player. We work with a very scientific approach and our objective is to help the players achieve their maximum potential and safeguard their health as well. So far, we have treated 1300 players as part of HPCs injury management programme.”

Ajit Markose, Endurance coach, Reliance Foundation Odisha, said: “Due to the pandemic we were forced to conduct training programmes online which definitely restricted the coaching and players’ performance. Now that we have opened up the HPCs, we are seeing the athletes are struggling and the long gap has impacted their performance. Hence, we had to alter our current training programmes to bring them back to their optimum levels. We all are awaiting to see the outcome and if this approach works we will continue with it.”

Odisha has abundance of talent in all these identified sports i.e. Hockey, Football, Athletics, Weightlifting, Swimming & Shooting. AbhinavBindra Target Performance (ABTP) Centre is a high end ‘Target Performance Centre’ set up in Kalinga Stadium to provide support to all Odisha based HPCs and Sports Hostel of DSYS – Government of Odisha. The experts also discussed the current approach toward training and how Tata Steel is enabling access to best-in-class infrastructure and facilities to the grassroot talent.