When Science meets Sports

It may have been a Sunday, but KheloMore’s Sports Science Workshop sure saw some enthusiastic parents and young athletes attending it. All the better, because the workshop definitely brought out interesting information that made a mark with the kids.

Mental Fitness

The workshop started off with psychological aspect of sports science. Janki Rajapurkar of Samiksha spoke about the importance of looking into the psychological side of an athlete. “It is not just when the athlete is down or underperforming that a psychologist comes into the picture,” she said, “mental training is more preventive than curative. These are life skills and can start from the age of 8 and up.” She emphasized on the fact that the most important things that take a simple athlete to becoming an elite one is discipline, confidence, skills, concentration, motivation, focus and team work, and they can be cultivated through proper mental training.

She explained herself better through a small game she played with the children present. She asked them to imagine they were holding a very hot iron ball in their hands and while juggling that ball they had to answer a few questions. Then asked parents to do the same pointing out how difficult it is to do two things at the same time. “Mental training, just like physical training and skill training, is extremely important for an athlete. It differs from child to child and consists of counselling and some exercises,” Janki concludes.

Physiotherapy

The next to speak were the physiotherapists from LiveActive. They explained how physiotherapy was an integral part of any sportsperson’s life and stressed on the fact, like Janki, that one didn’t need a physiotherapy only after an injury. “We have a team of multidisciplinary professionals who do a complete screening of the athlete, identifying any biological issues – the child’s basic strength, flexibility, muscle imbalance, movements assessments etc.,” informed Rrutu from LiveActive. She added that rest, recovery, sports gear, surface on which you play, the environment, the climate; everything affects the body and a proper medical screening can help identify a child’s body type and get them into a proper nutritional and fitness routine.

Akshaya from Live Active then joined in with the nutrition aspect, informing about the best food to eat before and after a game, on the importance of hydrating during the game. Also, she recommends swimming once a week as a form of relaxation.

Physical Training

Concluding the workshop with Binny Sreedharan from BFL, who said that demands of every sport’s are different and hence needs different types of training. One needs to get under a comprehensive fitness programme, working on muscular strength, cardio vascular or cardio respiratory system. He made the kids do squats and push ups to explain how different exercises work on their bodies. He explained and demonstrated to the children on how they should do dynamic stretches during their game and static stretches after wards to relax their muscles.

He emphasised that strength training doesn’t necessarily mean picking up heavy weights only; there are various aspects to it and children can do it under proper guidance. Also clearing the misconception that weight training affects the child’s height, saying that height is decided by the genes.

It was very important to note that every expert, whether physiotherapist, trainer or psychologist; emphasized on the fact that playing multiple sports is beneficial for the kids as different sports works on different areas of their bodies.

In the end, children and parents went back with lots of information. Overheard one boy telling his mother that he now knows why she asks him to play tennis along with football and that he will swim this weekend!

Said Mayura Pasad, “This was an excellent workshop; a very good eye-opener on what is actually required to better as a sportsperson in all respect.”