In an attempt to promote talented athletes in the long term, the Sports Authority of AP (SAAP) has selected 303 schools as part of the ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ programme and Physical Literacy Teachers (PLTs) to impart coaching.
“Orientation classes have already been organised at Acharya Nagarjuna University. The PLTs of the adopted schools will be given special coaching from July. The schools will be provided with equipment and 200-m track will also be set up,” SAAP MD N. Bangara Raju told The Hindu .
Foreign coaches
The SAAP will invite coaches from South Africa, Jamaica and the countries that made headway in athletics to train the PLTs.
“Talented athletes will be selected from the districts and enrolled for these schools, and they will enter the portals of various academies floated by SAAP based on their performance. The medal-hopefuls will be admitted to the Centre for Excellence of Acharya Nagarjuna University for advanced training to compete in the international levels,” he said.
The SAAP chief said the move was aimed at picking up talented athletes from the grass-roots level, promoting long-term training for Olympics.
Early burnout
He pointed out that the short-term programmes were proved to be a disaster by experts. “The success of athletes who underwent short-term programmes was short-lived as they lost steam midway owing to the early burnout. We need a sustainable programme which helps athletes reach the peak in a methodical way and remain on the top when it comes to their fitness and performances,” he said.
The SAAP chief said that the new sports policy was promoting youngsters to take up mutli-sports until they reached 15 years. “Barring swimming and gymnastics, the youth should play all sorts of sports for a few years to gain general athleticism. Then, they can go for specialisation with the help of coaches,” he added.
