As a preparatory measure to start B.Sc. Sports Science programme, Kumaraguru College of Liberal Arts and Science (KCLAS) in Coimbatore on Friday launched its School of Sports Science on the sidelines of National Conclave on Sports Science, involving Sports Psychology Association of India.
The School of Sports Science envisages creating an ecosystem for research, education, training and sports entrepreneurship, as a pioneering initiative.
Giving due importance for sports in the formal education system will pave way for increasing India’s medal tally in Olympics Games, said Ranveet Gill, Founder, New Horizons Alliance Pvt Ltd., in his keynote address.
The frame of reference in India, which, despite being the youngest nation with its 1.4 billion population, has only six percent involved in sports, ought to be getting more to play. Only then will there be a bigger gene pool for emergence of medal winners, and for permeation of the success to transform the country well beyond the sports ecosystem. There will be cross-pollination; excellence in sports will get transfused in other walks of life, Mr. Gill said.
Sports Science re-engineers, re-defines and re-purposes the capabilities of the performers who require as much training as psychological support to handle peaks and troughs at a young age, he said.
David V. Rajan, Founder, Ortho-One Orthopaedic Speciality Centre, said in his address that sports science was now gaining prominence in consonance with the demand for non-surgical sports medicine interventions.
Presiding over, Shankar Vanavarayar, president, Kumaraguru Institutions said creation of a formal ecosystem to generate and nurture excellence in sports by the institution was a response to the phenomenal efforts taken by the Central and State governments for sports activities, thereby deriving the best out of India’s demographic dividend.
Sports has come of age in the country fostering various dimensions of growth, including health and fitness, media space, youth development, and data analytics, he said.
The three-day event has attracted 40 speakers on sports from seven States, and 51 professionals from sports sector, besides a number of faculty from sports colleges and school, student-athletes, sports research scholars, representatives of sports associations and sports academies, and sports entrepreneurs, KCLAS Principal Vijila Kennedy said.
