Workshop on strength mgmt underway

RONO HILLS, 18 Jun: A weeklong online workshop on ‘Assessment and management of strength’, being organized by the physical education and sports science faculty of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), in collaboration with the university’s IQAC, got underway on Friday.

During the inaugural function, RGU Pro-VC Prof Amitava Mitra pointed out that “nowadays, sports are technology-oriented and the task is very specific for the support staff of a team, and if we really want success in the sports arena, we have to adopt new training methods.”

RGU VC Prof Saket Kushwaha in his address said such training programmes for trainers and coaches are the need of hour “and the university will constantly provide support to such kind of initiatives.”

He also recognized the effort of Dr Anil Mile, former head of the physical education department, “who worked hard for the development of this department.”

RGU Registrar Dr NT Rikam and IQAC Chairman Prof RC Parida also spoke.

Anand Date, strength and conditioning coach at the BCCI’s National Cricket Academy, delivered the keynote address on “strength and conditioning nuances and Indian sports science ecosystem.”

He explained the evolution of strength and conditioning and how they have become an integral part of sports. “Training should be started with initial assessment of athletes, and training should be planned according to the athlete’s fitness condition,” he said.

Martin Gallyer, former strength and conditioning coach of cricket in West Indies, explained “movement competency and initial assessment of athletes.” He said that the performance of a player depends not only on movement assessment, but that there are certain other factors which determine the performance of players.

“But movement assessment can help the trainers to diagnose the need of their trainee players and provide training and exercise according to their requirement,” he said.

A practical session on movement assessment was also held, during which seven exercises were introduced to assess the movement competency of players.