Are athletes or their training practises of any interest to anyone?

New Delhi: After a seven-year break, the 36th National Games began in Gujarat with great fanfare. Like at any other time in the past, a number of factors, including COVID-19 in 2020, led to the cancellation of the Games.
On the one hand, it is necessary to embrace the return of such significant Games. However, there is a disagreement over who proposed this date for such a significant event at a time when players from many sports needed time to recover “after reaching their peak during the recently finished Commonwealth Games” rather than being asked to compete at their best once more.

The first thing is… The government has made sure that every athlete should take part in these current National Games by announcing a number of valuable rewards, including cash awards, for top medal winners. The question of “whether or not these elite athletes should be forced to take part after peaking during the CWG in Birmingham (United Kingdom) between 28 July and 8 August 2022” is being debated, however, without the advice of specialists.
Moreover, keep in mind that the dates of the National Games were chosen well in advance, even before the 19th Asian Games were postponed until September 2023 owing to the growth of Covid cases in China. Otherwise, it was only supposed to happen this year, between September 10 and 25.

Anyone working in the coaching industry will tell you that scheduling back-to-back tournaments for star athletes may put them “at danger of injuries”. Additionally, the results of such a poorly-timed Games have already been felt by one elite athlete.

Achanta Sharath Kamal of Tamil Nadu, the second seed, in the table tennis event held in Surat had to withdraw from his men’s quarterfinal match against Soumyajit Ghosh of Haryana after complaining of back pain.When the Birmingham Commonwealth Games hero requested a medical break, he was up two games to one and 6-1 in the fourth. In order to prevent further injury, Sharath was advised to forfeit his match after the physio evaluated him. As a result, in, the winner of multiple medals at the most recent CWG (three gold, one silver) will also miss the forthcoming World TT team Championships, which will take place in Chengdu, China, starting on September 30.

Why in a hurry?

Before one can comprehend the indifference of our best national athletes, one must inquire of the government officials, “what was the necessity of holding Games at this specific time of the years?”

Top sportsmen from their various sports, like top shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, Murali Sreeshankar in the long jump, and Avinash Sable in the 3000m steeplechase, among others, have travelled to different Gujarat cities whether or not they wanted to put their bodies at risk of harm.

For any athletes, especially in the track and field events, a coach or instructor has to plan a peaking strategy so his or her athletes reach their best performance in time for competitions. And all this is not that easy… According to the training methods prescribed in almost all the coaching text books, “training is a complex process organised and planned over various phases so that an athlete attains his or her peak performance at the right time of any competition”.

In nutshell, “peaking at the appropriate time is an art that must be accomplished with utmost precision in training methods”.

Any athlete’s performance cannot be held at its top for an extended period of time. It varies from game to game and from person to person. Tennis and badminton players, for example, who frequently compete in tournaments, have a shorter training regimen than athletes competing in track and field competitions.

Any runner or thrower will often use a long-term training plan to allow their bodies to fully recuperate before the next competition.

The type of training an athlete receives can either be broad, indicating a high level of adaptation to many types of training, or specific, indicating an adaptation to the unique training requirements of a particular sport. The level of training that athletes may perform at and achieve is extended by their state of athletic shape.

Because of this, it is not appropriate to hold government organisations accountable for scheduling the Games at a period when elite athletes were supposed to rest their bodies to recover from any aches or injuries.
However, it is astonishing how the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which has mandated that all athletes compete in the National Games, has acted.

Many of the participating athletes from the Indian contingent have been chosen to compete for their nation in the Asian Championships, which will take place later in October. For the majority of the athletes, that would undoubtedly entail back-to-back demanding training sessions.

In the best-case scenario, an athlete should have at least two months to recuperate from the weight cut after a competition in the sports that have weight categories. Otherwise, there is a greater probability of suffering injury.
Many players across all sports have had very long seasons. This year, players like long jumpers Jeswin Aldrin and Sreeshankar or javelin thrower Rohit Yadav began their seasons as early as in February this year. Pugilists like Mohammed Hussamuddin, Ashish Kumar and many others have also been in competition mode since February. This story also affects other academic fields because the calendar has been jam-packed with activities and because the post-Commonwealth Games lull hasn’t yet ended.

Last but not least, the athletes have no assurance that their individual states will even recognise their accomplishments after the National Games, despite taking a tremendous risk by competing in back-to-back contests.
It’s interesting that while states like Tamil Nadu or Haryana have offered significant monetary prizes to medal winners, the other states have yet to follow suit. The feelings of the competing athletes are also affected by the inconsistent treatment by their respective states.

One can only hope that the government, which frequently touts its commitment to fostering sports at the grassroots level, will strive to incorporate athlete and coach feedback into the 37th National Games. The administration must also make sure that the schedule of the all-forthcoming National Games are in conformity with the world calendar so that the competitors don’t feel exhausted beforehand. – INDIA NEWS STREAM

The writer is a senior sports journalist. He can be reached at shekhar.luthra@gmail.com and @shekharluthra