GFDC injects scientific flavour
Age-cheating, drugs, match-fixing need to be curbed: Paes
JOVITO LOPES
sports@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: “We need to instill a scientific dimension and fervour if football has to make a bigger mark in India and who better than Dr Rufino Monteiro, chairman of Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) to take our football, the game than runs in the blood of Goans to greater heights,” declared Goa Govrenment sports secretary Keshav Chandra at the sports medicine seminar at Taj Vivanta, here, Sunday.
All the speakers at the first ever seminar, including former Olympian Dr Vece Paes, father of another Olympic medallist Leander Paes; Dr Ashok Ahuja, Dr Sheel Sethi, Dr Venkata Ramana Yagnambhat, Dr Deep Bhandare, Dr Sanjeev P Sahni, Dr Mahendra Kudchadkar complimented Dr Rufino, GFDC member-secretary Elvis Gomes and GFDC itself for taking up such a multifaceted, disciplinary approach which will eventually produce outstanding footballers in the years to come.
Dr Paes, hailing from Assolna, who in his youth days excelled as a footballer, cricketer, hockey and rugby player and won World Cup hockey bronze in 1970 in Barcelona and Olympic hockey bronze in 1972 Olympics in Munich, talked about the dramatic changes that are being seen in the sports arena now a days, where one has to practice very hard, putting in 10,000 hours overall of rigorous practice to achieve excellence.
Dr Paes, who hailed Kolkata as a great sporting and social city, pointed out that Leander had to shift to a school which offered excellent sports facilities in Kolkata, rather than just pure academics. “The school offered extraordinary opportunities in sports and from two to four hours daily practice, Leander was practicing for six hours on a daily basis so that he plunged totally in tennis and it became lifetime tennis. Leander’s first love is football, even now. He had tremendous potential in football, but had to be taken off from the contact sport as he was afflicted with convulsions for almost two years. Success is the result of accumulative advantage,” he divulged.
“Achievement is talent plus perception. Practice is not the thing you do once you are good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good. To achieve great success one must acquire true brain mastery. The rule of 10, that is 10,000 hours over 10 years and 20,000 deliberate repetition coupled with right attitude which includes positive, aggressive and competitive spirit, is essential to acquire the status of a champ,” revealed Dr Paes, who is a BCCI consultant on age verification and anti-doping programme.
“Recognise inherent talent in a child and make parents an integral part of the development. What then is needed is not extraordinary talent but extraordinary opportunities. To start with, for football, which is a late specialization sport unlike gymnastics, one needs to follow the six-age model – the fundamental stage (5-8 years), the learning to train stage (9-12 years), the training to train stage (11-15 for girls and 12-16 for boys), the training to competition stage (14-17 for girls since they mature earlier and 15-19 for boys), the training to win (19 ownwards) stage and the retirement or retraining stage,” explained Dr Paes.
Dr Paes remarked that the early emphasis should be on development of general athletic abilities with focus on the main game coming much, much later. “First, you produce athletes and then footballers. Loco motor activities come first. Speed, stamina, strength, skill can be developed later,” summed up, the sports medicine consultant, sports administrator, sports client manager and event manager who has now made Kolkata as his home, but reiterated that football is an inherent part of a Goan.
Talking on age cheating which is rampant in India, Dr Paes opined that the validity of the certificates was being questioned and that the KW3 Method which relied on bone maturity with an accuracy of plus or minus six months range was now being relied upon. Doping was also rampant in India, there being 104 cases pertaining to India alone in the last Commonwealth Games, which is shameful to say the least, he added.
Dr Paes also touched upon match-fixing problems, the money for which originated from India.
Dr Ashish Phulkar, head of Physical Education and Sports Department, Symbiosis International School, Pune, dwelling on, “Tap Them Young,” dealt on the initiation phase (1-6 years), developmental phase (6-12 years), perfection phase (12-18 years) and professional skills (19 ownwards), besides developing a sports culture in India and provision of scientific and technical support system for high performing athletes. He felt that there was need for foundation programmes in KG, Pre-Primary and Primary and that financial support was needed to be given at every developmental stage.
“Goans are talented footballers. They need scientific training and back up and it is here that sports medicine plays a vital part. Areas like internal medicine, exercise physiology, cardiology, orthopedics and traumatology, physical and rehabilitation medicine are vital for a footballer. That apart, players need to be advised on nutritional requirements since diet affects performance as getting the right amount of energy is not only the key to stay healthy but is essential for full capacity or enhanced performance,” stated Dr Rufino.
Dr Rufino advised against indiscriminate use of dietary supplements which needed to be avoided and when used, only with the knowledge of the coach or nutritionist.
“Success in sports depends mainly on genetic endowments, training and nutrition. Proper nutrition is an important component of the total training programme,” highlighted Dr Venkata, a senior scientist at National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad under ICMR.
“The GFDC is poised to take gigantic leaps in the future as far as football development is concerned. It is the new baby of the government headed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and our focus is aimed at seeing that the Indian National football team has a maximum number of Goans and that Goan footballers are exported not only to other parts of India but also to other parts of the world,” voiced Elvis.
Earlier, the seminar was inaugurated by Health Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar, who observed that if everyone starts playing football, there will be less incidence of diabetes. “Football comes naturally to most Goans and as such the new Government headed by Parrikar has fulfilled the promise of making football the official game of Goa as promised in the BJP manifesto. Under the able leadership of Dr Rufino and Elvis, the Government will do everything possible to see that a full fledged Sports Medicine Centre comes up in the State. Actually, the programmes on sports medicine were long overdue,” stated Parsekar.
Kennedy D’Silva, executive secretary, proposed the vote of thanks.
A record number or 240 football coaches, administrators, teachers from schools and colleges, SAG, DSYA, GFA, university and club officials participated in the well organised, day-long educative programme.