Friday, October 19, 2007

Whirlwind tour of th world....

as beijing nears time seems to be flying by... and the trust is in overdrive trying to get the last minute things ready for atleast our kids going to beijing...
so i am off around the globe literally... starting with malaysia, singapore, auckland, chicago, london, paris, germany(maybe) and thenback...
there will be some sporting events to report on like the boxing world championships... along the way...
was in ajmer yesterday watching teh squash junior nationals where there was more politics with various sides fighting each other than squash. It is sad to see people wasting their time fighting instead of just concentrating on improving the quality of the game in the country...
anyway such is life...

Monday, October 8, 2007

fitness... whats that???

There was a tennis tournament in Mumbai a week or so ago and the new fitness trainer/physiotherapist that the Mittal Champions Trust has hired actually was here and got the chance to work on a few of our athletes.
It was a real eye opener for all the kids who are all established in their respective fields as to how far behind they really are in terms of fitness. We lack any sort of a formal program and that is the reason we can't exactly catch up to the rest of the world.
It is something that is goign to be the focus of the trust for the next year or so all the way up to Beijing. My boxer who was very skeptical to start off finished the week realising that he didn't even know how to "breathe correctly" and now agrees all the Indian athletes need to get a lot fitter.
The point being we need to be efficient with our fitness and really have it monitored scientifically so that we prevent injuries and never get to the "over trained" or burnt out phase.
So that has been my order of business for the last month or so and is going to be the focus for the next few weeks ahead.