Keeping sports spirit alive in Qatar

Keeping sports spirit alive in Qatar

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As people stay at home and sports events have been cancelled, the line between outdoor and indoor games has blurred. Individuals are using social media platforms to hone up their sports skills by staying at home while sports academies have come up with innovative ways to keep the children busy at home during the lockdown.

The coronavirus pandemic has had an effect on how athletes train and remain match fit. Many a sports academies based in Qatar are adapting to innovative ways to keep their trainees fit and ready for sporting action. A host of academies — ranging from football to cricket — have taken the remote training route to impart coaching and fitness lessons through various digital platforms

Evolution Sports Qatar has made their remote learning and workout video content free to everyone and uploaded a series of videos on their website and also on Youtube. If you have a passion for soccer, basketball, swimming, netball or fitness, Evolution Sports have something on offer for you via the digital platforms.

“We all miss playing sports, participating in healthy activities and being around our coaches and friends. However, just because we have to stay indoors and practice social distancing, it doesn’t mean we have to stop practicing playing the games and activities we love,” Toyan Greaves, an official of Evolution Sports Qatar, told The Peninsula.

“Over the next 12 weeks, we are giving away free access to over 100 different workout videos, which can all be accessed via our website -https://www.evosportsqatar. com/remote-learning-menu,” he added.

 Also following the digital route is Absolute Academy — which has franchise tie-up with former Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for its cricket coaching programme. While the cricket trainees at Absolute Academy have taken the digital route, youngsters learning the football, karate and badminton tricks at the same academy are training at home on their own.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) Academy Qatar has also taken the remote program route to impart football training to over 1000 players registered for its coaching sessions in a bid to keep them active during the Corona virus lockdown period.

Twice a week, the PSG Qatar is releasing on their Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCXKsiahvfYF_hvbyqnORJ2Q/videos - a 30 to 45 minutes program adapted to all ages, skills levels and space constraint.

The video contains a range of topic including nutrition tips, warm up, ball mastery to fitness, the participants can enjoy a professional session and keep progressing while staying home, officials of the French club which is owned by Qatar Sports Investments said. In addition to the remote program and to maintain a strong level of engagement with the local community, PSG Qatar delivers Facebook live training session at https:// www.facebook.com/PSGACADEMYQATAR/ every Thursday at 4pm.

Fabien Dilem, General Manager of the PSG Regional Office in Doha said: “As a major football club it is part of our commitment to put our expertise and knowledge at the service of the youth during this difficult period. We are here to support the local community by providing them with the appropriate tools to keep their children active”.

 Another sports academy, The Bravo Cricket Academy, Qatar is inspiring its pupils to get creative in their homes - by staging its E-learning cricket learning sessions while also urging them to indulge in different home chores.

One such ‘life skills’ assignment reads: ”Make your bed, wash your hands every two hours and practicing hygiene at home, keep exercise as part of your daily Routine, be attentive in your school virtual classes, shadow practice every day, sleep on time and make a regular pattern, reduce screen time and make something creative - cooking, drawing, whatever interests you, try to read a story book or any book of your interest, spend quality time with your family and help out with household chores 10.Write your dairy every day recording all the above,” one of the assignment says.

 Around 80 children aged between the age of five to 18 are able to take part in the digital training sessions of expert coaches based in Qatar and also in Singapore, Germany and India. BCA, a two-year-old academy based in Ezdan Oasis in Wukair has a franchise tie up with Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma’s CricKingdom.

The BCA trainees also learn and practice new training drills and strokes learning via digital platforms, which keep the students engaged during the current period of distance learning. Each of the video, focuses on the history of the game, evolution of the cricket bat, gripping the ball, holding the ball, right postures for batting and bowling, exercises drills, fielding positions, different strokes, law of the games.

“The online course will be completed after 10 videos and we all continue to have our kids watch, practice and stay fit at home. Also, parents please continue to send the drill videos of students to our coaches,” said Rohit Sharma in a message to the students. So far CricKinggdom has uploaded seven videos on Youtube channel. Besides getting expert technical advice on the game from the experts in the field, the children are urged to explore their talents and widen their knowledge of the game and also take part in the home chores during the lockdown period as per of the home assignment.

Once the children have completed their assignments at home, they are encouraged to upload the videos the BCA WhatsApp group.

 “The assignments have been carefully designed to use items and equipment that would generally be available in the household,” Christopher Raja, a coach associated with BCA told The Peninsula.

The response has been overwhelming he said. “The students have been divided into teams and each of them have been given a particular assignment for a week, which includes they doing some research to find answers related to the game. These exercise we believe will help them on and off the field,” he added.

Another football academy Barwa City Football club (BCFC) is also into training session via video sessions. Head coach Hanson Joseph said the trainees are getting training videos which they have to do on their own. “We are sending them videos and accordingly they have to plan their drills at home. They have to record their training sessions and share the videos in the WhatsApp group of BCFC,” Hanson said. “We want our players to be fit and hopefully we will take part in an international tournament outside Qatar,” he added.