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Every year on May 7, World Athletics Day is celebrated across the globe with an aim to raise awareness about sports and introduce new talent in the field of athletics. However, the track and field coaches of the city mentioned some reasons of the youth dropping out of sports.
Guru Nanak Stadium athletics coach Sanjiv Sharma said, “Academic pressure on students is one of the major factors of declining participation of youth in sports, in which schools and parents have an important role to play. Schools must exempt a few well performing athletes from few morning classes so that a child under training can devote a proper time to the sport.” The parents also do not wish their children to take up sports as a career, the coach added.
Sharma said, “There are some people who enrol their child in any sport with an aim to keep them away from social media or to make them work out on a daily basis, but the majority of them do not let their children pursue the sport as a career. It is generally seen that children from humble backgrounds only take up sports rather than the ones from affluent families.”
Sharma said, “Athletics is the core of every sport. Players of various sports are trained under an athletic coach for the overall development, but nowadays, children lack patience and discipline. The culture of late night parties and unhealthy routine has led to a decrease in potential of today’s youth.”
The coach said many athletes have fled abroad due to lack of jobs.
“Another factor is the lack of awareness among the parents about the adequate age at which a child should undergo training. Parents must send their child at the age of 8 or 9 to the training centres as it is important to provide them with the right training at early stages. Otherwise, it hinders their growth and later becomes difficult to rectify the techniques learnt by applying wrong methods,” said Sanjiv.
The 22-year old Ludhiana based athlete Aryan Saini who is undergoing training for the past ten years said that the diet provided by the government is not adequate for an athlete gearing up for the nationals. “Lower middle class players completely rely on government support as our parents want us to get a job and settle down. If job opportunities are increased, we would surely get the support of our family as well,” Saini added.
Sanjiv Sharma appreciated the initiative of the government to set up 1,000 sports nurseries in the state. He said , “It would become easy for the players commuting from large distance for training, if more nurseries are built.”
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