Humility and Appreciation - Rectifier BHIS

Humility and Appreciation- The essence of love and intelligence, not an achievement

Throughout the years, Saurabh, a great football player of his college, has been consistently told that he came across as an extremely humble person. He was good in both academics and sports in school. But, looking back, there are many reasons that made him learn how to remain humble.

It was the eighth grade when he played football for his school. As the captain of his football team, he was highly dedicated towards its success in a competition. But, eventually, they lost an important match.  Saurabh wanted to take a new call on that day. But, before he could realise his mistake, the team had already lost it.

It was an eye-opening experience in Saurabh’s young sports career. He felt like he wanted to escape from everyone as the idea of going to school the next day and facing his team was almost too much to handle. He knew that all would blame him for not taking the leader's role seriously and instead of being overconfident and smug.

The next day when he went to the school, he saw that some of his teammates were a little dejected, but they had no complaints against him, they discussed the game and everyone went on with their schedule as usual. Most importantly, his instructor didn’t say anything. In fact, he appreciated him and said, "Good call, Saurabh but maybe that wasn't the right time. Next time be prepared well in advance in order to not fall in a similar situation." Saurabh felt quite relieved listening to those words of acknowledgement and motivation.

He was completely stunned as his friends, team members and the instructor didn’t treat him differently. He had spent the previous night obsessing about the game and worrying about how everyone would react. He was still serving the team as the captain.

In the following years, his sports team went on to win championships and had other huge victories. For a short period, all eyes used to be on them. On that day, it hit him when his instructor called him to congratulate and said, "Achievements aren’t what really matter. Even a loser has its own winning side."

That’s when the humility scheme came in his life.

Truly said by Robin Sharma, "Mastery begins with humility".

Rectifier @ Billabong High International School, Thane
-Pallavi Harkare, Prerna Khanna, Rajeshri Mohite, Priyanka Iyer, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Kalpana Dodia

India On Track – a grassroots sports development company

They have created specialized football, basketball & badminton training and development programmes for schools in India, through the LaLiga Football Schools, NBA Basketball School and Prakash Padukone Badminton Schools. These training programmes are being set up with select institutions that share our passion and fervour for sports and development as well as inculcating a culture of a sport among young students to create healthier bodies and minds.

India On Track and Partners have created In-School and After-School training and development programme, with a comprehensive curriculum. The programme is executed during/after school hours by the IOT and partners suited to the requirements of the school. The programmes are open to students who are interested in learning football, basketball or badminton, irrespective of their abilities.

Contact:

Viraj Singh

India On Track
Mobile +91 9871513231
Landline +91.11.65950004

Award Partner-FootballFirst India's First International Football Festival a huge success!

FootballFirst Sports, in collaboration with the Bolton Wanderers Football club of England, organized a football festival, the first of its kind in India. The FootballFirst International Festival took place from 14th-20^th November at Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.

Over a thousand children from more than 100 schools, over a hundred coaches, and 20 school football teams, from across the NCR participated in the week-long festival in which coaches from Bolton Wanderers Football Club ISS, England, conducted various coaching, skill building, and scouting activities.

The festival started with a seminar, "The Football Link" initiative that focused on Indian football coaches. Over 35 coaches from Delhi attended and interacted with the coaches from Bolton Wanderers. The aim of this initiative was to grow football awareness in India, as well as to connect football enthusiasts across the country and overseas to maximize the existing football potential in India.

In addition to the seminar, the festival hosted morning and evening coaching sessions every day of the week. During the morning sessions the Bolton coaches shared valuable Premier League coaching experience with school football teams and their coaches. The team coaching sessions included Game Strategies, Team Management, and Team Attacking and Defending Principles. During the evening sessions that followed, the Bolton coaches conducted individual skills sessions to help the participating children develop and improve their technical, tactical, physical and psychological football skills.

During the course of the festival, the top football talent across Delhi took skill evaluation tests. The Bolton coaches evaluated each player’s football skills based on international scouting techniques, and provided assessment and feedback on ways to build upon strengths and shortcomings. From this select group, 9 senior players and 7 junior players were invited by the English coaches to take part in the Grand Skills Test in England.

The Bolton coaches also spent a day scouting players from the Finals of the F³ (FootballFirst Futsal) tournament, the largest cage football tournament in India, with over a hundred teams competing over the course of 4 weeks to reach the finals.

The festival ended with a fiesta in which more than 150 children participated in various fun football drills in a carnival-like atmosphere. 30 children from the Salaam Balaak NGO also attended and had an opportunity to interact with the Bolton coaches and take part in the festivities. 

The Festival was a mega success and the feedback and response from the participating children, parents, coaches and schools was really good. The festival lived up to its spirit of creating a fun and interactive environment in which football coaches, parents and budding football players were able to experience an international perspective on football.

 

Football First "Kickoff to a healthy lifestyle"- Introducing new Award Partners

Today's young people face a challenge of staying physically fit in an era where technology has taken over with Wiis, PlayStations and other virtual games. With the mission to build character and develop skills, by getting young people to be outside, getting dirty (literally) through football training, a team of four leaders comprising of seasoned professionals and footballers conceived FootballFirst.

Their individual, school and league coaching programmes provide young footballers a fun environment to learn important life-skills, improve their skills through intensive coaching and match plays. FootballFirst strongly believes that team sports like football allow young people to learn social skills, deal with challenges, encourages them to take leadership roles within society, are a fun way for them to learn values and lessons of life, and most importantly helo young people to be well-rounded, confident and active individuals. Studies have even shown that participating in team sports improve the learning capabilities and performance of young people in schools in addition to instilling a drive to succeed at all times.

Using the latest international techniques customised to fit Indian needs, their programmes span over 9 months of the year, providing 60 or 90-minute lessons 2-3 times a week. The groups are small to provide individual training and guidance and through a league system, they ensure that every young person gets playtime regardless of their skill-level. FootballFirst are committed to implementing a quality, healthy and pleasurable football programme for all young people through partnerships with schools and other organisation.

The FootballFirst team

• Chetan Mishra- an Economics/Engineering from Georgia Tech (USA), a footballer since a pre-teen and now pursuing International Coaching Course from Liverpool Football Club, England
• Jeyadev Parthasarthy- An entrepreneurial and senior corporate management specialist with over 20 years of experience in design, building and leading complex public and private organizations. Has played football for the Delhi Soccer League, Durand and DCM Cups.
  
• Bikram Singh Thockchom- With over 20 years of experience in Advertising and Sports
  Management, has managed Bhaichung Bhutia (current captain of the Indian football team) while
  working for IMG. As a qualified Youth Football Coach by AIFF (for youth up to 16 years) and India Advisor-Coerver Coaching India, he has has coached over 10,000 school level footballers in India and overseas.
  

- Information has been taken from the FootballFirst Booklet