Swimming Federation of India webinars focus on developing training strategies and techniques

NEW DELHI: The Swimming Federation of India on Sunday conducted back-to-back webinars with the first one focussing on developing a winning mindset and specifically targeting swimmers and parents. The second webinar was for Indian coaches which emphasised on strategies and techniques for resuming training effectively and efficiently.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had permitted competitive training starting October 15 and swimmers across select states that have resumed activities have been slowly but steady getting back to the sport. The webinars were conducted by Wayne Goldsmith, managing director of Moregold Sports.

He is one of the most sought-after speakers globally on development of swimming, coaches' education for transforming how coaching is delivered for success of young athletes. The first session covered important aspects such as striking a balance between competitive swimming and education.

It also explained the importance of mental training in every session, role of parents in swimming, how parents can help their child to realise their potential, and how parenting impacts the child's success in sport, school and in life.

"My mother followed the entire webinar and I was tuned in for the most part of the Q&A where some very interesting questions on mental training, balancing studies and swimming etc was being asked," said Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj who has successfully clocked the B Qualifying time for Tokyo Olympics.

"Wayne focused a lot on the importance of guiding the child into becoming a good athlete and how it's important for parents to allow the child to have their freedom and to leave it up to the coach and the swimmer which I personally feel is quite critical," he added.

Speaking about the initiative, Monal Chokshi, secretary general of Swimming Federation of India said, "Parents and coaches are the key to development of swimmers in their journey towards elite level participation."

"Our intention is to bring them global best practices and insights for the betterment of our sport. The knowledge partnership with Wayne Goldsmith is expected to deliver on this over the next few years. The programme is being received well and appreciated by all and that is encouraging," he added.