LAHORE: The first phase of Punjab Chief Minister Talent Hunt Programme coaches training camp started here on Wednesday at Punjab Stadium under the auspices of Sports Board Punjab. In the first phase, the training process has started for 180 coaches of five games, including cricket, hockey, football, table tennis and badminton.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of coaches training camp, Director General Sports Punjab, Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghumman said the high-profile coaches training camp has been launched to raise the standard of sports coaching in the province. “We can’t produce world class sports stars without having properly trained coaches. After getting training under thoroughly professional coaches, our sportsmen can offer reasonable performances in international sports competitions,” he added.Ghumman further said that 10 to 12 years age is the right time to pick youngsters for grooming. “Only fully-trained and professional coaches can provide proper guidance to talented youngsters,” he explained.
He informed that a consultant will be deputed in every district of Punjab province. “These consultants will pick the potential players from their respective districts. Sports Board Punjab will organize sports competitions among those young players at district, divisional and then
at provincial level. In this way we will be able to discover genuine talented players who will put up encouraging performances in international sports tournaments in near future,” he elaborated.
In the initial stage of coaches training camp, various sports legends and expert trainers are giving training to 36 coaches each of five games – cricket, hockey, football, table tennis and badminton.
According to schedule, the training camp of cricket coaches started at Sports Board Punjab Conference Room No. 2, the hockey camp began at Punjab International Swimming Complex, football camp at Punjab Football Stadium, badminton and table tennis camps started at Tennis Stadium Nishtar Park Sports Complex.
On the opening day, Director Sports Muhammad Anees Sheikh, Dr Asad Abbas, Shamsa Hashmi, Salman Iqbal Butt, Maj Azhar Arif and other experts delivered lectures on important topics like sports injuries, sports nutrition, doping, vigilance, anti-corruption and psychology etc.
