Improving the skills in sports

Abhinav and Chetan discover a need from their own sporting experience to develop an application aimed at noting sports performance across the board

- Namita Shibad

PUNE: While sports play a vital role in the development of a child; it helps physical, emotional and mental well-being, it is unfortunately often neglected and dispensed with a rudimentary physical training class or a basic "games/sports" coach.

And perhaps this callous disregard over generations had, until a few years back, restricted our country's potential performance in international sporting events.

It is only after a few initiatives such as Olympic Gold Quest, Fit India and the like that we awoke to the importance of sports and fitness in our lives.

But for Abhinav Sinha, who had trained to be a lawyer, sports had a special calling. "I had worked with a hedge fund for a year, but since I was a passionate squash player I felt more inclined towards the sport," he said.

Passionate enough to give up his job, and start his own squash training academy, the Rolling Nicks in Pune in 2011.

At the academy, Abhinav noticed that not enough information was available to students and parents alike regarding their progress in the game.

"I had worked abroad and whilst there I noticed that sport coaches would generally make a record of their students' progress on Excel sheets. But back in India schools had nothing to give to parents and their own students by way of a report card.

"All students get report cards on their students. How well, badly they are faring in all their subjects. But does any school give a report card on how the student is doing in his or her chosen sport? Do parents, teachers even students know if, say, their swing, backhand, footwork in say a game like tennis is improving from the last quarter? Is there any record? Unfortunately, no," he said.

And, according to the co-founders—Abhinav and Chetan Desai—of sportstech startup SportsSkill, this data is vital for any sportsperson.