Page 61 - Reliance Foundation Annual Report 2020-21

52 Reliance Foundation Annual Report 2020-21 53

Reliance Foundation Youth Sports: revolutionising
grassroots sports in India

The session was full of enthusiastic coaches and the level of interaction was Development Sports for
rfyouthsports.com
The Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) programme is currently in its fifth year. 90+ lakh children very encouraging as they chose to be a part of the discussion rather than
RFYS aims to make a transformational, long-term impact on the sporting ecosystem across 10,000 schools just listen to what the educator had to offer. With this kind of initiative, we will
with a special focus on the school and college ecosystem. Through its initiatives, RFYS definitely see more coaches enrolling themselves to upgrade their knowledge
seeks to enable opportunities for kids across the country to chase their dreams of and colleges and, in this process, we will have more coaches getting into grassroots level
achieving sporting glory. Reached through RFYS football. We can then reach out to more children and start training them
During FY 2020-21, RFYS conducted 8 Digital workshops in association with the Programme since inception early on.
Association of India Football Coaches (AIFC) and 30+ virtual sessions focused on
fitness, nutrition, well-being of athletes and identifying opportunities for growth in 250 coaches Gumpe Rime
football. These programmes were conducted for athletes and coaches in partnership Former Indian footballer and goal-keeping coach
with Indian Super League (ISL) clubs, National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), sports Trained under the digital
science specialists from the Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital and the UK Elite workshops
Sports Group (UKESG) among others, attracting more than 4,000 participants.

Teaching the teachers

RFYS-AIFC online workshops in Vijayan, and Naushad Moosa, Bengaluru
FY 2020-21 got a thumbs-up from FC manager. Thangboi Singto, Assistant
football coaches. Reliance Foundation Coach and Technical Director at
Youth Sports (RFYS) conducted a Hyderabad FC, and Sanjoy Sen, Director
series of four online workshops in of AIFC also conducted sessions.
association with the Association of Among the experts who conducted the
Indian Football Coaches (AIFC) over sessions were Gumpe Rime, a former
the month of January 2021. Coaches Indian footballer and goal-keeping coach
from the East, South, North and West at RFYC academy in Navi Mumbai, and
Zones, who participated in the sessions Shailesh Karkera, who has worked earlier
spread over three days, were provided with Dempo Sports Club as senior team
the opportunity to upskill by qualified manager and grassroots coordinator.
experts. The coaches believe that such sessions
will be of great use to deepen the
A total of 119 coaches from football
institutes, schools and colleges, were knowledge base of many young coaches.
provided deep insight into varied With footballing activities on the ground
areas – expected code of conduct, yet to resume completely across India
how to impart life skills to their wards, due to the ongoing challenges posed by
intricacies of player scouting, planning the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative
training sessions and how to protect was in line with RFYS’s objective to have
children under their watch from physical, a positive impact on the ecosystem
emotional, psychological, sexual and through skill enhancement of physical
financial exploitation and others. education (PE) teachers, infrastructure
upgrades and community engagement
Among the guest speakers, who programmes.
shared their experience, were former
international footballers such as Raman

RFYS is one of the major stakeholders in
Indian football today and being so widely
involved in the grassroots, it will definitely
be beneficial if we start having more such
conversations to drive the development of
Indian football.
Shailesh Karkera
Senior Team Manager
Coach Surmala Chanu of Nilmani English School, Imphal, briefing her team during halftime at the RFYS Football Tournament 2020
(National Finals Match, School Girls category) played between Nilmani English School, Imphal and St. Joseph's International School,
Hisar at RCP Ground, Mumbai on 5 January 2020