We conducted a 10-day S&C workshop for the footballers, in which our fitness expert, Darshan Karekar, collaborated with coaches to work on their training program.

The workshop aimed to train athletes and coaches on the new modules for increasing athletes' strength and stamina.

We conducted a high-performance workshop for the elite athletes of our partner academy Khelo Rugby between March 28 to April 1 under the supervision of expert coach Suraj Veer. The workshop included battery testing and profiling, preseason and mid-season rugby programming, and intense gym sessions.

The workshop also focused on individual programming for each athlete and provided invaluable feedback to help them achieve their goals. We're so grateful to have been a part of this experience and can't wait to see our athletes excel on the field.

I8 athletes from the academy won medals at the state- level competitions.

National Traditional Wrestling and Pankration Competition 2023 was held at Shirdi from January 19 to Jan 22, 2023. The academy players, performed brilliantly during the competition, winning 13 Gold, 9 Silver, and 6 Bronze medals and capturing the Championship title. 

Medal Winners :

Rohit Shinde Gold -3

Aditya Shinde Gold - 2 Silver -1

Shreyash Kale Silver - 1 Bronze -1

Kunal Jadhav Gold -1 Silver -1

Manoj Rathod Silver -2 Bronze -1

Anushka Garde Gold -2 Bronze -1

Kartiki Diwas Silver -2 Bronze -1

Samiksha Diwas Gold -1 Silver -1Bronze -1

Rutuja Dhuke Gold -3

Shivani Suryavanshi Gold -1 Silver -1 Bronze -1

Indapur Taluka Judo Karate Sport Academy won first place in the 11th Pune District Traditional Wrestling Ajinkyapad Competition 2023, held on 7th and 8th January 2023 at Hadapsar Pune. 

The selected shuttlers will be provided world-class training under experienced coaches, an international standard facility, sports science support, and tournament exposure.

The program kicked off in January, when the existing pre-selected athletes are undergoing training. At present, 15 athletes are part of the program. A selection trial is scheduled to take place in April 2023, followed by an official announcement of the program. 

We are providing education scholarships for deserving girl athletes from marginalized backgrounds to assist them in pursuing their academic goals while pursuing their athletic dreams. The beneficiary will receive 3000 INR monthly as part of the scholarship

Through this program, we hope to provide motivation and inspiration to athletes and their communities so that they can continue to pursue their dreams in sports and education.

Saneeth Dayanand

Won Bronze in the All India University tournament representing Jain University. 

Won Bronze medal in All India Championships tournament at Pune, representing Karnataka state.

In the same event, Saneeth won against Pranoy H.S and Saneeth lost to Kidambi Srikanth in the pre-quarters .

Saneeth's performance over a year ago has been excellent, with his current all-India ranking at 19 over his 56 previous rankings.

Sandhya Rai

Sandhya got selected for the national camp to represent India at the Borneo tournament in Malaysia. Team India lost to tournament champions New Zealand in the semi-finals.

At AIU University, Sandhya represented LPU which lost in the quarter-finals to the champions Patliputra University.

Rujula Ramu

Won Silver at the National Championships held in Bhuvaneshwar in the singles U- 19 categories and got selected for the national camp for Dutch Jr international and German Jr 2023.

Won Bronze at the national championships held in Bhuvaneshwar in the singles U -17 category. 

This quarter was a lot of exciting work for the Simply Periods team. We travelled the length and breadth of the country doing our workshops for athletes and coaches. Through the workshops, we interacted with girls and coaches and understood their struggles in the health and performance space first-hand. These workshops have helped us effectively build new content and understand the gaps in the knowledge in the grassroots ecosystem beyond menstruation.

We did workshops with more than 15 academies/organisations, that included the Indian Navy, Sports Authority of India- Diploma course for sports coaching, Brahmaputra Volleyball League, Mann Deshi Foundation, Oscar Foundation, and Padukone Sports Management, amongst others. This quarter we also built an online  community of coaches and athletes of over 400 participants. We use this community to share information, resources, and tools and to keep the conversation going. 

We had an Instagram live with a young Hockey NIS Diploma coach from SAI Bengaluru Mr. Pulkit originally, from Haryana. He told us about his journey as a grassroots athlete almost playing the inter state tournaments and how he wants to give back to his community and facilitate the development of hockey in Haryana, especially with Female athletes. He also mentioned how helpful the workshop was, as he was the part of first workshop cohort.

 

The journey and observations of Ms. Haritha from Anantpur Sports Academy's grassroots cricket athlete.
 

IOC-certified Sports Nutritionist Geetha Ghaliyavar talking on how to manage Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) with a good nutrition plan.

Understand the pelvic floor dysfunction in female athletes and how it relates to the sport will be presented by DR Adithi Nair Masters's in Women's Health Physiotherapy from Manipal University has spent the last three years working and leading a team of physiotherapists at Jogoclinic.
 

 
World NGO day celebration 

We celebrated with our partner academies on World NGO Day by donating sports kits to Aahan Foundation. We also conducted a fun strength and conditioning session for the students of the Mrida Foundation for Education and Welfare. We broadcast a panel discussion on "Challenges faced by Sports NGOs" live on LinkedIn. The theme this year revolves around “the role and influence of NGOs in advancing human rights and achieving sustainable development goals”. The panellists for the session are Paul Walsh MBE, founder of Jungle Crows,  Priya Nadkarni, founder of Mrida education and welfare org; Abhijit Bhattacharya, Founder of Bhramaputra Volleyball league Sujata Sen, CEO of Future hope, Suheim Sheikh founder Yacht club of Hyderabad. Panellists discussed barriers in the ecosystem and the need for a change in social sector development to achieve sustainability and individual organisation objectives.

LinkedIn live on world NGO day

We did a fundraising event to celebrate women's day with Playo through an interactive webinar- The Power of a Women’s body in sports. The session was very well received by the participants.

Women's Day celebration

One of our core values at Simply Sport is equality; hence we ensure to honor, recognize and celebrate the strength, resilience, and accomplishments of Women in our ecosystem. As part of Women's day 2023, we celebrated the women employees and their contribution to the organisation and its growth.
 

Meet our 24-year-old consultant football coach at our partner Aahan Foundation, Mr. Paras Karmali from Ranchi, Jharkhand. Paras started his footballing career at the age of 14, later picked up the sport well, and went on to play at the district-level. His passion and love for the sport made him choose coaching as a career. Paras started his coaching career with YUVA Foundation and later got his coaching certifications. Currently, he is an AIFF C licensed coach and he is preparing to get his AIFF B license exams.

Talking about his experience working with the girls from the underprivileged region affected by children trafficking and naxals, Paras said, "It's a humbling experience to work with girls of Aahan as they were very passionate about learning the sport, and the kids were very respectful and obedient." Working with them, he didn't face any issues as the girls used to travel from their homes to the ground on time, and that also motivated him to travel 50kms for the girls in the morning. He hasn't missed even a single session, regardless of weather or other impeding regional conditions. He has taken 67 sessions and two technical assessments for the girl. 

For Paras seeing kids participate in their first-ever game outside their community was a very proud moment. He saw how the girls showed enthusiasm and energy throughout the tournament regardless of their results, post their outing, they were more positive and looking forward to practicing more and coming back to win the tournament. Working with a young bunch of community children helped him learn more about the tribal communities and gain more technical skills that he can apply in his career.

Opportunities like these to work with underprivileged and said how the project helped his career. He acknowledged the support he received from the stakeholders for this program which motivates him to work harder and achieve more for sports development, and that adds to his experience as a coach. Now he's a stronger believer that he can go on to achieve bigger things as a football coach and contribute more the sport and the region. 

Riya George is presently pursuing her Master's in Social Work with an emphasis on Human Resources Development and Management from Christ University Bangalore. She constantly strives for progress on both a personal and professional level because she wants to change the world. She aspires to be a successful social worker and entrepreneur.

Subramani A S is a Christ University postgraduate student. He is pursuing a master's degree in social work with a focus ion human resource development management. Subramani has high aspirations for the growth of his HRM profession. He volunteers as the programme coordinator at Dreams Project and has an interest in social work.

Maarisha Amogha has joined SSF as a sports psychologist. She holds a master's degree in Counselling psychology and is a certified sports psychologist. She aims to work on the athlete's well-being both on and off the field and provide the support they need. She is very person-centred in her approach and recognises that the same approach will not work for everyone, and she wants to create an individually tailored plan of action for each athlete, whether it's an individual or team sport.

Open and honest communication is very important to her, and it goes a long way in making strategies more effective., especially while involving families and coaches and the immediate support system.

She's a mum to an adorable & amazing 7yr old, absolutely loves dogs, piping hot cups of chai, reading, and anything nature related.

Vedashree Bhat is pursuing a Master's in Sports Nutrition. She is passionate about health, food, nutrition, fitness and sports. She believes in supporting athletes to attain optimum nutrition for performance and overall health. Along with nutrition, she is interested in exercise physiology, biochemistry and biomechanics. She used to practice the Long jump and High jump and now recreationally plays badminton. She also likes doodling, reading and painting.

Sourabha G has joined SSF as a digital marketing specialist. With a keen interest in creating, curating, and developing the marketing vertical of SSF, her domain of expertise includes advertising, social media, and digital marketing. She holds a master's in finance and is quite passionate about constantly being updated about the new-age trends and analytics of digital marketing. She always believes in being dynamic and adapting to change, as marketing is always agile and yet creative at the same time. She is passionate about travelling, and a connoisseur of music and she is the volleyball university and sate palayer.

Sandhya Rai

Rugby Player