Sports Culture : Pandemic Positive

A new academic year is here, leaving us with a list of things we would have done had the campus been open. A fitting tribute to the bygones would be to turn the lens on something that has been talked about more and more during these trying times. Through this piece, we review and analyse the incumbent sports culture to take a look at what the future holds for it in the institute and how the council has adapted to the new online regime.

With a year and more of working from home, we have witnessed significant changes in the institute’s sports conditions. Though all sports events are virtual and lack the same vigour as that of an offline one, yet the situation is deemed to have its own upsides. The Games and Sports council has conducted a range of events throughout the span of time to keep the student community healthy and foster sports enthusiasm among all.

The team is currently operating Fit India Freedom Run, a seven-week long initiative involving the institute coaches to guide and train students through multiple domains of fitness sports. The initiative to organize Ranbhoomi, an inter hall tournament for the UG and PG freshers, covering competitive events of a majority of sports, provided a platform for students to showcase skills and embark on to be a part of the teams. The Adventure Club recently hosted the Never Ending Adventure 2.0 training workshop consisting of live workout, boxing and yoga sessions. The council also conducted live Zumba sessions spread over two weeks for fun-laden fitness interactions. Besides, a number of events and talks were organized to accentuate both mental and physical fitness strategies as a part of the Win India campaign.  

As a current point of concern, in order to revive the intensity of training after returning to campus, it is important that the council starts reaching out to new prospective students now. Anshika Chaudhary, the current General Secretary of the Games and Sports council, in this regard, remarks,

“We are trying to ensure a basic level of fitness for the new members by practising in-home exercises so that they don’t have to spend most of their time regaining their fitness and rather work on improving their skills. Also, people are now consciously making time to take care of their bodies and mind and stay healthy.”

The biggest takeaway from the pandemic has been the increasing awareness about the importance of health and fitness. Like they say, it is darkest before dawn, the increased concern will spill over to the offline shift and people will engage more consciously in physical activity through games and sports on campus. It has also led to an explosive interest in e-gaming among the students as they find this to be one of the few fun and social activities that they can engage in with friends.

The council is now taking measures to help the people with their physical and mental fitness during the pandemic. Talks on mental health, yoga, meditation activities along with live online workout sessions are aiding the interested people in upping their health game. When enquired about the possible gap in the continuity of the sports performance among the teams, we receive,

“The passing out of the most experienced players will indeed have an effect on the teams, but this gap will prevail among all IITs. Given the fierce competition, it is imperative to connect with the new batches as they will comprise the majority of the team members. There will be a step-by-step process to welcome new students. A camp will be conducted for the upcoming batch students after they reach campus to initiate them into the practice and training sessions of the different teams, clubs and societies.”

The council currently upholds regular interactions and competitions to keep the members motivated and preserve their pride and identity in their activity. Teams are having farewells, meetings and virtual workout sessions, however, the council does acknowledge the difficulty in operation. Regarding the new challenges faced online, this stands as the right time to get new ideas and approaches to try out things. The team is parallelly working to encourage sports startups and technology to make students cognizant of such career opportunities, given that they are gaining traction in India. The current team is now also focussing on making the council structure more inclusive to bring increased involvement of PGs and women representatives.

In conversation with the Ex-General Secretary, Soumarup Bhattacharyya, we delved into the uncertainty the council faced after the lockdown. Although the break was inevitable, the team started organising esports tournaments to revive the activities, which received a huge response and eventually resulted in an esports society today. It was one of the positives of lockdown and the first time an initiative involving more than 100 applicants for society leaders and secretaries was instigated, with Deepak Kumar, the former Associate Head Teams, playing a huge role in promoting and popularizing it to varied grounds. But keeping in mind the possible repercussions, the number of tournaments was restricted to 1 per E-game so that any addiction isn’t encouraged. They then focussed on updating all social media accounts to also recognize the Inter-IIT players through these public platforms. The website was revamped and infrastructural upgrades were done when the postgraduates were on the campus. The council helped rebuild the gym with new equipment using a budget of 12 lakhs as funded by DORA.

In this regard, he also commends the efforts and initiatives of the past General Secretary, Jaspreet Singh, and the then Associate Head, Neelakshi Shaku, for building up a strong foundation of the council. As a message to the aspiring sportspersons on campus, he adds,

“I will ask the people to remain focussed in their academics, ensure physical and mental wellness, and not get swayed by their emotions and anxiety. Participate in all the fitness events and competitions conducted by the council. Stay informed about the activities of the council by inquiring regularly and staying connected.”

For Institute Teams, a whole different story emerges. Usually, an average team player has four years to develop his skill, each stage being crucial in the long run. In the first year, one gets into the rhythm of the sport after being out of touch for so long or tries his hand on a new one. The second year is when the athlete requires maximal input and effort. According to the general trend, players reach their peak in their second and third campus year and their skills fairly improve in the final years. However, this schema is disturbed now and it would require an enormous will to revive. The council has thus decided to organise regular conditioning sessions and drills along with workshops and talks to help the team members maintain their fitness and be match ready. These sessions will be open to all, thus providing aspiring candidates an overview of the functioning of the institute teams.

The Associate Head of Institute Teams, Ankul Kumar, stressed the importance of recruiting new players given the current requirement of filling in the vacancies of those passing out. But the recruitment process is strenuous in the online mode, as it is difficult to judge a player’s grasp over a particular sport without physical interaction. He commented that the pandemic has adversely affected the collective culture and rendered an added responsibility on the council and coaches to acquaint the new students with the culture and practices of each team. However, the remote working has made it easier to reach out to alumni who otherwise had to explicitly spare time to come to campus and talk to the students. After curating the necessary database, the council is planning to facilitate student-alumni interaction to pass on the sports know-how and legacy to prospective future players. 

Clubs and Societies make up an integral part of the GnS council. Most of the clubs require a physical presence on the campus to operate appropriately and their functioning has been adversely affected by the pandemic. On this concern, Shambhavi Dube, Associate Head Clubs and Societies, states that they are holding regular meetings to address the administrative issues. Besides, the focus also revolves around spreading awareness and apprising the students of the plethora of clubs and societies they can explore. In conversation with Shubham Gupta, Associate Head Events, we were informed that the team is trying to arrange various kinds of events besides the online sports activities. Some of these will even focus on the player’s fitness regime highlighting its significance and implementing it remotely. 

It is true that the pandemic has had adverse implications on the working of the council, however, best efforts are made to give way to an efficient sports culture in the institute. When it comes to games and sports, it is important that we keep going and continuing without a stop. The team bears the hope that campus reopening will stage the resumption of activities and events and infuse sports enthusiasm back again to revive the celebrated sports culture of IITK. This prospect provides the spectrum of a healthy lifestyle with physical and mental well being, today and beyond. 

Writing – Pradeep Suresh, Ritam Jana

Editing – Ananya Gupta, Aryan Pandeya, Astha Pant

Graphics – Vijay Bharadwaj, Raj Varshith Moora