Man on a ‘mission’ to make sport a part of curriculum for school students

The first branch was opened in Bengaluru and Viswanathan felt it had to be brought to the city because though schools and coaching centres have encouraged different kinds of sport for quite some time, the parents often prefer if children focus more on academics.

His team wishes to change this by bringing about awareness on playing a game as a form of exercise. “We have designed a curriculum for sport, just like any other subject might have, to methodically teach a child the theory and practical of any sport such as football, cricket, basketball, badminton, tennis, volleyball, swimming, track and field,” he added.

According to him, sport is a science that has to be taught using certain tools and techniques for a child to be able to understand it better. Their approach consists of many components such as theory sessions through visual aids, reporting the progress of the child with the parents through a mobile app, coaching the PE trainers in school to impart systematic sport education and more.

Health and nutrition are another important aspect of the curriculum that Viswanathan has proposed — this will include assessing a student’s health and physique and laying out a diet chart. “Even around 10 years ago, children used to get a lot of physical activity by default because they would walk/cycle to school, play a game after school hours and eat healthy food. These days, because parents lead a hectic or sedentary lifestyle or encourage the use of gadgets for long periods of time, the wards’ health takes a hit. We aim to educate the parents and child about the importance of physical activity,” he remarked.

Badminton champion PV Sindhu, who was also present at the event, stressed on the importance of using sport to improve the overall wellness of every child. “Firstly, reaching out to schools enables children and parents to wholeheartedly include sport as part of the curriculum. Teaching youngsters the theory of how to play and helping them apply it on the field is a great idea because it creates a strong foundation in the formative years,” she said. “At the same time, simply creating champions is not enough — every parent needs to enroll the child in a physical activity to improve his/her overall wellness, personality and character development. This can go a long way in assisting them to overcome stress, build team spirit and become a better team player,” said the 23-year-old.