For many aspiring athletes in India, one of the biggest obstacles they face that stands in the way of fulfilling their dreams is the lack of opportunities and infrastructure. In order to truly become a sporting nation, having a pathway for those wishing to make a career in sports is an integral first step towards a larger picture.
In this exclusive interview with SPOGO, Mr. Jay Jhaveri, Founder of Sportsfort speaks about what inspired to start his venture, the Indian sporting ecosystem, impact of COVID-19 on the industry, building a better community through Sportsfort’s initiatives and his long term goals.
Q 1) As the founder of Sportsfort, what inspired you to create opportunities and a structured pathway for junior players and adults so that they can go on to achieve big things in the sports industry?
What inspired me was to create opportunities because I have been an avid sports person and adventurer all my life, in my personal experience I have seen that there was always a scarcity of opportunities in sports. When I got into the sports industry my main focus was always to create opportunities and those opportunities would include a very scientific well structured coaching program with certified coaches and also having a platform for participants to compete in.
Q 2) According to you, what does the Indian sporting ecosystem lack at the grassroots to become a sporting nation? What can be done to rectify those issues?
The biggest thing we lack in India is infrastructure, basically if the venue to play any sports is developed it becomes difficult to take up that sport, of course there are cricket and football grounds in India but even in that aspect we need more grounds, and if you see the other sports they severely lack infrastructure. If you see in terms of popularity, Badminton is the third most popular sport in India because of PV Sindhu and Sania Nehwal, so over the past years a lot of badminton courts have come up but then again they are still not enough. I think we need to have an oversupply of sports infrastructure so that people start playing more sports and create an impact on the sporting Industry.
Q 3) What are some of the challenges that you have faced as the owner of Sportsfort? How did you overcome them?
In all honesty, I haven’t faced too many challenges but maybe I have somewhat faced shortage of certain aspects like manpower, centres to fit the programs in and infrastructure. I would like to think that the business in itself has not had too much impact. For me personally it has been smooth sailing, barring the pandemic I would say.
Q 4) How has COVID-19 impacted the various sports academies and sports travel organized by Sportsfort? How did the organization adapt to the pandemic?
The sporting industry has taken a hit due to the pandemic; it was an absolute collapse as everything was at a standstill. People have lost jobs, businesses have closed down and even educational institutions have been shut down. Manpower, recruitment and Human resources have also been affected alongside sports travel. This has been the only challenge I have faced after being in the sports industry for the past 10 years.
Q 5) How is Sportsfort focusing on not just creating better athletes but a better community through its various initiatives?
All of my programs have two structures which are common in all the academies. One is to have a holistic development curriculum which includes fitness programs, physiotherapy, nutrition counselling, injury prevention, rehabilitation, mind management and sports psychology. We have different expertise come in to help each and every athlete, we not only make the other athletes progress in their career but it creates a community where there is always a person to go to in the aspect of sports.
The second structure is a progressive program where we work with 3, 4 year olds. We create a toddlers program which takes them to the next level as a beginner, intermediate, advanced and to the elite advanced level. In this journey from being toddlers to reaching the elite advanced level, there are various types of coaching involved. Each level will have separate coaches who will only teach at a certain level and this journey for the athlete will again help them in knowing people and expand the community.
Q 6) What are your long term goals with Sportsfort and how do you plan to accomplish them?
We would like to have as many sports as possible with respect to coaching and also to expand Sportsfort across states and cities by putting up centres. Expanding is the only way we will be able to provide opportunities by reaching tier 2 and tier 3 cities which are at the grassroot level. In short, my aim is to make sports accessible to all.
