Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir Directorate of Youth Services and Sports (DYSS) on Saturday launched nine sports ‘Academies of Excellence’ at Khel Gaon here, marking a major step towards strengthening the high-performance sports ecosystem in the union territory.
Director General of Youth Services and Sports, JK, Anuradha Gupta said this marks the spectacular first phase of a visionary, UT-wide blueprint by the Directorate, which has established specialized sports clusters across JK to provide structured, elite-level training to the promising youth.
Highlighting the deep rooted vision behind these specialized hubs, she said the establishment of these ‘Academies of Excellence’ is a clear example of the department’s commitment to nurturing raw talent and building a world-class sporting ecosystem in J&K.
She said the Directorate aims to bridge the gap between passion and professional training, adding that these academies will serve as launching pads for the youth to excel at national and international arenas.
To ensure the highest standard of mentorship, the Directorate has handpicked accomplished Physical Educators from the DYSS with proven, discipline-specific expertise to lead the initial nine disciplines — Taekwondo, Athletics, Hockey, Football, Kabaddi, Volleyball, Badminton, Wrestling and Fencing.
In a major boon for the youth, the DG announced that elite-level training at these academies will be provided entirely free of cost, with the gates of these academies wide open to passionate, talented players hailing from all districts of the UT.
While the talent hunt is universal, selected players coming from outside Jammu will temporarily need to manage their own boarding and lodging, she said.
Gupta said admission will be strictly merit-based, relying on rigorous physical fitness tests and sport-specific selection criteria, while the training schedules will be dynamically tailored and approved by the Directorate based on the expert recommendations of the respective coaches.
Moving away from traditional recreation, the academies will incorporate modern, scientific training methodologies where coaches are mandated to design advanced, long term training regimes incorporating micro, and macro planning cycles, she said.
To bring transparency and modern technology into the mix, the DG said all enrolled athletes will be registered on the official DYSS portal, facilitating digital performance tracking to monitor every athlete’s growth graph.
The Directorate has also instituted an absolute accountability mechanism, creating a high-powered monitoring committee headed by the Director General herself with the Joint Director Jammu, DYSS Jammu, and Deputy Director Activities as members to conduct weekly reviews of the academies.
Under this strict framework, both the infrastructure upkeep and the performance of the coaches will be continuously evaluated, and coaches failing to deliver the expected developmental results will be replaced swiftly, an official said.
