ISLAMABAD, OCTOBER 2 /DNA/ – Making sport better “Our footballs have reached the FIFA World Cup, it’s about time our footballers made it there too.” Pakistan also has tremendous talent; Despite the lack of facilities and opportunities, our athletes have outperformed tough competitors.
These views were expressed during a webinar on sport and society in Islamabad, conducted by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Speakers included Dr. Ameer Ali Abro from Sindh University, Mr. Nasrullah Rana, a fitness trainer and expert from the Pakistan Strength and Conditioning Association, and MR. Shan Muhammad Sham represented the Pakistan National Karate Team from 1999 to 2004 and was the coach of the Pakistan Wada Karate Team.
According to PIDE’s press release, the main topic of discussion was the attitude of Pakistani society towards health, fitness and sport. As a society, we are not aware of preventive healthcare, nor do we appreciate the importance of physical health. In the modern world where technology has replaced and shaped many things, one of them is a lack of physical activity. From pizza delivery to shopping, every aspect of our lives is impacted by technology. But as much as technology has brought positive things, it has also brought some undesirable side effects. The most important of these is that gadgets have somewhat replaced physical sports with e-entertainment. There was a time when the young schoolboys would fetch their badminton racquet or cricket racquet and ball at every opportunity. Street cricket and street football were a common sight in the evenings. But now that physical activity has been replaced by pub-g, you don’t have to hunt for food, you can order it through apps; even doctors are available for online services.
While technology might be a factor, the mindset of Pakistani society has been responsible for the lack of attention to physical fitness. Nasrullah Rana went into detail about the mentality of his parents as he had experienced it during his career as a coach. “parents think there is a trade-off between physical health and education” was a complaint he often had to deal with as a coach. Rana emphasized the importance of sport in maintaining physical, mental and cognitive health. Sport is even used as a therapeutic practice in some countries. The experienced trainer emphasized how important it is to sensitize parents and school administration to the importance of sport.
dr Ameer Ali Abro continued the healing aspect of sport and presented his research on sport and society. The study by Dr. Abro focused on using sport as a method to counter extremism and it had the effect of uniting diverse groups and promoting tolerance. The professor spoke at length about the positive effects of sport on young people. He reported on the results of his study that sport could be used as a tool to bring unity to a heterogeneous and diverse society.
However, athletics is a profession. A professional athlete must overcome many barriers before stepping onto the field to train. Therefore, the opportunity cost to the athlete is very high. This justifies research that lets us find ways to help our athletes. The karate coach said this from his personal experience as an athlete and coach in this field.
The webinar ended with closing comments from Fida Muhammad Khan from the PIDE School of Social Sciences, who said Pakistan has tremendous talent and despite the lack of facilities and opportunities, our athletes have outperformed tough competitors. We as research institutions should find ways to solve the problems of the sports industry in the country. Our football has reached FIFA; It is time that we as a research institute try to find a solution on how our footballers will reach the FIFA World Cup.
