UAE National Olympic Academy concludes School Olympic Programme courses

Dubai: The UAE National Olympic Academy has concluded a series of training courses for coaches of the School Olympic Programme.

The courses, held from August 9 to 20, were conducted via remote video technology and were all coordinated by personnel from the Ministry of Education and the UAE Schools Sports Federation.

The specialist courses included judo, taekwondo, swimming, fencing, archery, athletics and badminton. More than 500 participants took part in the training sessions including teachers and coaches from the UAE Ministry of Education.

The sessions discussed scientific means of identifying and selecting elite sports talents and how to nurture and polish their skills up to the required physical and technical standards.

The instructors stressed the importance of designing and preparing scientific training programmes tailored to the capabilities of athletes as well as the forecasting of technical preparations and the improved competitiveness in future.

The instructors believe that the selection of gifted athletes hinges on the scientific methods in use, which must include the two main aspects of the analysis of performance requirements of the specialist sports activity and the identification of the characteristics of top potential athletes.

The fencing course discussed the basic difference in the training of various age groups and the role of the coach before, during and after the sports events.

The swimming course discussed the safe resumption of the sport, given the COVID-19 pandemic along with the measures that ought to be taken by sports facilities. It also focused on the need of communicating the instructions for the opening of the facility to all visitors via social media, e-messages, posters at the entry points and notifications.

The badminton course highlighted the importance of empowering instructors to give a positive image of the sport, planning safe and enjoyable lessons, ensuring the successful experience of children, and meeting the objectives of physical education through the game.

It also tackled the vision of the international federation to make it the favourite sport in schools. The course reviewed reports about the spread of the sport in 75 countries involving 600 coaches and publications in 15 languages.