Next Step Ahead Basketball Officials Camp: Fill & Download for Free

Michael JordanBorn in Brooklyn, New York, Michael Jordan spent his early years in a rollicking house in rural North Carolina, surrounded by generations of family that stretched back to his great-grandfather.Jordan's stable home life remained consistent even after his immediate family moved to the city of Wilmington in the late 1960s, with parents James and Deloris establishing high academic standards and firm ground rules to keep their five children out of trouble.It was James, a maintenance worker turned supervisor at General Electric, who introduced Jordan to his first athletic love, baseball, and built a basketball court in the backyard (and also reportedly inspired Jordan's notorious tongue wag with his own facial contortions).However, companions recall Deloris, a bank teller, as the more forceful presence of his parents. Her strong will would later be reflected in her son's renowned drive to succeed.If the backyard court provided the canvas for Jordan to develop his basketball genius, then it was the presence of its other regular occupant that unleashed the beast of his competitive spirit. Larry Jordan was a year older, and while Michael was already taller, Larry was stronger, equally athletic, and not inclined to lose to his younger brother.The two went full steam at each other on the court every day until bedtime, with Deloris stepping in to calm the boys when things grew too heated.A determined Jordan eventually figured out how to win on a regular basis and his continuing growth widened the gap between them, but it wasn't clear who the superior athlete was before he reached that point.Noted their high school basketball coach, Pop Herring, "Larry was so driven and so competitive an athlete that if he had been 6'2" instead of 5'7", I'm sure Michael would have been known as Larry's brother instead of Larry always being known as Michael's brother."Jordan has often rehashed the popular legend that he was cut from the Laney High School varsity basketball team as a sophomore, inspiring him to work harder and get better, but that's not exactly how things went down.All basketball hopefuls tried out for coach Herring in the fall of 1978, and Jordan, along with the rest of the promising underclassmen, was assigned to the junior varsity team, with the lone exception of his friend, classmate, and rival, Leroy Smith.It's difficult to argue with the reasoning: The team was returning 14 of 15 players from the previous year, and most – like the then-5'9" Jordan – played one of the smaller guard positions. With the Buccaneers in need of a tree to block shots and rebound, it made perfect sense to select the 6'7" Smith for the final roster spot.Along with providing a jolt of motivation, the decision helped Jordan develop into a floor leader with regular playing time, and the Laney JV games soon became the hot ticket in town.Furthermore, Coach Herring showed he had Jordan's best interests at heart by personally running him through drills every day as a junior. The hard work – and a fortuitous growth spurt – turning the gangly teenager into the Laney varsity alpha dog.If there was a time when the legend of Michael Jordan took root, when teammates and onlookers began to grasp that they were witnessing a talent for the ages, it was during the summer of 1980.Invited to the annual camp run by the University of North Carolina head basketball coach Dean Smith, a showcase for the state's top players, the Wilmington boy quickly distinguished himself from the pack. UNC assistant coach Roy Williams was stunned by Jordan's combination of athleticism, quickness, intensity, and instincts.After a day of practice, he told fellow assistant Eddie Fogler, "I think I've just seen the best 6'4" high school player I've ever seen."Williams then made the rookie mistake of arranging for Jordan to attend the Five-Star Camp outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Although this one featured blue-chip basketball prospects from around the country, as opposed to the smaller pool in North Carolina, the 17-year-old Jordan again treated the competition like a punching bag, transforming him into a must-have college recruit.Fortunately for the Carolina brass, James and Deloris Jordan had taken to Williams and the paternal Dean Smith, influencing their son's decision to commit to UNC.After a senior season in which Laney narrowly missed out on a division title and its best player averaged a triple-double, Jordan continued to soar with a record 30 points in the McDonald's All-American Game.However, he soon experienced a welcome return to earth with his immersion in Dean Smith's program at UNC. The even-keeled Smith forged team unity by treating his stars and benchwarmers equally, and Jordan was happy to let his effort do the talking in the highly regimented practices."[Smith] was the perfect guy for me," Jordan later said. "He kept me humble, but he challenged me."As it turned out, they were perfect for each other: When Jordan coolly sank a go-ahead jump shot with 15 seconds left in the 1982 NCAA title game against Georgetown University, he gave Coach Smith his first NCAA championship.And with that first major, televised triumph, Jordan was officially on the map as a young American sports star, ready for the next steps in a career that would carry him to unprecedented heights of success and fame.

From London to Rio our journey couldn’t be called pleasing or satisfying. 2012 London games yielded 6 medals and based on that, the Indian Olympic Committee (IOC) over-confidently claimed a target of 25 to 30 medals for 2016 Rio games. A few months before the 2016 Rio games, when the Ministry of Sports in India met with the Sport Authorities of India (SAI) and other sports-related organizations, the prospective medal count was reduced to 10 to 15 medals. In reality we ended up with two medals, zero golds.We have been participating in the Olympic Games now for 96 years, the first time featuring as a nation in the 1920 Antwerp, Belgium games. Till now we have won a paltry total of 28 medals including nine gold medals (eight in hockey and one by Abhinav Bindra in shooting). Also, we have won medals in only eight types of games (field hockey, shooting, athletics, wrestling, boxing, badminton, weightlifting and tennis).Despite having the second highest population of any nation in the world and being among the top 10 nations in GDP growth, we continue to struggle on the Olympics stage in terms of medal counts compared to nations such as the following, which have less population and resources than ours:● Cuba, with a total of 219 medals so far (77 Golds)● Jamaica, with a total of 77 medals so far (23 Golds)● Ethiopia, with a total of 53 medals so far (22 Golds)● Kenya, with a total of 100 medals so far (31 Golds)Additionally, some of these countries have been participating in the Olympics for only 30 plus years.Over the years, I continue to hear the following as major reasons for our continuous failure and dismal performance at Olympics.1) Lack of Money;2) Lack of sports infrastructure and help from government;3) Prevailing corruption in agencies related with sports;4) Not so great physique of our athletes;5) General lack of respect and encouragement for sports other than cricket and athletes in society;6) Cricket is treated as a religion in India. Other sports are neglected.But before going any further, I would like to ask the following question -- how many of you take your kids to sports practice every day or on weekends? Personally as a kid, I was interested in learning swimming but my family was afraid I would drown while learning. Today, I still do not know how to swim. I am sure you may be able to relate yourself with a similar example.I have been in the US for the past 10 years and there is a lot of emphasis on sports right from the early ages. Parents are equally excited about their kid’s progress in sports and support them in every possible way, including transporting them to various sports events on weekdays and weekends, and helping them to raise the money for their events by selling food items at their games. For example, parents will cook or prepare food items at home such as cookies, cake, brownies, lemonade, iced tea, etc. and sell them at their kid’s sports event to raise the money. People will sell t-shirts and sports merchandise for local sports events to raise money. They even go to local vendors to sponsor events. Some of these local vendors provide food items at a lower price as a marketing strategy. I have also seen sometimes parents taking turns to provide food to all participating kids. This is how it is done with collective help, not relying on government all the time to provide help.By comparison, Indians spend a lot of money in our wedding ceremonies, inviting every possible acquaintance. I am sure we can spare a few bucks for sponsoring food for our kid’s sports event if we ever get interested in such a venture. Kids in the US get enough encouragement and support from their parents to pursue the sports they are interested in.Each school, college, and university has its own sports program and competes with each other as per their level to continue to promote sports in a student’s life. There is some sort of league for every kind of sport - NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.I studied in one of the best private schools in Gwalior, India, and I still remember that getting access to a table tennis table after school hours was such a hassle. In the end, I gave up playing table tennis. Currently, I live in Redlands, California, USA, a small town of approximately 72,000 people. I live nearby a private school (grade 6 to 8) and often times during my evening walk ( around 7pm) I can see that kids are playing in the school basketball court practicing hard for their upcoming intramural game. No wonder USA is number 1 in basketball in the world. For another example, I do not have to say much about Katie Ledecky (currently, one of the best swimmers in the world). She started swimming at the age of six and the rest is history. I am sure there are numerous stories like her.China really only started coming into the Olympic picture in the early 90’s. China wasn’t really known for any athletic events before that. Then things got really serious in 2001 when Beijing 2008 won the IOC bids, leading to programs like Project 119. I don’t think it’s a surprise that China does well in Olympic Games. The country has put in the time and the effort, as well as the money and the sacrifice, to get better at something it didn’t value too much before as a nation (aka sports). Beijing 2008 was a breakthrough for China, and then London 2012 and Rio 2016 showed that Beijing 2008 wasn’t a fluke.One of the big culprits is our education system; it is a mad race of who can cram a book better than others. A world class athlete, whether gymnast, or swimmer, is prepared from school age. I feel sometimes we do not have enough athletes; if they are good at their sports then they are not specialized, and if they are specialized then they are not super specialized like Olympic-level athletes have to be.The prevailing corruption in sports-related entities is also a known issue. Hockey is the prime example; we were world leaders at one time and now even struggle to qualify. There is no real league at national level to nurture the talent. If there is not enough competition at a national level, there is not enough of a pool of players. When we do not have a big pool of players, how can we get the best quality? Even the Indian Hockey League that started in 2013 is losing its shine after the initial success.Athletes who have won medals in the past have relied heavily on their personal talent, training, and pocket instead of the sports infrastructure system.Based on my research, experiences of friends and relatives, and personal observations, I would like to suggest the following:1) Change of mindset of Indian parents - To encourage the likes of Sakshi, Sindhu, Abhinav Bindra, Deepa etc. from our own families. The biggest irony is that we want a Sakshi from our neighbor’s home but not from ours. We want our kid to be another engineer or a doctor.Maybe the biggest encouragement could be the fact that you get showered with money and gifts if you end up winning a medal. Sorry, I just wanted to be sarcastic for a moment. Unless or until this mindset is changed we would not have a big pool of athletes who can then be turned into medal winners. Earlier in the answer, I also provided some examples of encouragement and support from parents in the US.2) Find the talent young and early and provide them training – Pretty much every story from an Indian athlete reveals the struggle and challenges they faced in their early age. Some ended up quitting and only the few who survived got the chance to train to the level which is needed for competing and winning at Olympic level. Abhinav Bindra, Leander Paes, etc. started very young and trained hard and failed many times before winning their Olympic medals in 2008 and 1996 respectively. Even British government used this mantra to identify a talent at a very young age as a part of their five-point program to improve their Olympic performance. Britain was number 36 in the 1996 Atlanta games and the Prime Minister John Major took some bold decisions to improve the development of sports. One of them was to use the revenue from the National Lottery system of Britain for sports development along with finding new talent young and early. Twenty years later in the 2016 Rio games, Britain came in second, even ahead of China.3) General encouragement for athletes – We Indians have the shortest memory ever and our love for other sports except for cricket only arrives every 4 years with the start of Olympic Games. It is easy to judge and pass on comments on an athlete’s performance from the comfort our couches sitting in an air conditioned room while enjoying our favorite snack. Later we also do not spare athletes from our creative tweets and Facebook posts finding humor and solace for our disappointment by criticizing their performance. We all know about Shobha De’s insensitivity displayed by her tweet.But do we think about how much effort any athlete puts in? Winning or losing is a part of game. Did we ever realize how much pressure we put on our athletes by doing such things? The least we can do for our athletes is to encourage them by appreciating their efforts and not demoralize them. Most of us were disappointed by performance of O P Jaisha in the women’s marathon event, but later on we realized that she did not even get water to drink during her race. How can we expect her to compete when her body is not even hydrated properly for a gruesome event like running a marathon?4) Mental training – A lot of games in the Olympics are won through mental wars. Sometimes it is about how you handle the pressure and turn the situation in your favor. It was evident from Women’s final game between Carolina Marin and P V Sindhu. Despite of losing the first set Carolina came back strongly to claim the match using her experience and mental strength. At times it was evident when coach Gopichand was suggesting Sindhu to keep her focus and avoid unforced errors. I have not played any professional sport but by watching you can see that certain players are mentally stronger than others. They portray a lot of confidence in their abilities, which in turn help them overcome the tricky situations in any game. Sports scientist could provide a lot of help in this area.5) Plan for a longer time – We should not be thinking about 2020 games, we should be thinking about 2024 and 2028 games and even beyond. The funds should be provide in a timely manner to athletes rather than wait for an Olympic event to be finished, waste time in post-mortem and then act in desperation and rely on prayers than performance for winning a medal. Maybe a strategy like China’s 119 plan could be adopted. Announcement of task force by our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be a step in the right direction. Hopefully this task force is not marred with our lethargic bureaucracy. Additionally, the task force should not consist of politicians and bureaucrats, but rather independent experts in the sports field and its administration, who can take decisions without any bias.6) Revamping of sport entities to reduce and remove corruption - I’m sure this change will not happen overnight, but there should be some sort of accountability. I have never seen any official resigning because of the disappointing performance of athletes taking collective responsibility for failure in fact there is lot of finger-pointing to distract attention from the real issues. I just wanted to highlight a few recent events related with 2016 Rio Olympics, which bolstered the need for revamp.● The two doctors assigned to Indian contingent in Rio were chosen based on their relationship with the officials regardless of conflict of interest. Their relationship with higher official was their qualification rather than their expertise and experience for such events. These so called ‘sports doctors’ were radiologists by training and had not been part of any camps and were virtually unknown to most athletes.● Gymnast Dipa Karmakar initially requested a physiotherapist to travel with but her request was denied by calling it wasteful; later when she was qualified for final event her request was granted.● Unavailability of Indian officials to provide water to marathon runner O P Jaisha during her event at designated stations. She ended up fading on the track and narrowly escaped death. In the aftermath a lot of finger pointing is going on, with no one coming out as accountable behind the unavailability of Indian officials to provide water to O P Jaisha at designated stations during the course of Marathon.7) Financial incentive for the athletes - For many of the Indian athletes, sports are their whole livelihood. Many of them come from poor backgrounds and, because of their dedicated sports training, received no formal education. The government provides huge financial rewards to athletes that win a medal. What you don't see is the thousands of young Indians that didn't end up making it to the Olympics with nothing to show for their hard work.8) Strategic focus on sports where other countries are weak at – This is something we have to learn from China. It specifically focused on increasing its medal hauls and looks to exploit opportunities where they could quickly surpass the rest of the world. For example, when trampoline was added as an Olympic sport in 2000, the Chinese immediately made sure to put funding and resources towards training because the level of competition was low. They won both gold medals and a bronze in men's and women's trampoline in 2008. Another example to learn from China was their strategic approach in increasing its number of women athletes’ participation. The Chinese have traditionally been stronger in women's events than they are in men's events, especially in team sports. In most countries, men's sports generally receive more attention and funding than women's. China would therefore be more easily capable of catching up and surpassing other countries through putting greater amounts of funding and resources towards women's sports.9) Foreign Expertise: The big jump China made at Beijing 2008 and beyond, had a lot to do with foreign expertise. They sourced the world for the best coaches, the best staff. When we can do the same for Cricket why not for other sports. I know for Hockey we have relied upon foreign coaches with not much of success but the foreign expertise couldn’t be taken for granted and should be explored constantly.In summary, a lot has to be done on field rather than on paper, from planning to execution, to boost chances of our athletes in future Olympic Games. My request from all of us is to at least encourage our athletes whether they win or lose. I am sure we will see better results in 2020 Tokyo and future Olympic Games.Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts. Jai Hind!Sources:http://www.hindustantimes.com/other-sports/indian-olympic-association-s-estimate-of-15-medals-at-rio-raises-eyebrows/story-Wn9xCAZn0Om6eGd2lfPuMM.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_at_the_Olympicshttps://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/15/five-factors-team-gb-olympic-success-medal-rushhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_119http://indianexpress.com/sports/rio-2016-olympics/conflict-of-interest-whiff-around-indian-medical-team-in-rio-pawandeep-singh-vinesh-phogat-injury-2982431/http://indianexpress.com/sports/rio-2016-olympics/dipa-karmakar-request-physio-wasteful-sai-gymnastics-final-medal-2967618/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37162393http://www.youngisthan.in/hockey/has-hockey-india-league-lived-up-to-its-hype/6297https://twitter.com/deshobhaa/status/762658754152325120http://olympics.messyfractals.in/rise-of-china-in-olympics/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-in-olympics-modi-forms-task-force-to-plan-for-next-three-olympics/article9037187.ecehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Ledeckyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/how-katie-ledecky-became-better-at-swimming-than-anyone-is-at-anything/2016/06/23/01933534-2f31-11e6-9b37-42985f6a265c_story.html

From London to Rio our journey couldn’t be called pleasing or satisfying. 2012 London games yielded 6 medals and based on that, the Indian Olympic Committee (IOC) over-confidently claimed a target of 25 to 30 medals for 2016 Rio games. A few months before the 2016 Rio games, when the Ministry of Sports in India met with the Sport Authorities of India (SAI) and other sports-related organizations, the prospective medal count was reduced to 10 to 15 medals. In reality we ended up with two medals, zero golds.We have been participating in the Olympic Games now for 96 years, the first time featuring as a nation in the 1920 Antwerp, Belgium games. Till now we have won a paltry total of 28 medals including nine gold medals (eight in hockey and one by Abhinav Bindra in shooting). Also, we have won medals in only eight types of games (field hockey, shooting, athletics, wrestling, boxing, badminton, weightlifting and tennis).Despite having the second highest population of any nation in the world and being among the top 10 nations in GDP growth, we continue to struggle on the Olympics stage in terms of medal counts compared to nations such as the following, which have less population and resources than ours:● Cuba, with a total of 219 medals so far (77 Golds)● Jamaica, with a total of 77 medals so far (23 Golds)● Ethiopia, with a total of 53 medals so far (22 Golds)● Kenya, with a total of 100 medals so far (31 Golds)Additionally, some of these countries have been participating in the Olympics for only 30 plus years.Over the years, I continue to hear the following as major reasons for our continuous failure and dismal performance at Olympics.1) Lack of Money;2) Lack of sports infrastructure and help from government;3) Prevailing corruption in agencies related with sports;4) Not so great physique of our athletes;5) General lack of respect and encouragement for sports other than cricket and athletes in society;6) Cricket is treated as a religion in India. Other sports are neglected.But before going any further, I would like to ask the following question -- how many of you take your kids to sports practice every day or on weekends? Personally as a kid, I was interested in learning swimming but my family was afraid I would drown while learning. Today, I still do not know how to swim. I am sure you may be able to relate yourself with a similar example.I have been in the US for the past 10 years and there is a lot of emphasis on sports right from the early ages. Parents are equally excited about their kid’s progress in sports and support them in every possible way, including transporting them to various sports events on weekdays and weekends, and helping them to raise the money for their events by selling food items at their games. For example, parents will cook or prepare food items at home such as cookies, cake, brownies, lemonade, iced tea, etc. and sell them at their kid’s sports event to raise the money. People will sell t-shirts and sports merchandise for local sports events to raise money. They even go to local vendors to sponsor events. Some of these local vendors provide food items at a lower price as a marketing strategy. I have also seen sometimes parents taking turns to provide food to all participating kids. This is how it is done with collective help, not relying on government all the time to provide help.By comparison, Indians spend a lot of money in our wedding ceremonies, inviting every possible acquaintance. I am sure we can spare a few bucks for sponsoring food for our kid’s sports event if we ever get interested in such a venture. Kids in the US get enough encouragement and support from their parents to pursue the sports they are interested in.Each school, college, and university has its own sports program and competes with each other as per their level to continue to promote sports in a student’s life. There is some sort of league for every kind of sport - NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.I studied in one of the best private schools in Gwalior, India, and I still remember that getting access to a table tennis table after school hours was such a hassle. In the end, I gave up playing table tennis. Currently, I live in Redlands, California, USA, a small town of approximately 72,000 people. I live nearby a private school (grade 6 to 8) and often times during my evening walk ( around 7pm) I can see that kids are playing in the school basketball court practicing hard for their upcoming intramural game. No wonder USA is number 1 in basketball in the world. For another example, I do not have to say much about Katie Ledecky (currently, one of the best swimmers in the world). She started swimming at the age of six and the rest is history. I am sure there are numerous stories like her.China really only started coming into the Olympic picture in the early 90’s. China wasn’t really known for any athletic events before that. Then things got really serious in 2001 when Beijing 2008 won the IOC bids, leading to programs like Project 119. I don’t think it’s a surprise that China does well in Olympic Games. The country has put in the time and the effort, as well as the money and the sacrifice, to get better at something it didn’t value too much before as a nation (aka sports). Beijing 2008 was a breakthrough for China, and then London 2012 and Rio 2016 showed that Beijing 2008 wasn’t a fluke.One of the big culprits is our education system; it is a mad race of who can cram a book better than others. A world class athlete, whether gymnast, or swimmer, is prepared from school age. I feel sometimes we do not have enough athletes; if they are good at their sports then they are not specialized, and if they are specialized then they are not super specialized like Olympic-level athletes have to be.The prevailing corruption in sports-related entities is also a known issue. Hockey is the prime example; we were world leaders at one time and now even struggle to qualify. There is no real league at national level to nurture the talent. If there is not enough competition at a national level, there is not enough of a pool of players. When we do not have a big pool of players, how can we get the best quality? Even the Indian Hockey League that started in 2013 is losing its shine after the initial success.Athletes who have won medals in the past have relied heavily on their personal talent, training, and pocket instead of the sports infrastructure system.Based on my research, experiences of friends and relatives, and personal observations, I would like to suggest the following:1) Change of mindset of Indian parents - To encourage the likes of Sakshi, Sindhu, Abhinav Bindra, Deepa etc. from our own families. The biggest irony is that we want a Sakshi from our neighbor’s home but not from ours. We want our kid to be another engineer or a doctor.Maybe the biggest encouragement could be the fact that you get showered with money and gifts if you end up winning a medal. Sorry, I just wanted to be sarcastic for a moment. Unless or until this mindset is changed we would not have a big pool of athletes who can then be turned into medal winners. Earlier in the answer, I also provided some examples of encouragement and support from parents in the US.2) Find the talent young and early and provide them training – Pretty much every story from an Indian athlete reveals the struggle and challenges they faced in their early age. Some ended up quitting and only the few who survived got the chance to train to the level which is needed for competing and winning at Olympic level. Abhinav Bindra, Leander Paes, etc. started very young and trained hard and failed many times before winning their Olympic medals in 2008 and 1996 respectively. Even British government used this mantra to identify a talent at a very young age as a part of their five-point program to improve their Olympic performance. Britain was number 36 in the 1996 Atlanta games and the Prime Minister John Major took some bold decisions to improve the development of sports. One of them was to use the revenue from the National Lottery system of Britain for sports development along with finding new talent young and early. Twenty years later in the 2016 Rio games, Britain came in second, even ahead of China.3) General encouragement for athletes – We Indians have the shortest memory ever and our love for other sports except for cricket only arrives every 4 years with the start of Olympic Games. It is easy to judge and pass on comments on an athlete’s performance from the comfort our couches sitting in an air conditioned room while enjoying our favorite snack. Later we also do not spare athletes from our creative tweets and Facebook posts finding humor and solace for our disappointment by criticizing their performance. We all know about Shobha De’s insensitivity displayed by her tweet.But do we think about how much effort any athlete puts in? Winning or losing is a part of game. Did we ever realize how much pressure we put on our athletes by doing such things? The least we can do for our athletes is to encourage them by appreciating their efforts and not demoralize them. Most of us were disappointed by performance of O P Jaisha in the women’s marathon event, but later on we realized that she did not even get water to drink during her race. How can we expect her to compete when her body is not even hydrated properly for a gruesome event like running a marathon?4) Mental training – A lot of games in the Olympics are won through mental wars. Sometimes it is about how you handle the pressure and turn the situation in your favor. It was evident from Women’s final game between Carolina Marin and P V Sindhu. Despite of losing the first set Carolina came back strongly to claim the match using her experience and mental strength. At times it was evident when coach Gopichand was suggesting Sindhu to keep her focus and avoid unforced errors. I have not played any professional sport but by watching you can see that certain players are mentally stronger than others. They portray a lot of confidence in their abilities, which in turn help them overcome the tricky situations in any game. Sports scientist could provide a lot of help in this area.5) Plan for a longer time – We should not be thinking about 2020 games, we should be thinking about 2024 and 2028 games and even beyond. The funds should be provide in a timely manner to athletes rather than wait for an Olympic event to be finished, waste time in post-mortem and then act in desperation and rely on prayers than performance for winning a medal. Maybe a strategy like China’s 119 plan could be adopted. Announcement of task force by our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be a step in the right direction. Hopefully this task force is not marred with our lethargic bureaucracy. Additionally, the task force should not consist of politicians and bureaucrats, but rather independent experts in the sports field and its administration, who can take decisions without any bias.6) Revamping of sport entities to reduce and remove corruption - I’m sure this change will not happen overnight, but there should be some sort of accountability. I have never seen any official resigning because of the disappointing performance of athletes taking collective responsibility for failure in fact there is lot of finger-pointing to distract attention from the real issues. I just wanted to highlight a few recent events related with 2016 Rio Olympics, which bolstered the need for revamp.● The two doctors assigned to Indian contingent in Rio were chosen based on their relationship with the officials regardless of conflict of interest. Their relationship with higher official was their qualification rather than their expertise and experience for such events. These so called ‘sports doctors’ were radiologists by training and had not been part of any camps and were virtually unknown to most athletes.● Gymnast Dipa Karmakar initially requested a physiotherapist to travel with but her request was denied by calling it wasteful; later when she was qualified for final event her request was granted.● Unavailability of Indian officials to provide water to marathon runner O P Jaisha during her event at designated stations. She ended up fading on the track and narrowly escaped death. In the aftermath a lot of finger pointing is going on, with no one coming out as accountable behind the unavailability of Indian officials to provide water to O P Jaisha at designated stations during the course of Marathon.7) Financial incentive for the athletes - For many of the Indian athletes, sports are their whole livelihood. Many of them come from poor backgrounds and, because of their dedicated sports training, received no formal education. The government provides huge financial rewards to athletes that win a medal. What you don't see is the thousands of young Indians that didn't end up making it to the Olympics with nothing to show for their hard work.8) Strategic focus on sports where other countries are weak at – This is something we have to learn from China. It specifically focused on increasing its medal hauls and looks to exploit opportunities where they could quickly surpass the rest of the world. For example, when trampoline was added as an Olympic sport in 2000, the Chinese immediately made sure to put funding and resources towards training because the level of competition was low. They won both gold medals and a bronze in men's and women's trampoline in 2008. Another example to learn from China was their strategic approach in increasing its number of women athletes’ participation. The Chinese have traditionally been stronger in women's events than they are in men's events, especially in team sports. In most countries, men's sports generally receive more attention and funding than women's. China would therefore be more easily capable of catching up and surpassing other countries through putting greater amounts of funding and resources towards women's sports.9) Foreign Expertise: The big jump China made at Beijing 2008 and beyond, had a lot to do with foreign expertise. They sourced the world for the best coaches, the best staff. When we can do the same for Cricket why not for other sports. I know for Hockey we have relied upon foreign coaches with not much of success but the foreign expertise couldn’t be taken for granted and should be explored constantly.In summary, a lot has to be done on field rather than on paper, from planning to execution, to boost chances of our athletes in future Olympic Games. My request from all of us is to at least encourage our athletes whether they win or lose. I am sure we will see better results in 2020 Tokyo and future Olympic Games.Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts. Jai Hind!Sources:http://www.hindustantimes.com/other-sports/indian-olympic-association-s-estimate-of-15-medals-at-rio-raises-eyebrows/story-Wn9xCAZn0Om6eGd2lfPuMM.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_at_the_Olympicshttps://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/15/five-factors-team-gb-olympic-success-medal-rushhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_119http://indianexpress.com/sports/rio-2016-olympics/conflict-of-interest-whiff-around-indian-medical-team-in-rio-pawandeep-singh-vinesh-phogat-injury-2982431/http://indianexpress.com/sports/rio-2016-olympics/dipa-karmakar-request-physio-wasteful-sai-gymnastics-final-medal-2967618/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37162393http://www.youngisthan.in/hockey/has-hockey-india-league-lived-up-to-its-hype/6297https://twitter.com/deshobhaa/status/762658754152325120http://olympics.messyfractals.in/rise-of-china-in-olympics/http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-in-olympics-modi-forms-task-force-to-plan-for-next-three-olympics/article9037187.ecehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Ledeckyhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/how-katie-ledecky-became-better-at-swimming-than-anyone-is-at-anything/2016/06/23/01933534-2f31-11e6-9b37-42985f6a265c_story.html