October 2015, Mumbai: As the Olympics fever is due to set in soon, Proforce initiates the training in to some niche sports and establishes Mumbai’s first Archery and Fencing training centre at GD Somani Memorial School, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai. Proforce Professional Services Pvt. Ltd. is an organization dedicated to professionalizing sports education in India and producing players to represent the country at the highest professional level.
Mumbai’s first Archery and Fencing training centre at GD Somani Memorial School
Launched on October 5, 2015 the academy has received an overwhelming response with more than 30 students joining in from the school. The academy is open for all students between the age group of 08 to 14 years. With a capacity of close to 200 students (in Archery and Fencing) enrolments, the training is conducted in the marquee school GD Somani during eve 1600 hrs till 1800 hrs and also on Saturday at 0900 hrs till 1100 hrs. Mr. B.D. Seymour, Prinicpal, GD Somani says, “Archery and fencing are sports of discipline and focus. Since it involves these two attributes, there is a lot of commitment which is required which leads children to perfection without being distracted. I wanted to give our students every opportunity that Proforce as a professional organization could possibly support in terms of training, equipment and their consistency. With this association, I look forward to see the students represent India in the near future.”
The newly formed batches of 22 archers and 8 fencers have undergone 12 exhilarating sessions of extensive training. For archery, the students are being trained by Coach Manjit Singh – who has won more than 10 national medals for Archery from Delhi is sphere headed by Hon Capt. Suhag; an ex-servicemen and qualified at level 1 World Archery Coaches Course 2015 and Sports Authority of India Netaji Subhash National Institutes of Sports. He has represented India in World Archery Championship; he has also won a number of medals in the Asian Archery Championship representing India.
For fencing students have been training under Santosh Shejwal, with 15+ years of experience in fencing coaching; He himself has produced around 10 national players. Also, he is credited with producing a wheelchair bound fencer who has just participated in World fencing competition. He has been coaching students understanding the different prospects of the game. Under Proforce, he has taken a plunge to coach students fencing at the school level to find talent at early stage. Santosh says, “I’m happy to see the progress of fencing in India. Slowly & steadily the sport is being recognized across the nation – thanks to Somani School and Proforce – which has started fencing in School hrs. We have to strengthen the sport from root level to able to win medals in international circuit. As we have recently started fencing since a month, we have lot of work to do. We will start competing from next year & I’m hopeful to see some good result from this promising batch.”
Capt. Sachin Sharma, C.O.O & Co-founder, Proforce says, “The participation in various games in India at the school level is decided by the popularity of the game. Like Archery and Fencing, even after being approved by the school Federation, there are very few schools having the facility to train the kids in these games. With a thought process of promoting these niche sports and popularizing them, Proforce thought of initiating the requisite training for these niche sports.”
After consulting Army Sports Institute for recommending the right coaches, we came up with the coaching team with the right credential to set the road map for the realization of dreams Proforce has.
Mr. Seymor and his never ending dynamic approach and unparalleled support has helped us to establish the training centre for Archery and Fencing at their premise. We have got an overwhelming response from the students and are hoping that we generate some good National and International players in the coming years.”
Tags: Archery, Fencing, GD Somani, GD Somani Memorial School, Manjit Singh, Olympics, Proforce, Santosh Shejwal, School, Sports
