Testing young athletes en masse in India

What a massive couple weeks it has been for us at Primitive Sports as we piloted our latest offering – Primitive Performance - here in India. With the help of our amazing partners, GPTQA and the Richmond Institute of Sports Leadership from the elite Australian Rules football club the Richmond Tigers, we achieved way beyond our expectations. Not only did we deliver performance and functional movement testing en masse to schools and academies across India but we also introduced Aussie Rules football to 1500 boys and girls who had never seen “footy” played before.

The hospitality and warmness with which the schools and academies welcomed us was something we dearly appreciated but the memories of the enjoyment and endeavor shown by each of the students is something that we will cherish.

Groups of around 400 students per day were tested for performance and functional mobility to identify weaknesses in areas of their movement that may constrain them as they grow as athletes but more importantly are likely to be the reason behind injuries they sustain as they load up on performance. GPTQA complies with and delivers to international standards to ensure consistency in testing, and guarantee the validity and integrity of the test result.

Children of ages 6 through 17 were tested in 5 schools and academies over the period. Each event and location presented its own challenges including constrained infrastructure, variations in surfaces, distance between infrastructure points and at times extremes in temperature.

As part of the Primitive Performance offering, exercise scientists will assess the results of the tests and assign programs to each athlete that will enhance their mobility and strengthen areas that could lead to difficulties at a later point.

But Primitive Performance isn’t all just the serious stuff. The traveling team from the RSIL ran Australian Rules footy drills with every student and then played an AFL-X demonstration game to the delight of about 700 wildly enthusiastic supporters. And while it’s true that the students and teachers enjoyed every aspect of the whole program it’s fair to say that we had just as much fun delivering the program to them.

So we are looking forward to our next trip and the next group of schools and academies that would like to take part. It is an amazing program that links schools and academies with elite Australian and international sports clubs and forever provides a new group of fans for that club.

Universal High School Students thank the team

#towards1MillionTests