V V SUBRAHMANYAM
HYDERABAD
Dr. Sandy Nair, the strength and conditioning coach of Calicut Heroes in the on-going Rupay Prime Volleyball League (PVL) here and a qualified Level-1 Fitness Trainer and Level-A Coach from National Cricket Academy (NCA, Bengaluru), said PVL can help India qualify for the Olympics.
“We should realise that India stands 64th in the FIVB (senior men) world ranking and has never qualified for the Olympics. I am sure PVL will help raw players to showcase their talent in such a big league and will also get a chance to represent bigger leagues,” he said.
“Training in cricket has evolved over a period of time with professional development courses organised by the BCCI for strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches at the NCA. Volleyball is still in the beginning stages. I had been training a few Indian volleyball players including Jerome Vinith (captain, Calicut Heroes), Ajith Lal, Akhin G.S., Jithin and Muthusamy since 2016. They were part of the PVL in 2019,” the 40-year-old Sandy told The Hindu.
“When I took their assessment at the preparatory camp, I was surprised to see that all the players mentioned above had never done professional training. But now I can proudly say that they have made a tremendous influence on youngsters,” he said..
“Training in volleyball involves more of HIIT High-intensity interval training (HIIT), a training protocol alternating short periods of intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods,” said Sandy.
“The biggest challenge for me is to bring the rookie players into the professional system of strength and conditioning.”
