NEW DELHI: The National Institute of Sports (NIS) has decided to revamp its admission policy for its sought-after diploma coaching course where 46 athletes (men and women) of eminence will be given direct entry, with seats increased from 566 to 725.
The criteria for application has also been revamped completely with minimum academic qualification now required is matriculation (class X) instead of earlier times when graduation or 15 years (class 12 plus 3 years of college) of education was considered mandatory.
This has been done to tap the best available talent with more accent on coaching acumen than academic degree.
The minimum age of entry for coaching degree is now 21 years instead of earlier 23 years as per notification issued by NIS.
“For the first time, the entrance exam for the course has been made online, and will not be held manually. The number of seats have also been increased from 566 to 725, in keeping with the restructuring of various sporting disciplines and need of the country,” a Sports Authority of Indian (SAI) release stated.
The major modification is direct admission to sportsperson.
“It has been proposed that eminent athletes who have either participated in the Olympics or won medals in world championship or gold medal in Asian/Commonwealth Games will be given direct admission to the course, without any written test or interview,” the SAI said.
“This first-of-its-kind direct inclusion of eminent athletes has been proposed in order to encourage eminent athletes for coming into the field of sports coaching. There are 46 seats reserved for eminent athletes (men and women) in 23 sporting disciplines. In case of more than one application in one discipline, a system has been put in place, based on sports achievements, to choose the final candidate.” The other focus will be on understanding of sports and acumen for coaching rather than degrees.
“Three new parameters, namely logical reasoning and coaching aptitude, communication and basic computer knowledge have been added to the 100-mark written paper.”
The inclusion of these parameters have been done following a Gap Analysis exercise that shows new set of coaches need to be able to communicate with athletes, parents, administrators and other stakeholders with ease and also need to be able to adapt to the digital-first approach taking over the country.
–PTI

Press Trust of India