Aditi Chauhan: Parents should encourage girls to take up sports

The 27-year-old shot-stopper has time and again spoken on the challenges women face in sports.

India goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan has been vocal about her ambition to empower women in sports and encourage parents to support their children, especially young girls in taking a professional approach to on-field activities. The custodian always attempts to use her platform to contribute to women’s football in every manner possible.

Her determination as well as desire to play her part in the holistic development of women’s football in India and introduce more young girls to the sport saw her launch the She Kicks Football Academy.

“Since the last two years, I have started my own football academy She Kicks, which is exclusively for girls. It is a different kind of role that is giving me various kinds of experiences off the field now. I am enjoying the journey. It is very different to what I have experienced on the field,” Aditi Chauhan told Shaona Sen in a live session on the ApolloXSports Instagram handle in their new Changing Tracks series.

The ongoing lockdown has provided athletes a rare opportunity to spend time at home and pay attention to other areas of their life, which proves to be difficult in their usual hectic schedule. Similarly, Aditi has used this period to focus more on her academy and has devoted her time towards planning for her academy, on scaling it even further and reaching out to more girls across the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEvm9iOk9wU&t=49s

In the last two years, she has been preoccupied with her national duties and hence wasn’t able to dedicate as much time as she would have liked to She Kicks, but that has changed in the last few months.

“The idea initially when I started She Kicks was always that I want to provide this platform to more and more girls across the country. I think something that was lacking was the time to plan how to make this accessible to more and more girls. I couldn’t make much time for that, but during this lockdown period I have been able to plan ahead. We have now started an online programme.”

The 27-year-old further elaborated, “Everything around the world has shifted to a virtual platform, so we’ve also adapted and started an online programme, which is open for boys and girls. To my surprise, all the kids who enrolled were all girls. I was actually very happy for that. We have got girls from across the country- right from Chennai to Kashmir to Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, everywhere. It is incredible how this virtual platform has brought all of us together.”

She also revealed that they are working on a number of exciting projects. They are also in talks with many interesting collaborators, companies and organizations that have expressed interest in working with them to help her academy achieve their vision and objectives.

Moreover, Chauhan spoke about the importance of parents and emphasized that their support is pivotal in encouraging kids, especially girls to take up sports and that they should expose their children to the boundless opportunities available in India. When asked whether it is challenging being a female leader in the sports sector, the goalkeeper concurred and believes it is her love for the game that keeps her motivated and driven.

She explained, “I think every field has it’s own challenges. We have to agree that like most of the other industries, the Indian football industry is also a predominantly male-dominated industry. So, trying to get into that system, trying to make a contribution and helping in the development of women’s football or football in general is challenging. It comes with a lot of obstacles and obviously for me as a player, it’s been a complete transition.”

“The whole experience is very new, especially with entrepreneurship, it is a different ball-game altogether. I come from a military background, so business is completely new for everyone in my family. It is so exciting, as every day brings new challenges and you have to figure out quickly. It is a lot like football. You have to make quick decisions, adapt yourself,and deal with the situation how you know best. Also, because I am so passionate about women’s football and want to contribute to the development of the game, it makes the whole journey worthwhile.”

Aditi further added that the success stories of the girls at her academy keep her motivated and inspire her to keep doing what she does. The India international asserted that she wouldn’t trade it for anything else and is happy to contribute in her own way and in whatever capacity she can.

She also talked about the power sports holds in transforming personalities and providing children the confidence to express themselves. The shot-stopper encourages the coaches at her academy to work on the life skills aspect of the players in addition to the usual technical and football stuff.

Furthermore, the goalkeeper opened up on the suggestions provided by FIFA in the legacy plan for the women’s game in India, which included a few interesting ideas.

 “I was going through the legacy plan and the ideas for the legacy plan after the U-17 World Cup that are recommended by FIFA. One of the things was the infrastructure development, getting participation and there was a point emphasizing creating more competitions, small-sided games like 3-a-side, 5-a-side-, 6-a-side. I think those kind of games and creating tournaments at the competitive level will make a lot of difference.”

Aditi Chauhan opined that she would ideally like to see an increased number of women holding different roles in the football industry and views their participation as vital to the growth of the women’s game. She also hopes that the duration of the IWL expands and that both ISL as well as I-League clubs register a women’s team, which will subsequently result in an increase in the number of matches.

“We should also increase the participation of women in other fields. Apart from the players, we will have women in different roles within this industry and that is something we really need. I think the other event that I hope gets better is the IWL. I know there has been a lot of progress that has been made with the IWL over the years since we had the first edition. But, we will still have a long way to go before we call it the official league.”

“I hope that in the coming years we have more ISL and I-league teams putting in a women’s team in the IWL and everyone wants more competition, more players, more teams, more matches throughout the year. Hopefully, the IWL will extend and will be for a longer period then just a month. Those are the things I feel will happen soon and that is the reason I feel the U-17 World Cup will play a major role in trying to accelerate this process,” Aditi Chauhan concluded.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Twitter and join our community on Telegram.