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25.05.16

Amaven supports sports players in Dubai

athletic development testing

Dubai is renowned for its exceptional calibre of sport. As well as its love for camel racing and falconry, UAE’s passion for football, horse racing, tennis, golf and cricket is well known throughout the rest of the world. 

Earlier this month, the Amaven team embarked on an exciting journey to support sports players around the globe. Starting in Dubai, Amaven coaches visited the Tennis 360 academy to complete athletic development testing with their students. 

Behind every talented athlete is a supportive coach and a fantastic training programme. Sporting skills are developed from a young age, however the majority of children are never given the opportunity to progress because they aren’t taught the fundamental movement skills essential to their athletic development.  

Too much emphasis is placed upon playing sports instead of developing the skills that will improve sports performance. Take football for example, children who practise fundamental movement skills, such as kicking, running and throwing, will have a far greater chance of excelling in the sport compared to those who only play the game during their training.

Athletic development testing 

athletic development testing

athletic development testing

athletic development testing

Tennis 360 is one of Dubai’s leading academies, created by world-class tennis professionals with the aim to develop a new generation of tennis stars. Amaven was given the opportunity to use its unique methodology to test the students across the core components of fitness and identify strengths and weaknesses that could affect individual performance. 

In particular, the tests assessed motor skills involving agility and coordination, aswell as strength, balance and tennis specific skills to give an all-round indicator of the ability of every individual. Amaven coaches used the latest in athletic equipment technologies, including reactive speed timing gates, as well as their experienced eye to provide in depth analyses of every student’s movements. 

Fundamental movement skills were at the heart of the testing. While activities like running, jumping, throwing and catching may sound simple, you would be surprised how many people haven’t developed the correct technique, which then hinders their performance. 

Encouraging participation in sport

The students highly enjoyed the day of testing and it produced some very interesting data for the academy to analyse. Amaven uses the data to formulate individual training schedules for every individual, designed to resolve any issues identified during the tests so they can enhance their tennis skills. Within a few months, we expect to see a significant improvement once the academy has been retested. 

Amaven’s software caters for all athletic abilities which makes it perfect to test and improve a wide variety of sports. The Amaven coaches will return to Dubai to conduct a testing day for a football academy and we are confident that the day will achieve the same outstanding results. 

Confidence is essential in sport, especially when encouraging participation in children. Ultimately you won’t enjoy something that you aren’t good at, so it’s vital that we help children develop confidence with sport from an early age in order for them to be successful in any physical activity throughout the rest of their lives. 

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