ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence

The ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence is a specialized educational facility based in Doha, the capital of the Gulf State of Qatar, that provides an exceptional and comprehensive learning environment for children from 12-years-old and upwards with sporting potential.

Unique in its scope and able to boast some of the best training and sport science facilities to be found anywhere in the world, ASPIRE aims to identify and nurture sporting potential as well as lead the way in fostering a strong sports culture in Qatar and promoting the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle to all communities and abilities.

Beginnings

ASPIRE opened its doors to students for the first time in September 2004 after the first round of talent identification program(see below) had been concluded. The distinctive ASPIRE Dome was designed by award winning French architect, Roger Tallibert, who also designed the Olympic Stadium for the Montreal Olympics and the Parc des Princes in Paris, and was completed in November 2005. Opened to great fanfare with a raft of international sporting greats – including Diego Maradona, Pelé, Hicham El Guerrouj, Ed Moses, Mark Spitz, Nadia Comăneci and Said Aouita, ASPIRE is a landmark sporting institute. The construction of the breathtaking facilities, on ground that was previously desert, took a mere 24 months to complete.Salalh is hamdan

Mission and vision

The ASPIRE Academy was established with the dual aims of identifying and developing elite local sporting talent and nurturing the sporting culture of Qatar and the surrounding region.

The creation of a unique learning environment attends to the sporting, academic and social educational needs of those student athletes identified as having the greatest potential of forging future careers at the highest level of international competition. This unusually longsighted vision in a region characterised, often unfairly, as one in which the quick fix solution is favoured, will take a number of years to be fully realized. It has though, already established a pattern of training and growth that is intended to act into perpetuity and ensure a conveyor belt of talent long into the future.

Running parallel to this high performance program are a number of community based initiatives that seek to promote the value of sports participation and healthy lifestyles. Children as young as 1-year-old, accompanied by their mothers, are catered for as well as school age and adult classes that place the Academy at the forefront of sports development in a country that already plays host to numerous regular international and world championship level sporting events.

Organisation

The Academy has at its core two primary departments: That responsible for Sports and the Quality Education and Social Affairs (QESA) Department, that attends to the academic and developmental needs of its students. Working in tandem the combined effect of the collaboration is to produce the whole athlete, fully prepared for which ever area of sports they ultimately follow a career in.

These core functions are supported by IT, HR, Finance and Administration and Communication teams, forming an international staff that at May 1, 2007 numbered 220 and includes representatives of 43 different countries.

election process

In a country the size of Qatar it is imperative that no talent is allowed to go undeveloped and the Academy's innovative three-stage Talent Identification Program, which tests all boys and girls in grades six and seven in the country's school system, strives to discover those youngsters with the greatest potential to grow into elite athletes.

Relationships with clubs and federations also alert the Academy to talent. ASPIRE also nurtures children as young as six in external talent centres.

In addition a few places are offered to international scholarship students from developing countries. ASPIRE currently has youngsters from Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal benefiting from a sporting and academic education they might otherwise have been denied in their own countries. Further scholarships are set to be offered in the coming year through the Academy's ambitious ASPIRE Africa program (see below).

What is the TID program?

ASPIRE's National Talent Identification program is an initiative to propel the state of Qatar into the international sporting arena,

A three step process is used to identify children within Qatar who have exceptional athletic talent and provide them with a scholarship at ASPIRE

Students from grades 6 & 7 are evaluated on four anthropometric measurements and five physical tests (speed, upper body power, lower body power, endurance, and over arm throwing ability). The screening battery used is simple, valid and reliable.

Target?To test every student from grades 6 and 7 in the schools of Qatar in order to select future talent for the state. Upon final selection, students will be offered a scholarship to ASPIRE's Sports Academy, relishing the state of the art facilities, elite coaches, support staff and academic program.

Objectives:

The ASPIRE TID program serves as a recruitment program for students of Qatar to enter ASPIRE's Sports Academy

Test all children in grades 6 and 7 from the Ministry of Education and Supreme Council of Education systems and continue to monitor as many of these children as they continue to age and progress in their athletic ability

Provide feedback to the Ministry of Education and Supreme Council of Education as to the effectiveness of their physical education classes and also help provide an assessment of the physical fitness level compared to other nations around the world

Test young athletes who are not currently involved in a particular sport such that their natural talent can be matched to a sport

Guide students to the best sports where their natural talents are most suited

3 Step Model:

1- Bronze

First phase of the TID program. It aims to test as many students in grades 6 and 7 as possible through the school system (Supreme Council and Ministry of Education)

Testing involves a total of four body shape measurements and five physical tests

2- Silver

Second phase of the TID program. Approximately 5% of students from the Bronze phase are invited to attend the Silver phase

Administered tests are more complex and a more competitive environment is provided, with more accuracy being placed on the measurements

Testing is held at ASPIRE, allowing the ASPIRE coaches the opportunity to get a first hand look at the students

3- Gold

Third and final phase of the TID program. Approximately 25% of students from the Silver phase will be invited to attend the Gold phase of testingThe Gold phase mimics a mini-camp, where the students will spend two days at ASPIRE and they will be placed into specific groups according to their test results

Observation is the key to success in the gold phase. The ASPIRE coaching staff and TID team are able to observe how the athletes train and perform in a typical athletic environment. The areas of observation that are most concentrated on include:

Physical talent, work ethic, ability to learn, attention span, ability to work with, commitment to sport and the students desire to become the best, etc.

At the conclusion of the gold phase, less than 1% of the total students tested are invited to ASPIRE on a scholarship. The final decision to attend ASPIRE rests with the students and their parents.

Programs

In addition to the core training and schooling of elite athletes, and specially designed programs to augment traditional coaching – such as career management and a champions’ education program – the Academy continues to pioneer wider initiatives.

*ASPIRE Active: A community based program within the Academy that brings fitness training to all strata of the population; from mothers and toddlers through to adults, meaning ASPIRE offers its expertise and leadership in health and sports issues for all.

*Talent centres: Though full-time students are admitted to the Academy from age 12-years-old external and internal talent centres are run by the Academy to act as feeders to the main Academy. Skills are taught to children as young as 6-years-old.

* [ASPIRE Africa Football Dreams] //http://www.football-dreams.com/publicweb/home.html] : A bold initiative that will test over 500,000 boys in seven African countries – the largest sporting talent search in history – was announced in April 2007. In association with the United Nations and local agencies, eventually 50 students will be invited to the Academy for final assessment with around three being offered full-time places. The remainder will also continue to be monitored and assisted by the Academy.

Facilities

The institute boasts the largest purpose-built multi-sport arena in the world, the ASPIRE Dome, officially inaugurated in November 2005 at a three-day ceremony attended by such sporting luminaries as Pelé, Diego Maradona, Ed Moses, Nadia Comăneci, Hicham El Guerrouj – who has subsequently become an official ambassador to the Academy - Said Aouita and Mark Spitz. With four multi-purpose arenas, a 200 meter athletics track, a full-size football pitch, squash courts, swimming and dive pools, combat arena and a gymnastics hall under one roof and with seating for 16,000 spectators in total, the Academy is able to utilise climate controlled practise and competition facilities 365 days a year – an important feature when summer temperatures in Qatar can reach 50 degrees Celsius.

The Dome recently hosted seven sports – gymnastics, badminton, kabadi, wushu, wrestling, boxing and track cycling (a temporary velodrome was constructed for the event on the indoor football pitch) – during the 15th Asian Games held in Doha. Table Tennis, Fencing and other international events are also held within the Dome.

In total, the entire campus covers an area of 290,000 meters, encompassing the Dome, a further seven outdoor football pitches, fitness court, running track, school faculty, dormitories to house up to 250 students, fitness room, science and research labs and a medical centre. Plans are already under way to construct a second dormitory with a view to an expansion of student numbers over the coming years.

Friends & partners

ASPIRE seeks to form relationships and partnerships with other organisations working in the field of youth sports development and pedagogy. Through these active relationships around the globe ASPIRE seeks to share technologies and skills and maintain a position at the forefront of new developments within the field.

*Guangdong Institute of Sport
*Hong Kong Sports Institute
*Australian Institute of Sport
*Bayer Leverkusen
*International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education
*Singapore Sports School

External links

* [http://www.aspire.qa Official website]
* [http://www.qatarolympics.org/ Qatar National Olympic Committee]