 Welcome to this sports playbook where we discuss solutions to issues that impact sports. I'm your host, Catherine Noor. Today's guest is Sandhya Manjunath joining us from Bangalore, India. Sandhya is the founder of ATSI and other sports ventures in India. Today we're going to discuss basketball in India. All right, welcome Sandhya. Hi Catherine, how are you? Fantastic. Okay, so tell us about ATSI. I would start with the name ATSI. Each letter of the name stands for a whole sentence and that is awaken the sportsman in you. So that's a company I founded in 2016. I saw the necessity for a company like that in India and then just we went from there with the flow. All right, so you are a young entrepreneur. How old were you when you started your company? Okay, before I started ATSI, I had a couple of multiple pilot projects. So if you go back to the very first one that I started, I think I was 17 years old and then I kept moving up the ladder from there, working, reworking, deleting some ideas and just putting this whole ATSI together. When I had a solid business outline for ATSI, I think I was 23. Okay, so what does ATSI do? So ATSI is a unique company for the Indian market where we go into schools and provide physical education but for professional development, which means in India how things work is we get about an hour to two in an entire week for kids to play. And this is at the school level, right? So what ATSI does is we work with the schools and in that one or two hours, we send more than just one physical education teacher. We replace that physical education teacher with multiple coaches. So the student is actually getting professional sports training in those one or two hours and then once the student experiences multiple sports, they have a chance to pick which one they want to prioritize and then they take it forward from there. So we are an external vendor, service vendor I would call, who goes into public and private schools and provide professional coaching events and other activities for kids same time but extra education in terms of sports. So what sports do you cover? I know you cover basketball. Are there other sports that you cover as well? Yes, we've done in the past, it depends on what infrastructure the existing school has, which means our client, which is the schools, it depends on what infrastructure they have. But so far we've coached these many, we've coached basketball, football, cricket, badminton, archery, fencing, swimming, and we've also worked a little bit with cross-country running. So when you say football, you're talking about soccer? Yeah, there you go. I think we have to make that distinction for our American audience. Yeah. Okay, so have you run into any challenges in terms of safety or risk management challenges in having those instructors go into the schools? Well, absolutely yes. More than just a little bit of challenges, I would say, because like I stated earlier, ASEE is a unique sport management platform for the market itself. So when we initially started, people did not see what we were doing because especially in sports, it takes time for any results, right? So they were like, what are you doing? This is just too much, blah, blah, blah. So it started off like that. But the real challenges stepped in a couple of years later, where the weather was taking a huge hit. I don't know if you know this, but basketball in India is still an outdoor sport. So all these sports that I just mentioned are pretty much outdoor sports. So if you want to teach archery in an open space, you can imagine basketball on a cemented floor, you can imagine. So some of those simple challenges for the students side of it is their shoes get torn way earlier because they play on cemented floor versus and wooden flooring, right? And also that access to purchase of basketball shoes, they have to either get it imported or wait for somebody to travel down, who can bring them shoes from a country where basketball shoes are more common and or buy it online. Because if you walk into a shoe store in India, you're not going to find a pair of basketball shoes that easy. So these are some of the challenges that we as a company also have to address because if we are a professionally player development company, then we also have to facilitate these other drawbacks that we are facing because of absence of those products in the market. I just give you a small example of basketball shoe, but it also means finding the right basketball as simple as that or finding the right soccer shoes or finding the right badminton racket. So those were some of the teeny-meeny challenges that I was telling. But again, the huge challenges when COVID hit, schools closed, COVID hit and my coaches, like how do I had to train my coaches to teach sports online? Like this, like how we're talking, right? So imagine coaches sitting and looking into a computer trying to teach a kid how to dribble the basketball and we did it. And honestly speaking, we did it. My coaches picked up pretty fast and then we were able to train about three times more kids than we could do in person online because this time my market was across India. So I had students from multiple places log in on a computer and get those trainings from coaches. We had a 100-day record where we coached every day basketball online. So those are some of the things that I take pride in, but also when it came to decision-making wasn't that easy, especially when you're an entrepreneur of a unique company in a country that sees sports as just recreation and nothing professional. So you mentioned a challenge with weather. I would imagine that heat is a big issue. And then you would also have times that there was rain and wind. How do you deal with those issues? Well, a good example is today I had to call off class. So when I'm in India, I still go out there and be a part of the coaching programs and just be out there. So we had to call it off because it rained heavily here in the place. I live Bangalore, India. But some of the ways that we deal with it is we have a covered spacing, which is like a hall where people can sit and do yoga, meditation, a lot more stretching. And so we kind of use that space during our rainy days to improve our flexibility, our body control and all those things which we cannot pull out time for when we are actually on the field. So we use those. And also we do kind of work with weather prediction, but honestly speaking, it's not very accurate like how it's in this state. So it says it's going to rain. It doesn't. It says it won't rain and force. So the weather has always surprised me that way. So, okay, you have quite a social media presence to your athletes. Let's show some of your posts that now, and I noticed that a lot of them are about stretching. And tell us about why you focus on stretching and why you provide these social media posts that are like kind of inspirational to the kids. Yeah. So this goes back into my ACI employees being extra creative because there are times where you communicate with the kids a little too much in your 120-minute session. And how do you leave a mark in their brain about what you taught? So then my social media team came up with this idea saying, hey, we will use the picture of the person and then put out, put some quotes out. So the next day in practice, the coaches can question about what was the post talking about yesterday on social media. So this generation is more of social media people versus listening to their teachers or coaches or parents. And so we use that social media presence of our athletes to our advantage by teaching them what they really need to learn in a little bit creative way, I would say. All right. So now you are, I know you are an excellent basketball player and have a rich history in playing basketball. Tell us about that. Okay. So I initially started being an athlete. I was a long-distance runner, 1500 meters, 3000 meters runner back in school. And then I moved to being a swimmer for a little bit. And then at one of our school sports days, the chief guest, which is my first basketball coach, identified me at my speed, my flexibility. I don't know what he saw in me. He just said, hey, you should be a basketball player. You'll do good in it. And so I just gave it a shot and rest his history. So I started there. And then I was 13 years old. In the very first year, I represented my state at the national level, the very first year, like eight months into picking up a basketball, I was already wearing my state, which is Karnataka, Jersey. And I was representing my state at the national level. So that way, that was my small start. And then from there, I've played for this club called Beagle's for about 16 years now. And the last trophy I lifted was recently in 2017. So anytime I get a chance, I still go back and play. I'm hoping I get to play sometime this season as well while I'm here in India. So I've played at the national level at about 35 times, captain, the state team multiple times. So yeah, you're right. I have a little bit of a rich history back here when it comes to being a player. But eventually, I transitioned from being a player into being an events manager, because what I saw was the boys had more tournaments, the men had more opportunities versus the women. So I thought, okay, I will create my own events, I will put together some tournaments for women and men, just adding to the number of tournaments a women player can play in India. So I started there. And then I got recognized for my work. And the basketball Federation of India asked me to put together some volunteers and run the FIBA operations to a certain extent. And I took that up. The very first FIBA event I did, it hit me. Everybody I was working with lacked classroom knowledge. I don't think it's emphasized enough. Because if you go into anything untrained, then you do what you've seen, you don't do what is necessary, you just do what you've seen, right? So I realized that education, especially sport management education was the deeper role that I saw in the Indian sport industry. And then I realized I saw teams from New Zealand, teams from Australia, from like the southern part of Asia come together. And I saw that the people I was working with are good, extraordinarily good. But only thing that was lacking was they were not trained. And so they were not doing things right. They were doing things how they see fit. So, and then I started looking for sport management education in India where I can improve my knowledge. And to my surprise, we back then, four years ago, even today, have only seven programs across the country. We are the second largest populated country in the world. And we have only seven sport management programs. And these are just flavors, not like a full solid sport management program. So then I moved to the United States to get my masters and PhD. And I'm still thinking about how I can incorporate sport management education into India, either through Etsy or somewhere at some point where classroom education becomes a priority for any industry professional and to us the industry. So that's a long term goal. What I thought was really interesting about your story is that you had had to learn a number of languages. Is that right in order for you to succeed in what you do? Tell us about that. So, like I said, I've played 35 times at the national level, 13 years of playing basketball. I keep telling this to my friends back in the United States where how times all changes in the United States, like we have a different language being spoken every 100 miles. So, if you cannot learn multiple languages, communication becomes really, really hard, especially when you're a captain of some team with individuals speaking different languages, you better learn the language or teach them a common language. Otherwise, playing as a team becomes a challenge. So I can speak eight different languages and kind of learn it because of basketball. And then English is a common language, but not everybody can speak English while they play. A lot of women especially come from remote areas of the nation and where basketball is their only way of education. So it's very different when you play basketball in India because you have to learn different languages to be a basketball player. Not like they have to learn, but if you learn basketball, I mean, if you learn different languages, you can be a better basketball player. So that's another added skill that you have to learn to be outstanding. And, you know, that's so different than the United States because, you know, language is not even relevant in the U.S. basketball, but there's something else that's kind of interesting in the U.S. When you do anything sport wise, you have to sign a liability waiver to participate in whatever area. In India, does anyone sign a liability waiver? See, these are some things that classroom learning that I was talking about earlier bring to the picture. No, we don't. At least to the best of my knowledge, lately few of the event managers have made it a priority to sign the liability waivers or get it signed by the players who are participating or the players just being sensible about what these liability waivers are. Like if I walk into a college tournament that's being organized somewhere in my locality and ask, did you sign a liability waiver? They would be like, what is a liability waiver? Right. Right. So some places have installed this entire process of liability waiver just being cautious about everything that goes into the system and things like that. But I would say 90% is still on the no, no sign. They don't know what it means and things like that. And again, all this is taught to event managers when they go to school and learn from it. So yeah, no, it's very different in the States. It's way more organized, but in India, we have everything. It just needs to be organized. Sure. And you also have some other entities as well. I understand you have a sports event management staffing company. Is that right? Yes. So what we do is we identify people who are interested in sports, but since due to lack of opportunities, they pursue different careers. What we do is we create a platform. We create a platform where they can volunteer their time in different sporting events. So we act as a pipeline where people can sign up with us and then they can be volunteers at certain sporting events. So in this pipeline, I kind of make it my mission to give them the basic education that they need before they enter the industry. So that's a little form of my knowledge sharing. And then we staff a lot of people like that into the events. Do you have to vet those people who are volunteers or hired, especially if they're working with youth? Yes. So when I worked for the FIBA event and when ACI was approached to staff about 250 people, I went to different universities, different organizations to vet these people. But I had to interview multiple people just before picking. But at some point, people don't vet. They pick anybody who's available. And in terms of vetting people, the eligibility criteria, there's no eligibility criteria. Okay, you're interested. Come let's, let's take you in types. But I understand the need for vetting, especially when you work with the youth. In my case, what we did is we interviewed people, we asked for reference. So somebody had to refer them. They cannot be walking in and talking for themselves. So it can either be a physical education teacher, it can be your principal, it can be your supervisor who have to tell us about you before we get you in. That was a very basic step of background check, but that is the least we could do here. But now things are moving the corporate way where people are getting background check done before they work with youth. But again, 90% is still not there yet. And I understand you've been doing some coaching in the US. Let's show the pictures and why don't you, as we show them, tell us about it. Sure. So this is my voice team in the United States, where I work with Coach Kia Whitley. This is the Lessema organization. And this is my eighth grader team, one of the best teams in Harrisonburg, Virginia areas. Till today, there's no single tournament that we haven't reached the finals. So I'm trying to implement some of the Indian coaching methodologies in the United States and it's working wonders for me. So yeah, I think I'll keep that going. These are an amazing bunch of kids that I take credit. And this is my girls team. My first team that I coached in the United States, proudly the strict champions of the 2022-23 season, Thomas Harrison Middle School, again in the Harrisonburg, Virginia area in the United States, where I've been working with them for a few months now and we've accomplished quite a bit. And what tricks do you have or techniques you use in India that are helpful in the US? Well, here's the thing. I am very, very friendly as a coach, but I don't become their friend instantly. So I have a certain line drawn between me and my players and when I speak, they listen. I make them listen because these kids get distracted easily and there has to be someone who has to be bossy with them but also their best threat. So finding that balance as a coach in between I think is my drum card skill as a coach. All right. Tell us about this picture. So the beauty about James Madison is that they create an outside classroom teaching methodology and this is our experiential learning trip to the final four, women's final four in Dallas that happened in the month of March where I, along with another professor, Dr. Hallman, we both put together a program where we took students to Dallas to work as volunteers. So I believe and I'm sure most of the professors in my industry understand this that one event like this can teach a student what we teach an entire semester. So they get hands-on experience with multiple professionals and they really see what goes into an event. So as much as I can teach out of a textbook, I can only talk to them, but experiential learnings like this teach them a lot like in 24 hours or this particular event was for about a week but the students did get to learn a lot. So this is an experiential learning trip to Dallas and I think I enjoy teaching students like this versus just in the classroom. So as a professor at James Madison University in Virginia, what do you teach? I teach event and facility management. That's my favorite to teach and I think since I have that kind of experience in the industry, I can talk to experience and teach better but I also teach a lot of practical classes introduction to sport management back in Texas Women's University where I got my MSPHDF taught a little bit of sports law but a lot of sports governance, international sports. I've also taught women health. Those are some of the areas that I go when I teach. Okay and so we recently went to the World Association of Sports Management conference in Doha, Qatar. What was your poster presentation shown in this picture? So this is about sport management research in India and the need for it, the absence of it and how I was one of the very, very few Indian research scholars who are presenting at the World Association of Sports Management for the very first time. So I was just trying to put India on the world map there. Fantastic and then let's show some of the other pictures there. That's you at the Olympic Center posing in front of the wasm and let's show we went all around the country to see FIFA World Cup Stadium and so here is our group, three professors at James Madison University and myself and do you remember what stadium that was? I can't remember. It was one of the first ones that we went to. We went about eight stadiums that day so if you ask me which one was which I need to do my research on that. I can't remember either and so let's show the pictures on the Cornish with, oh that was one of the stadiums. That one looked like cheese, that stadium. We had our own names for those stadiums remember? Right exactly and then there's that one on the Cornish with you and the sign as well. This is in Doha and yeah there we go. I love this moment. Yeah yeah we really enjoyed that but anyway Sandhya thank you so much for being my guest today. I hope everyone learned a little bit more about sports in India and basketball in India. I hope so too and thank you for having me. It's an honor and I hope this reaches many people and I can be a little bit informative to anybody who sees this show and good luck for y'all and thank you for being great. All right anyway Sandhya is such an inspirational person but thank you to our viewers for joining us today Mahalo and Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.