AAI to discontinue services of sports psychologist

With hardly 70 days to go for the Olympics, the Archery Association of India has been forced to discontinue the services of high-profile American psychologist Allison Rodius as she is preoccupied and has not been able to provide "quality support" to Athens-bound medal hopefuls.

"She has taken up assignments from other countries like Germany, Britain and there is no point in continuing with her if she is unable to provide quality support to our players," said V Rao Director, Archery Association of India.

"Also she is quite expensive, we have already spent Rs 3.5 lakh on her," he said but dismissed suggestion that money was the sole criteria for discontinuing with her services.

Although he conceded that top experts were needed in modern-day sport to cope up with pressure, Rao said AAI was not planning to replace Rodius.

"Players take time to

adjust to new training procedures and we do not want to disturb them before the Athens Olympics.  Our SAI psychologist at Kolkata will take up the job," Rao said.    

Rodius, who was in Kolkata recently with the team for the national championships, took up her Indian assignment in February this year during an international archery tournament at Bangkok.

Rao admitted that the players had benefitted from the short stint with the expert. "The confidence level of players had improved a little with the kind of training she imparted.  But it was unfortunate that she could not devote more time."