Life Skills Coaching in today’s world has come to be accepted as an absolute necessity for any potential and rising sporting star to succeed.

Essentially, Life Skills Coaching helps the individual to focus on the sport at hand, and helps him or her to minimize the effect other impacts could have on the persons sporting capability.   

In Seenigama too, where youth have been scoring recent successes, especially in volleyball, cricket and swimming it has become necessary to provide these youngsters with adequate Life Skills Coaching in order to bring out their very best sporting prowess.

Chandrishan Perera

Chandrishan Perera conducts a
Life Skills Coaching seminar

Rugby star turned celebrity commentator & motivational speaker Chandrishan Perera needs no introduction locally. His name is and has been synonymous with rugby in the island. Since December 2008 he has visited Seenigama twice, where his Life Skills Coaching has become a popular and much sought after programme.

In December addressing mostly school children Chandrishan Perera focused on the importance of ‘Fear & Confidence and Strength & Weakness’. Emphasis was placed on the indisputable task of a healthy mind and the ability to translate fear in to a performance stimulant.

Returning in January - this time for a 2-day workshop, Chandrishan Perera expanded on the work he did with the youngsters the previous month. This time round the focus was ‘The Do’s’ and helping to make the youngsters mentally focused. Additionally there was a special session that addressed the sports coaches and taught them how to better motivate the children and to help them gain concentration, focus and control. The children were also split into different age groups and they were given focused attention.

Ranil Abeynaike

The Seenigama cricket team got a boost when veteran coach, commentator and columnist Mr. Ranil Abeynaike visited one of the Foundation of Goodness’ cricketing facilities recently. Ranil Abeynaike, has been part and parcel of cricket in Sri Lanka over the past couple of decades and is a well recognized personality in the country who needs no introduction.

Mr. Ranil Abeynaike in session with the
Seenigama U-15 & U-13 cricket teams

Visiting in September 2008 Ranil Abeynaike tapped into his years of experience in the sport and spent a delightful and fruitful morning with the Seenigam Under-13 and Under-15 cricket teams at the Seenigama Oval cricket grounds.

Mr. Ranil Abeynaike trains the
Seenigama U-13 cricket team

The 42 boys – that is 22 Under-13 players and 20 Under-15 players followed keenly as Ranil Abeynaike - who has also been the head coach of one of the most popular boy’s schools in the country, imparted cricket life skills training.

Mr. Ranil Abeynaike works with the
Seenigama U-15 cricket team

The Seenigama Under-15 cricket team has been benefiting from such training programmes. Recently the team made it all the way to the pre-quarter finals of the Division 3 Lakbima Cricket Tournament, a feat that was achieved after just 6 months of training. The U-13 cricket team in their second year of school cricket came into the last four of the same tournament division 4 whilst being selected into the provincial tournament which consists of the best teams in the southern district.  We have also been blessed with the expert skills of the former Sri Lankan batting Star Mr. Sidath Wettimuny an ardent supporter and a close associate of the Foundation of Goodness long before the tsunami coaching these boys periodically. The youth in this part of the country are talented and dedicated sportsmen and the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) has been striving to harness this natural talent through various sponsored skills coaching and training programmes.

The Foundation of Goodness (FoG) looks forward to welcoming Ranil Abeynaike and Chandrishan Perera back in Seenigama again and is grateful for their services. Talking about the benefits of life skills training programmes the founder/trustee of the Foundation of Goodness (FoG) Kushil Gunasekera said “the village children and youth rarely get the exposure to develop life skills such as proper training, fitness, nutrition, mental toughness, good conduct on and off the field, discipline, achieving targets, determination, striving for excellence, exceeding the benchmark and believing in themselves that it can be done with the ten most powerful two letter words IF IT IS TO BE IT IS UP TO ME”. 

Now that the infrastructure is in place to further their sporting careers it is absolutely essential in taking them to the next level by giving them an opportunity to learn life skills from those who have achieved outstanding results representing the country.  This is an integral part of empowerment in the right direction not forgetting of course good values they need to inculcate irrespective of winning or losing.

Training in Malaysia

Pulina & Anjana with the rest
of the team in Malaysia

Meanwhile, life has seen a change for talented cricketer D.H. Ashan Pulina Tharanga who lost both his parents, a student of Devananda College, Ambalangoda – a neighbouring region to Seenigama. Ever since Pulina won the U-15 runner-up for Most Outstanding Cricketer at the Astra Cup Junior Cricket Tournament in 2007, he has been busy. Earlier in 2008 the right-hand bat and leg-spinner represented the national Under-15 cricket team on a Malaysian Tour. In October, he was back again in Malaysia to attend a cricket youth festival, along with another talented Sri Lankan cricketer in the U-15 squad Anjana Lakshan Kudahetty of Royal College - Colombo, who also lost his father and younger brother in the tsunami.
The inaugural 2008 RCS/FTCA International Youth U-15 Cricket Carnival in Kuala Lumpur was made possible thanks to the kindness of Australian nationals David and Cathy Cruse who raised funds for air travel and cricket equipment for Pulina and Anjana. The 2 boys joined Australian Casey Cricket Coaching Academy run by another former Sri Lankan cricketer Athula Samarasekera & other cricketers Charith Witharange and Gawesha Weeratunga, Gishan DeSilva, Shilpa Weerasekera, Yasith Yuganthara and Matt Christy in Malaysia.

The 2 boys gain international exposure

The team won two out of the three matches played at Kinrara Oval. Later they faced the Penang Tigers but were not so lucky. The Penang Tigers went on to play against Malaysian Malays in the final.

Spin wizard Muralidaran pleases his fans

The boys were treated to a festive outing at Royal Selangor Club where visiting Foundation of Goodness (FoG) trustee and world famous cricketing star Mutthiah Muralidaran held a spin clinic for 20 team players. At a dinner at the same venue, which was also attended by the FoG’s founder/trustee Kushil Gunasekera US$ 5,000/- was raised for the Foundation, thanks in part to Muralidaran who used his cricketing skills to achieve this sum.

FoG founder/trustee Kushil Gunasekera in Malaysia

Pulina and Anjana thoroughly enjoyed the tour – and for the boys from Australia saying goodbye to the two wonderful young men was extremely difficult. Six days can teach a lot about life. How lucky this group was to be a part of this wonderful experience.

“Use what talents you possess:
The woods would be very silent if no birds
sang there except those that sang best”
- Henry Van Dyke

2009.02.09