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Five World Wide Trends in Sport which you ignore at your peril.
By Wayne Goldsmith | In Hot Topics
Having visited more than 30 countries in four continents in the past few years and spent time with sports leaders, coaches, athletes, sponsors, sports scientists, sports academics, sports medicine practitioners, sports administrators, government funding agencies and other sports professionals in many of the world’s leading sports systems,five world wide trends in society
(and by extension in sport) have become very clear and are screaming so loud that they can no longer be ignored.
Ignore them at your peril.
Getting Sport into Perspective:
First of all you have to get sport into perspective.
Imagine the world and everything in it was a bucket of sand: that’s all the people, the money, the institutions, governments, buildings, resources….everything.
Sport is roughly a teaspoon of sand in the bucket.
And we know, that if you look at sport as a whole across the entire world, the vast majority - over 80% - of that teaspoon is related to football (soccer).
And the other 20% of our single teaspoon of sand from our bucket is motor sport, basketball, the Olympic Games, golf, tennis, swimming, ice hockey, baseball, the NFL, the AFL, the NBL, the NHL, rugby, rugby league, cricket, netball, shooting, billiards, snooker………..everything else in the world of sport lives in that 20% of that teaspoon from our bucket.
So ignoring what’s happening in broader society is insanity. Making strategic decisions about your team, your sport, your national sports program without first taking into consideration the broader international social, political, economic, geographic and population trends is like wanting to go swimming but not wanting to get wet.
It’s different here:
Now quite often I will do a strategic planning presentation about this topic – about where sport actually fits in the world and how it is totally connected to and subject to all the broader social trends happening across the planet and there is always someone in the audience who will say, “That’s great Wayne, but you don’t understand it here. Our sport is different. Those things don’t apply to our sport. Our culture is unique“.
That’s like saying, “Look the rest of world might need oxygen to survive but we don’t – we don’t really live on this planet”.
The “Big Five”:
The following Five World Wide trends in sport apply to all sports, all athletes, all coaches, all sports managers, all government sporting bodies, all National Federations, all international Federations and every person who has any interest in any aspect of sport in any country in the world:
- The demise of volunteerism.Volunteerism is dead. Stop throwing money at namby pamby programs to increase volunteerism. It is over. It is full time. Elvis has left the building. People in this century barely have enough time, money and energy to do the fundamentals of their own lives without giving up a lot of it to amateur sport for nothing. The extension of this is that many of the amateur sporting clubs around the world will collapse and fold within the next twenty years leaving many sports with a network of larger more professional and semi professional clubs to work with – i.e. the “Super Club” concept. Start planning for this fundamental change in the sporting landscape now!;
- The “more with less” attitude of society. Think about this for a moment. Look at your own sport. Do you honestly believe that in the future athletes and parents will actually commit more time, money and energy to your sport? We can barely keep them engaged with the amount of training, preparation and competition we are demanding now. Where in society do you see people prepared to work harder for the same return? Not on this planet! Demanding more from athletes to achieve more will not work. And demanding more from athletes to sustain current levels of performance will not work. We will all have to find ways to enhance performance, improve athletes and teams but do it in less available time – we have to figure out how to achieve more with less;
- The changing world of communication, connectivity and collaboration. Anyone on the planet can connect with anyone else on the planet and can learn anything, anytime, anywhere and for free. This means that your sport must be committed to open, honest, transparent, ethical standards and to the paradigms of integration, co-operation, communication, collaboration and partnerships. The old days of secrecy in sport are gone. The sports who will grow and flourish in the future will adopt an attitude of “we” and “us” and reject the ancient sporting philosophies of “me” and “I”;
- The revolution/s in coaching. Coaching is one of most rapidly changing industries on the planet. The old ways of training coaches by forcing them to complete boring courses and workshops heavy with inappropriate content are over. So too are the old autocratic “do it my way or take the highway” methods of coaching. Coaching is about collaborating, partnering and building sustainable, dynamic sporting environments with coaches, athletes and parents / partners working together as a team to achieve peak performance potential. The world is desperate for coaches who can thrive in this century and who are prepared to work with – as opposed to coaching at – athletes;
- The changing demands on the sports marketplace from families and athletes. Families have no spare time: that’s a fact. So to say to a family, “If you want to play our sport, you must totally commit to 10 training sessions a week and give up 6-10 weekends a year for competition (and pay for the privilege of coaching and competition)” and expect them to buy in is lunacy. Within a few short years sports like swimming, gymnastics, diving, rowing and others with huge training and competition demands will either be forced to radically change the way they do things or they will perish.
So, what are you going to do about it?
Where will you sport be in 20 years? In 30? In 50?
And, more importantly, what are you going to do about it?
Without a genuine and urgent commitment to intelligent, strategic change many sports will not survive the next 20 years, let alone the next 90….your sport could be one of them.
You could go from making history to just being another part of it, lost in the trillions of pages of on line resource materials to be searched for and studied by your great great grandchild in 2110 to pass their school project on “ancient sports”.
Too often people yell and scream and demand that national governing bodies, international federations and governments take the lead in these broader issues: stop yelling, stop screaming and start acting.
You can’t change THE world but you can change YOUR world: start today with the “man (or woman) in the mirror”.
Wayne Goldsmith
© 2011, Wayne Goldsmith. All rights reserved.
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August 10, 2011
Tags: AFL, American Football, Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Coach education, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, High Performance, Hockey, Lawn Bowls, Netball, Olympic Games, Olympics, Rugby, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Shooting, Soccer, sport, Sports Management, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Track and Field, Triathlon, Weightlifting, Wrestling
Comments
16 Responses to “Five World Wide Trends in Sport which you ignore at your peril.”
Hi Wayne
Your first trend: The Demise of Volunteerism, is a sad truth for youth sports. Parents and community members hardly have the time to organize and participate in local leagues.
Let us hope that through all the coming changes, our children won’t become victims and that they will still have options.
Cheers
Thanks for the comment.
I don’t like the fact that volunteerism is dying but it’s happening anyway.
What will parents and kids do as the small, amateur sporting clubs start to collapse and fold? In the cities it will not be a big problem but in regional areas, without small community based Clubs, parents and kids may have to look for alternatives to organised sport. Sad, but you see it happening all over the world…..
Also, I suspect one long term fall out of this will be the unstoppable dominance of China as the world’s leading sporting super power because of the political and government support of organised sport and fitness – i.e. some of the Big Five do not apply to China owing to the significant social and political differences between China and the West.
The main point from the post was to get people thinking and talking about these issues and being pro-active rather than sitting back and waiting for it to happen while kids miss out on organised sporting opportunities.
WG
WG
My two cents:
I think people will still committ to sport, BUT we do have to change our approach to how we committ. I agree that their seems to be a paradigm shift in regard to volunteerism and that this needs to be addressed. You have mentioned before that sports has a tendency to not view the athlete in his/her entire context, and that one of the areas of neglect is the home environment. Along with coaching evolving through collaboration with the athlete and sharing responsibility, sport also has to collaborate with parents to ensure that the athlete has conscious access to his/her entire cognitive ability. It starts at an early age. At the root, what we are talking about is personal development. When parents understand this and are empowered to participate, they will committ. This will be the new “volunteerism”.
Or am I missing the point?
Death of volunteering? Don’t tell David Cameron and his “Big Society” about it. We are all supposed to be running pubs, libraries, mental health care and council services- not sure when that leaves time for sport.
In a perfect world, everyone gives openly and freely of their time, energy and resources to help kids enjoy sport for fun, health and fitness. That’s the world I think we all want but….
….this aint no perfect world.
WG
Good stuff JP.
When I speak to Sporting Parent groups I often use the term “give what only you can” – in that athletes, coaches and parents form a “performance partnership” and each gives to the partnership what only they can.
So with athletes it’s attitude, commitment, hard work, effort, engagement – things that only they can bring.
With coaches it’s technical skills, tactical knowledge, strategic abilities, etc – things that only they can bring.
With parents it’s unconditional love, the development of values and virtues, a strong sense of self confidence and self belief, nurturing in the home environment, help with time management and school commitments, help with nutrition, help with rest / recovery / sleep etc – again, things that only they can bring.
I think the smart coaches will openly engage and encourage parents to be part of this “performance partnership” and be inclusive of supportive parents rather than exclusive and this, as you say, could be one possible new direction in volunteerism.
Thanks,
WG
Hi Wayne,
As you know, I am writing from Mexico. Your brain and thoughts are really appreciated.
I give 20 hours a week as a volunteer worker. My daughter and my wife are the recipient of this work, mainly. I consider it volunteer work because they have a team and I help the team. My understanding was that I could be one of the few people who could commit to do the job and have the credentials. I did the same work fifteen back and reinitiated when my daughter started seriously to train. I am a Child Psychiatrist and trained to be a triathlete (finished an Ironman). I do not see a good life without this work. I work part time to earn my living and at the same time cut superfluous expenses to make this dream possible.
But you are right on the money. It is difficult to have the concept of this kind of life nowadays.
I am planning to start a local club with installations to face the future creating a non-profit organization. During the twenty years I have been practicing triathlon I met people who embraced the concept, but it took me 20 years to spot a broader team. Part of those 20 years was my wife and I concept of the team developed in the culture. We are still struggling but there are people willing to take the relay.
Thanks Wayne for your help. It is unthinkable, but your are part of our team contributing with you thoughts.
Sergio
Thanks Sergio,
Keep up the great work. Even though I believe volunteerism is dead all over the world, people like you give me faith and hope for the future of all sport.
WG
Its very interesting you post this. I’m involved in gymnastics. Even at a non-international club level, the sport is very competitive, very demanding, very disciplined. It expects 10-20 hrs of commitment from pre teen and teenage girls, intense strength and conditioning, and lots of repitition in order to be successful. This is at a time when 10-15 year old girls would much rather be facebooking.
What I am starting to find more and more is that kids are dropping out of the sport because they don’t want to put in the hours and the effort, however still expect to win medals. However, it’s not just the kids who don want to put in the hours. Parents can’t be bothered driving their kids do and from practice.
Gym is very much a sport where you only get out what you put in. And to try to cut hours/strength work would be ineffective and dangerous. One way I’ve tried to combat this is to provide more flexible hours, where, if mom can’t bring Susie to gym / Susie has a friends party, they can attend an alternative training time instead.
I try to involve parents as much as possible, but I don’t think they really understand the concept of drill progressions, and don’t always get why we “hold girls back” from competing skills. (safety, they are not mentally ready, poor technique, too many deductions etc)
The hours, strength and discipline requirement for the sport is never going to change. So how do you keep the kids involved in the sport?
Thanks for the long and thoughtful comment JB,
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the last line “the sport is never going to change” is the reason why you are having problems.
I understand the need for safety etc etc but sports like gymnastics, rowing, swimming, diving and others with huge demands of the time, resources and energy of families will die in the western world unless you find new and more effective ways of training your athletes.
Forget sport – look at what’s happening in bigger industries: in manufacturing, in retail, in education: the world is changing very fast and if gymastics and the other sports don’t change with it, you will not have much of a sport in 20 years time. Sad but true.
The first sports to fail will be those who blame the kids, their lack of attention, their lack of commitment, their lack of dedication etc: it is not their problem – it is yours!
Why not take up the challenge and be one of the innovators who changes gymnastics and leads it into a new era of success and prosperity?
Thanks,
WG
WG
Hi Wayne
I agree with most of what you say having run a professional business/club of over 800 kids for some 20 years. We always have people who are willing to volunteer, not a lot but a few good ones and we try to look after them.
The time issue is a big one too I agree and the cost for sports like gymnastics (our business is in gymnastics) is substantial. Some parents are straight out competitive and want their baby to be a champion, so the sacrifices of cost and time are considered acceptable and worth it. Most parents want to see their kids develop their potential whether that be in gymnastics or flute or academics. So I think there will always be a place for high level training programs because some parents see the benefits of involvement in these programs as more than merely the winning of medals. The teaching of perserverance, goal setting, dealing with mental and physical obstacles, working closely in a team environment to achieve objectives set for the team and individual. These are all very valuable assets and in today’s education systems they are not being taught very well if at all. However, where in the past we may have treated the athletes as subservient to our (the coaches) all powerful control, we need to start seeing the athletes (and the parents) involved in these programs as our customers which they are, and the partnerships you talk about are critical to the athletes, coaches, and clubs success.
I would love to see some more concrete examples of what you talk about with regard to the five trends. Maybe content for another article??
I greatly appreciate your perspective and have started sharing your ideas with my senior staff members.
David Hill
Hi Wayne
thankyou four your thoughtful post. It really made me think.
I dont think that a reduction of training hours or training intensity will benefit the sport. However, i think the sport needs to become more accessable for the average “deemed-not-as-talented” athlete. I dont see these sports fading away in the next 20 years. I agree with david completely that the benefits of highly disciplined, highly committed sports like gymnastics is what makes the parents keep bringing the children back. As long as we teach the athletes a love of the sport and inspire them enough so that they become intrinsically motivated, the children will WANT to come to each class.
I love using goal setting books, team achievement boards, star charts, “make your own training program” days etc. I think seeing day-to-day achievements written down allows the athletes to see that they are getting better, and their dedication is paying off.
However, I too would like to see more ideas and concepts of how to consider the trends you mention.
You also mention to become the agent for change. How do you do this, when your employer is stuck in the past & still believes in the “my way or the highway” approach (even with their employees!) how do you get them to see that coaches should be ENCOURAGED to involve parents and athletes in making decisions, (rather than being told off for doing so?)
Hi JB,
I believe there are three types of people involved in sport.
1. Those who want things to change and will fight hard to make them happen.
2. Those who don’t want things to change and will fight just as hard to stop them happening – or at least to slow them down.
3. Those who don’t really care and just want to do sport for a bit of fun, fitness and friendship.
The biggest problems in sport come from the battles between Groups 1 and 2. And, in most cases I have found, group 1 are coach and athletes and group 2 are sports administrators and government sporting departments. In other words, the people who are out there doing things and making a difference are in constant conflict with those who control the money, the facilities and the programs.
In the end, you have to decide which group you belong to and be the best you can be every day.
Thanks,
WG
Thanks David.
I think swimming and diving are in the same position you are in to a large degree. Some parents want their kids to be pushed to their limits, some kids want to train hard to realise their full potential – there will be, as you say, a place for high achievers and high performance programs in sport for some time to come.
However, where a lot of sports are falling down is assuming that every kid who walks through the door wants to be put on the high performance pathway. This in my view is the road to disaster and the main reason sports like swimming, diving, gymnastics and others are struggling for numbers in many places across the world. I believe the smart operators like you know this and provide a range of programs for the different needs and goals of different athletes.
Keep up the great work.
WG
Hi Wayne
I haven’t been to your website in a while (and now much to my regret) but this article has really hit home with me.
I am a sports administrator with a State Sporting body for Squash. As we all know squash was ‘big’ in the 70′s and 80′ and has since ‘died’.
We are trying very hard in SA to stop the downward trend and start turning it around.
One of the main things we are looking at is a flexible and innovative Performance Pathway structure around the athletes and the coaches (hence my visit to your website). so far we are 10 months into a new program and a lot of attention has been placed on us by our stakeholders.
we have a lot of young players who show no commitment to training or playing at a high level and we have tried to tailor programs around their needs. However, their attitude is also the same as our ‘elite’ athletes who think their ‘natural’ ability will be enough and because they are highly ranked in our state means they deserve to be in High Performance programs.
Every one of your points in this article is true of squash and hopefully now we can be the ones to make the innovative changes.
keep up the great thinking, it encourages us to do the same!
Thanks John.
I would also refer you to my articles on the Performance Clock and Engaging with athletes to get them to work harder.
Your problems are no different to most sports I run into all over the world – and no matter how many times I write about it, talk about it and present on it, for some reason, most sports just don’t get it and refuse to change until it is too late or almost too late.
Keep fighting hard.
WG