The future of sport

[Spookster]

Here's an interesting report (the title is actually "The future of Australian sport", but when you read it you can see some obvious similarities with the situation in the UK, I think). The sub-title is "Megatrends shaping the sports sector over coming decades."

Here are some interesting snippets:

Non-organised physical activity has a much higher participation rate. Possible explanations are the decreasing willingness of time constrained people to commit to
structured sporting activities and a greater emphasis on recreation, health and fitness as opposed to competition.

A current trend in the fitness sector is the use of social media to build and foster sporting communities, such as the ‘UrbanRec’ Facebook group or the ‘RunKeeper’ app. Social media create online communities through which people can engage in sport and communicate sporting preferences to a wider audience. The involvement of sporting clubs and government would facilitate better delivery of sporting services. Smartphone communication technology is likely to play an important role in building fitness communities into the future.

For many people fitness and exercise is a substitute for organised sport. A fit and healthy society is undoubtedly a good thing and a high priority. The question for government, sports and society is what investment needs to occur to ensure the broader benefits of organised sport are accessible to all. This could involve partnering with other bodies to provide these services.

Perhaps none of this is a surprise to us? Regardless, I found it an interesting read.

[AndyC]

This popped into my "Linkedin" and I thought it worth sharing after Martin's post http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130514163701-27307105-when-you-re-young-fitness-is-sport-as-you-grow-older-it-s-necessity?goback=.nmp_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=NUS_UNIU_PEOPLE_FOLLOW-megaphone-fllw
Orienteering is a sport that older people as well as the young and fit can enjoy isn't it?

[Glucosamine]

Non-organised physical activity has a much higher participation rate. Possible explanations are the decreasing willingness of time constrained people to commit to structured sporting activities and a greater emphasis on recreation, health and fitness as opposed to competition.

Are there any stats for trends in the use of permanent courses to compare with this? When an opportunity to e.g. compare times on-line like running communities do, is it taken up? Are runners / orienteers not still 'competitive', even if averse to 'competitions'. Dare I mention Parkrun again?

[Paul Frost]

I'm slightly puzzled by the omission of triathlon and it's massive growth, as it is an organised sport at specific times/locations. So it's not all organised sport that is in decline, it's that a lot of traditional/older sports are in decline. It can't just be that the costs are too high, as triathlon isn't cheap to do and that's not stopping it's growth.

Another social App not mentioned in the report (perhaps it's not big in Australia) is Strava. For those that don't know about it, you can upload run or cycle GPS tracks and it matches people that have done the same route or segments of it and produces a leader board. So you could search for segments near where you are and then go put and ride them with the intention of beating the existing times. So you can add the competitive element to solo runs/rides without the need to do it at any particular time or date. This sort of thing is better than Facebook at engaging people in an active sport as it comes without all the baggage of pointless personal crap and just focuses on the sport/performance. There are no rules, procedures, committees or time consuming organisation, so it fits in perfectly with the time poor and non-standard working hours many people now have.

Permanent Orienteering courses could in the future offer a similar option, once we sort out the logistics of the timing and recording, except the navigational element would be removed as people would be able to practice the route. So it would become just a test of running speed.

[Copepod]

Following on from Paul's comments about triathlon, this is an interesting example of introducing people to triathlon - and charging them for the pleasure http://www.lrsport.org/events/2013/05/try-a-tri

I was alerted to the scheme by a friend, who I've known since Ranger / Venture years, and an infamous Six Shropshire Summits (1983, I think), when I was stupid enough to trust her navigation, as she'd done the event before (and was a geology graduate who had mapped rocks on Ardnamurchan, so I thought she understood maps), resulting in a detour of about 6 miles. So, perhaps it's a good thing she went into PE teaching, swimming & triathlon We still meet at triathlons, when she referees or coaches and I marshal - and she has been known to get lost when riding a cycle route, after signs have been removed, but she has map.

Agree about value of permanent O courses, but also the need to be able to distinguish between times for "first runs" and others.

[Sunlit Forres]

Paul you are so right as usual. I love the idea of a PC with e-timing - an orienteering version of Parkrun. I've thought many times of trying to get some funding to set one up in Roseisle using EMIT blocks screwed to trees, and persuading some local place with a bar (eg Kinloss Country Golf Club) to administer it in return for runners calling in for a pint while downloading.

With a few strategically-placed controls, courses could be changed regularly using the same controls, and who cares if people run the same course time and again. It would be a great way to find out just how fast you can run an O course when you've sussed the fastest route and can run at optimum speed. Running at speed through terrain is just as valid a skill for orienteerting as is technique.

I know there are gadgets that enable folk to use GPS to track their runs, but the appeal to me of doing it this way (apart from the pint afterwards) is that you don't need to have your own I-gadget to take part.

[RJ]

RE: the permanent courses. Just run round a PC, create a segment on Strava, and let other folk upload their GPS tracks. Timing is automatic. In fact, create different segments using different combinations of the permanent posts.

You could set out simple markers in an area, print off a downloaded map with segment marked, and have that segment for a limited time. In fact why bother with markers, just use prominent features like big crags, ponds, road junctions, clearing etc and create that segment.

Strava and a Garmin would be perfect. Just do it!!! Think of a good name for the segment......

One of my cycle segments is a slightly downhill (but hilly) route.... Thack Attack...... ridden 905 times by 603 people.

[Paul Frost]

Food for thought RJ, so I've started a new thread to follow up these ideas 'Virtual / Social Permanent courses', so lets take this direction there instead of corrupting this thread.

[andy]

I'm slightly puzzled by the omission of triathlon and it's massive growth, as it is an organised sport at specific times/locations

As you've said in another thread in the past, triathlon is a much more training centric sport than orienteering. O in the uk seems to have a focus on races (with lots of them every weekend) rather than training. To get any running training you join a running club or go on your own. Triathlon seems to be a n-sessions a week with a race in 4 months time. This, to me anyway, is somewhere in between organised and non-organised. With orienteering if you miss a race then you're stuffed as the controls will have gone the next day, if you miss a training session you can go out and do it yourself.

[Paul Frost]

Bit more than 1 every 4 months if you want it, I'm doing 6 in the next 8 weeks. It's just like orienteering, if you are prepared to travel you can compete every week.
Many organised sports don't have weekly competitions. Perhaps the fact that two of the fastest growing sports in the UK, Cycling and Triathlon, tend to focus on training with occasional competition rather than weekly competition is that a sign of what the public want?

The Tough Mudder type events (and probably triathlon and cycling) are more geared towards participation for most people, with just the top few treating it as serious competition. I'm on the border of thinking that orienteering is a participation sport for many (myself included). There may be little battles going on with people of similar ability but I tend to focus on my own perception of if I had a good run and did I enjoy it. It's only at very large events that there is likely to be any number of similar ability competitors.

Not many clubs could put on a race every weekend and have the entry numbers that would make it a good competition for a range of abilities. I think you would need at least 80 competitors across 2 or 3 TD5 courses to cover the spread of age/ability

[Jayne]

Question about who people are. Competitions for running are still there, and judging from my running club and the amount of people running local 10ks people are still wanting to compete. Certainly though parkrun is officially non-competitive I don't think you could say this about everybody running it.

There is, again showing from the people doing parkrun, other people wanting to participate rather than compete and seemingly quite a lot of those wouldn't have thought of doing a race/joining a running club etc. before doing parkrun.

Might not be right/or probably be a mix but I would guess the number of people competing is fairy steady, but the numbers participating elsewhere (training/tri/parkrun) has been increasing.

[Sunlit Forres]

The appeal to me of orienteering (ie competitive navigation) is taking part in events with like minded people, sharing lifts to events, enjoying a bit of banter, and working as a team to put them on. There's no doubt that there are plenty of other people would rather do their own thing, at a time of their own choosing. While it would be good to cater for them,while providing training for our club members, I'd rather put effort in to staging events where we can enjoy our sport together.