Now is time for the big Rethink: Focus on Reform, Recruitment, Retention and Relish

Community sport and physical activity will not return to the way things were

I think the pandemic has allowed community sports and physical activity to almost start again. If you not to starting again or ripping up your existing operation I think you'll see little progress. I speak with plenty of people within the sector who struggle to tell me what member experience they're trying to deliver or what their strategy looks like. In many cases their strategy regularly is a net growth in members - sorry that's a goal, not a strategy. Many fail in executing too. It's more tick box exercise  - ? mobile app, ? YouTube workout, ? social posts, ? webinar

Almost forget what you used to do, build a new strategy involving the everyone, especially those at the grassroots as well as senior leadership and go out and execute whilst evaluating along the way.

So for me the challenge to community sport is to find ways to align sport and exercise with health, for a way to make fitness part of the wellness revolution and get sympathy with the Healthcare sector. If they fail I fear the bricks and mortar operator numbers will begin to fall as many find cheaper ways to satisfy their fitness goals.

Providing great experiences is the key to increasing your retention rate

A research project led Professor Rochelle Eime at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia shows that the retention rate in nine community sports from 2015 to 2018 was 31% amongst females and 36% amongst males. Anecdotally, I have seen similar figures in other circumstances. A clear indication that too many people in sports clubs are not having fun.

Some years ago British Gymnastics asked around 8000 lapsed club members why they left the clubs and the most frequent answer was “boring and repetitive coaching”. Also, 81% of the young people said ‘ that the clubs didn’t care’ when they left.

I do wonder how many sports clubs, gyms or leisure centres try and find out whether their members are actually having fun or why they left the club? I fear not many.

A lot of adolescents in sport drop out when they have to train two or three times a week commit to long seasons and competitions. It’s much easier for them to put a set of headphones and go for a run. It’s not about winning, it’s not about medals, it’s not about personal bests.

It’s about playing and being with friends, learning new skills and for social reasons.

Prioritise retention rate of participants

It shouldn’t be only about winning the league

Imagine if we highlighted a club’s retention success as a key achievement? Retention in its simplest means people enjoyed themselves.

Reducing competitive sports helps prep school pupils in the UK

Private schools say cancelling inter-school sports during the pandemic has lead to their pupils developing better skills as a result of not needing to focus on competition with other schools.

47% of respondents said pupils had become more confident in their sporting ability and 37% had noticed a greater enthusiasm for PE

Christopher King, CEO of Independent Association of Prep Schools, said; ”While the current sporting arrangement has been forced up schools by the pandemic, these findings should make us seriously consider the role of competitive sport for children during their formative years, as the evidence suggests that focusing on skills, teamwork and participation could have a transformative effect.

The skill development that has been witnessed does prompt us to ask whether a slightly different approach could mean better and, perhaps more importantly, happier sportspeople in the future,” ends Christopher King.

Improve your recruitment by becoming a hub for your community and #MoreThanAClub

Having worked with more than 4000 community sports in almost every conceivable sport in many countries every time I experienced cases where clubs were growing the membership numbers they were always connecting with people and communities around them and helped create healthier individuals, families and communities.

Those #MoreThanAClub clubs think about the could do which would be meaningful and impactful for their local community. This is about creating the right culture and positive environments

We are also seeing a growth in the interest in engaging with unengaged and inactive people from many health services – often known as social prescribing.

Social prescribing is designed to support people with a wide range of social, emotional or practical needs, and many schemes are focused on improving mental health and physical wellbeing. Those who could benefit from social prescribing schemes include people with mild or long-term mental health problems, people with complex needs, people who are socially isolated and those with multiple long-term conditions who frequently attend either primary or secondary health care. 

Social prescribing by community sports providers has the potential to become a UK wide programme with multiple pathways, including corporate and self-referral mechanisms into community activities to improve physical and mental health.

SMN are running a programme on how community sport and physical activity can play a bigger role in social prescribing.

This is a support, training and mentoring programme for community sports providers such as clubs, social enterprises and community coaches on how to provide great community experiences

There is a huge opportunity now for the community sports sector to embrace the new fitness trends and better adapt and innovate stay relevant in this changing world.

Hybrid Sport could be the way forward

Does the average community sports club really welcome overweight people with underlying health conditions? Does the fitness enthusiast want to (re)join their studio/centre when they have now taken out a ￡50 per month subscription to Peloton? Can the family which has been used to doing family sport in the back garden join your place as a family? Family football or cricket, anyone?

My recommendation is that community sports and exercise providers, be they clubs, centres or must start developing and delivering what we now call ‘hybrid sport’ where they work with different formats, providers at various places and providing digital experiences and communication.

So, we recommend that you accept that you will not return to the ‘old’ normal and that the ‘new’ normal will look distinctly different and that you will have to accept that.

Start with where you are right now. If you are a place-based organisation such as a leisure centre, consider whether you can use other spaces nearer people’s lives such as football for men with dementia at care homes. Can you work with community bodies to engage with unengaged and disengaged groups, develop new, more appropriate formats and start using Zoom classes or online videos to engage with people at home?

So, you should take a more person-centred approach and not just “we are a rugby club/leisure centre and this is what we do’. Consider a single mum with two kids who want to exercise twice a week in front of the telly, join a social netball session once a week (when she has time) and attend, with the kids a family fit session on Sundays. Can you meet her needs?

All these trends may dilute the bricks and mortar clubs and gyms, but those who truly embrace this new world and provide innovative, hybrid models could still prosper. Good luck.