Sports vs Screens - The Sporting War Against the Machine.
Wayne Goldsmith
Managing Director | Director level @ Moregold Performance Consulting
Sports vs Screens - The Sporting War Against the Machine.
By Wayne Goldsmith
The number of kids participating in organized, competitive sport is declining.
It's happening all over the world.
Rugby in New Zealand.
Football in England.
Swimming in Australia.
Kids are just not rushing down to the local sports fields, court or pool to play sports the way they did 10 years ago.
And this was happening B.C. - Before Covid! All that Covid19 has done is accelerate this phenomenon and increased the challenges being faced by sporting organizations around the planet.?
Kids are just not participating in sport any more.?
The question is why?
There are a multitude of theories circling the sporting globe to attempt to explain the falling numbers of sports participants.?
"It's the often complex and competing demands of school and sport", some experts propose.
"It's the parents' problem", others argue. "Parents and carers these days are too busy to take their children to sports practice and competition".
"It's society!" is another suggested explanation. "The world has become "soft" and sport, physical activity and hard work are out of place in our short-cut, easy-way, minimal-effort lazy lifestyles".?
National sporting organizations, government sporting departments, coaches, officials and academics everywhere are all trying to figure out why the number of children participating in organized competitive sport around the world has been falling for more than a decade.
Inevitably, the reflections and discussions attempting to explain declining sports participation rates come down to the discovery of a battlefield where two combatants - sports and screens - are waging an all out war for the attention of kids everywhere.
The fight of Sports vs Screens illuminates the reality that kids are not so much walking away from sport....they're being mesmerized then captured - and held prisoner by - the the light of a screen.....that they've gone from a life of motion, momentum and movement to being nothing more than moths inextricably drawn to the flickering flame of smart devices, laptops and gaming consoles.
So - What's the Solution? How Does Sport Win the Sports vs Screens Battle?
Let's begin with what ISN'T the solution!
It is folly in the extreme to expect that kids will turn off their screens and come hopping happily back down the road to your football field or tennis court or swimming pool and politely ask "Please Coach, Can I have some more?".
Screens are here to stay and if you don't believe me mom or dad....why not turn YOUR SCREEN off for 20 minutes and feel the cold sweat start almost immediately as your own FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) takes hold and you begin to tremble and shake uncontrollably at the thought of not being able to watch those incredibly important videos of cats playing pianos and celebrity court-case updates on your smartphone.?
Sport can't beat Screens. The battle is over and screens won.
But Sports Can Win the War!
As I said in an article in the Irish Examiner:
“The experience we’re giving kids is generally out of touch with what they want. The default setting of the majority of coaches around the world still is to be predominantly physically-based and repetition-based, telling kids to do laps and yell times. That’s not coaching, connecting, inspiring.
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“My strong belief is that the solution to turning around the falling numbers playing competitive sport is to change coaching. To make it more relationship-based and experience-based.”
The next time you walk past a child playing on a screen....just pause for a moment and watch - really watch - and watch closely.
What you will see is....
Your child doing something they enjoy doing;
They're doing it with their friends and sometimes with their family;
The screen is constantly changing, adapting and responding to their actions;
They receive immediate and instant acknowledgement for their efforts and attempts regardless of their level of skill and experience;
They receive immediate recognition for their successes and when they do fail - they're only more motivated and energized to keep trying again and again and again until they get it right.
They're engaged, they're having fun, they're doing it with their friends who are also engaged and having fun and if you really think turning off the device and dragging them down to run lap after mindless lap around a football field is good parenting then you've a nasty shock ahead of you.
Now, by way of contrast, go down to your local sporting field and watch what's happening there.
Typically you'll observe.....
Kids doing the same thing, the same way over and over and over;
Coaches standing by watching, counting, measuring but not engaging, inspiring or acknowledging efforts;
Parents on the sideline all who seem to know more than the coach - all expounding the virtues of their "talented" child;
The better kids getting more attention than the less talented ones;
Training sessions based on the development of physical capabilities like endurance and speed and not on just developing a love of playing;
Training sessions where the element of "play" is secondary to the development of skills and techniques.?
Want to know why kids are walking away from sport?
Because we let adults - or rather adult thinking - replace the real reasons sport exists - to have fun, to learn, to make friends and to be with people who enjoy doing the same things - together.
We need to make sport - training, practice, preparation and competition - more engaging, more exciting, more enjoyable.
We need to forget all that stuff about improving a child's oxygen carrying capability and stabilizing their "core" and focus instead on making sport centred on fun, friendships and families.
We need to move on from yelling slogans and quoting Michael Jordan motivational sayings to our kids in a hope that we'll inspire them to fame and fortune and just tell them - so that they know with absolute certainty - that we love them unconditionally, we accept them and we value them for who they are as human beings regardless of their sports performance.?
The only child who doesn't improve at sport is the one who isn't coming any more and right now from London to Lisbon, from Melbourne to Munich and from Cape Town to Quebec - they ain't comin'.
Our priority as coaches, as parents, as carers, as sports administrators is NOT to produce the occasional champion but to create safe, enjoyable, rewarding, sporting environments which give every child the opportunity to fall in love with sport because - when you love what you do - you will do what you love.?
COPYRIGHT WAYNE GOLDSMITH 2022 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Title image Photo by Emily Wade on Unsplash
Recently retired
1 年Good thought provoking article Wayne. I might be a little controversial in the Coaching community but kids don't have coaches when playing on a screen. How do we give the control of the game and their engagement back to them?
Webmaster, International Swim Coaches Association (SwimISCA.org) VP World Aquatic Federation of Schools & Universities (WAFSU.org) and Coach with Ellis School and Pittsburgh Renegades Water Polo
2 年I have another idea. Yes, your ideas are spot on. But to take this to the next level: We need fun tech within sports. When they are turning on the screens, those are times when they can be improving themselves between the ears for the next game, practice and social sports gathering. Few use tech as a pathway to better literacy and mastery in the greater realm of sports and citizenship.
Dip.T, B.Ed II "It's more than just sport" --- Teacher/Sports Coach at HBHS + Life skills mentor
2 年Awesome thank you ...I know Iam one of those coaches chasing numbers rather than looking after the fun for the kids...THANK you I need to make changes to my coaching philosophy.
General Manager at Kookaburra Sport NZ Ltd
2 年Great article and a discussion point I have been involved with for a couple of years. Embrace the gaming concept, create programmes in sport that align to the online games, don’t fight it. The biggest issue I have seen is that some kids have a fear of failure in finite sporting situations, whereas you just push reset and try again on screen. The games I have seen success in, have not been a win/ loss scenario but more a fun based, time on task activities. Once the child is hooked (which can be any age) then they can jump across into a more competitive programme. My question for sport is that if 99% of players are in the participation space, why is most of the programmes geared towards a high performance pathway? This adds fuel to certain competitive parents that struggle to comprehend it is not about them but rather the kids. Just my thoughts as a passionate coach, parent, and observer.
Head of Aquatics - Olympic Training Center Rovaniemi
2 年What a great article. Thanks for sharing. In our RDI work we have a project called Fall in love with your movement, which is basically the same as your message here. It’s not the entertainment industries fault that they are doing so good. Sports just needs to catch up. Just like you said. We need to keep repeating this message.