STUDY NIGHT - A PEOPLE-FOCUSED APPROACH (SPORT4ME)

                                                            

These points come from a a study released just last week titled "Sport4Me: A People Focused Approach to Engaging Australians in Sport."

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With such a focus only playing to win at all community levels of sport, participation has dropped off the back of it as more and more people prefer social activity over competitive activity.

Community sports clubs need to have eyes on both types of participators at their clubs, even going as far as finding who plays to win and who plays to socialise, and whose there for both aspects which could assist in how you develop and design practice activities to appease both ends of the participation spectrum.

Clubs that don't cater to, or socially "allow" for social participating members only will fall behind in total participation numbers, putting their club at long term risk.

This is not just an issue at junior level, although that's where it often starts, and  it's even worse in adult-aged sport.

• The traditional model of community sport is fine for those who enjoy competition and have the skills/commitment to play but societal preferences have changed and most kids prefer to participate in sport outside of competition/high skill structures
• Associations between motivations to play and factors that create fun/enjoyment are misaligned for each child
• Sport4Me is about flexible, inclusive and equitable sporting opportunities that focus on friends, fun, physical literacy and play  to encourage lifelong participation
• 50% of all sport participants are 5 – 14 years old but 45% of those drop out by age 17
• Adults who play sport are also opting for less competitive settings of more flexibility and less competitive options
• The Aussie context of engagement in sport has been, and continues to be, a cultural activity forming part of the imagined Aussie identity going back to colonial naturalism and serves a social purpose of achieving a false sense of community through a common vision of identity
• Sport is now a hybrid of community/corporate sport in how it is perceived and delivered
• Clubs have a playing-to-win focus on higher skilled players but fail to cater for everyone else, contributing to dwindling numbers
• Informal sport has gained limited traction from difficulty accessing facilities from traditional local clubs
• The format in how sport has been delivered is now strongly challenged by changing lifestyles
• A slow change is occurring is gender inclusiveness but again it fails to cater for those not playing for competition and without adequate skills
• 2 decades ago, a study of Aussie youth sport found that the biggest concerns were low participation rates, poor levels of skill development, a limited range of available sports, limited opportunities for females and a lack of quality sport coaches
• Modified sports were introduced to make sport more accessible
• They found that the common coaching approach was command and practice which was flagged as a concern so they developed a new game based/player centered approach to coaching (game sense) but the quality of coaching still persisted and participation continued to decline
• Participation/retention in sport is not related to a single factor like competency but a range of factors across different domains
• For children sport is something they like to be controlled by them but competitive sport is run via an adult lens with children wanting to play for fun, having to play to win
• Early participation leads to adolescence participation suggesting the initial experienced coaching methods are the most important
• In their teens, perceived/actual belief in their competence/ability and thus self esteem, begins to influence participation/motivation
• Low movement quality when entering their teens leads to sedentary lifestyles and should be focused on in early years
• Participation decreases across a lifespan x 15% for 20 – 24yr olds, 7% for 30 – 34, 6% for 40 – 44, 4o% for 50 – 54, 2% for 60 – 64 and 1% for 70 – 74 and that includes social sport/fitness focused activity (local gym etc)
• All this being said there is definitely still a place for competitive club-based sport
• Children's motivations include become a professional athlete, learn new skills, work towards a sense of achievement
• Adult motivations are much less motivated by performance/competition and more by health maintenance and being a good role model
• Older adults motivations are mostly around the social aspect
• The biggest motivator is to have fun (intrinsic motivation) followed by physical health/fitness, performance/competition, social reasons/be with friends and to generate a sense of achievement
• Male motivations include play to perform, compete, be a professional athlete and often focus on more extrinsic factors (recognition etc) then females
• Both genders have motivations including intrinsic factors such as enjoyment and socialising to enhance well being
• Females motivations include improving physical/mental health, lose weight, be a good role model, learn new skills with the group context being huge for more motivation
• When asked creating memorable experiences for kids they answered with having fun, being challenged to improve, get better at sport, playing with friends and socialising with LESS THAN HALF responding with winning
• Teens responded with personal development x trying your best, social development x playing well as a team and organisational factors x game time and well organised practices
• Adults responded with by keeping fit
• Males were more likely to have fun when winning compared to females who have more fun with a friendly coach
• Teen girls responded with trying your best, parents behaving well
• Teen boys responded with game time and well organised practices
• What is fine for 1 player will be different for another so find out what fun is to each and every player
• We choose to do things based on the memory of the experience and the anticipation of a new memory that will be created, so you need to create a story from the memory of the experience which provide positive experiences and sustains participation, limiting drop outs and continuing participation
• Emotion persuades behavior and determines moments that become remembered, but this is highly individual and if their thing isn't winning then you’re gonna lose them
• Outside circle x playing sport/motivations for fun
• At an organisation/club level be welcoming, inclusive, have well organised practices, allow flexible commitment, ensure quality coaching and include competition but also with providing everyone opportunities to play/play
• At the interpersonal level focus on playing with friends, social engagement and get great parental engagement
• At the intrapersonal level focus on physical literacy, competition/opportunities to play, gaining a sense of achievement and provide challenges for improvement