Selling Sport: The Influence of Coaches and Officials

Selling Sport: The Influence of Coaches and Officials.

By Wayne Goldsmith

We know that the number of kids playing competitive sport around the world is declining rapidly.

We also know that in response to this decline Governments, National Sporting Organizations and Sporting Clubs are investing a lot of money, time, energy and resources into marketing, advertising and promoting sport, i.e. selling sport.

For the most part, this money is wasted money.

Regardless of the brilliance of the National “Let’s-all-play-sport” type campaign and irrespective of the amount of money thrown at some new and flashy advertising program to promote and grow sport, the number of kids playing competitive sport will continue to decline.

Why?

Because the reason why kids are not playing competitive sport has nothing to do with advertising, free-gifts, modified games or marketing campaigns.

It’s all about the actual experience they receive at the “coal-face” – i.e. the “end-user” experience of sport that the kids see, hear and feel when they turn up for training and competition at their local club.

Sports and Governments can spend millions and millions of dollars on gimmicks, games and gizmos to get kids and their families down to their local club to play football or tennis or rugby or baseball – but all it takes to get them to turn around and never come back, is one poor experience with a coach or an official.

Coaches and Officials – more than anyone else – are directly responsible for whether your sport succeeds or fails.

Coaches and Officials can be powerful and effective advocates for all the wonderful things your sport has to offer.

And they can be just as influential in contributing to the demise and even complete destruction of your sport.

So the question is: Are your coaches and officials Spoiling Sport or Selling Sport?

First Thing’s First: It’s all about THEIR dreams.

Why is it essential that coaches and officials clearly understand what their roles and responsibilities really are when it comes to coaching and officiating sport?

It’s obvious.

Because it’s not about you – it’s about them.

It’s about every child – every kid – everybody who’s involved in sport and who dreams about playing, racing, shooting, scoring, competing….

The main reason competitive sport is dying all over the world is that far too many coaches, officials and other deliverers of sport don’t understand the absolutely fundamental core principle of the sports’ experience….it’s all about the kids.

Kids are motivated and inspired to do sport for a range of reasons. Their friends do it. A member of their family does it. A hero or role model does it.

Regardless of the reason why they play sport, once they’ve made the decision to run, jump, throw, roll, pass, ride….it’s the job of the rest of us to provide the environment and the opportunity for them to enjoy the experience and to live their sporting dreams.

Far too many people in sport kill kids’ dreams because they’ve forgotten that it’s not about the rule book or the sport’s selection policies or the official handbook. And it’s not about heart rates or lactates or periodization or muscle contraction.

It’s about kids – and their dreams.

And anyone who kills the dreams of kids should be locked up!

So….Are You Spoiling Sport or Selling Sport?

Here’s three situations to illustrate the difference between Spoiling Sport and Selling Sport?

Imagine there’s a young girl in your basketball program. All week long she’s dreaming about basketball. She’s talking to her friends about playing the game. She’s texting about it. She’s on social media connecting with her team-mates about it. She’s laying in bed at night thinking about her passing, her shooting, her scoring.

Then she arrives at training and her coach is there – waiting to start the training session.

Spoiling Sport action: The coach makes everyone in the team run 20 laps around the court. This is followed by 10 minutes of stretching and 10 minutes of core-stability work. Then the coach introduces 20 minutes of defensive drills involving only the defenders while the team’s attacking players sit on the bench waiting for their turn to practice. The coach then runs the attackers through some attacking drills while the defenders sit on the bench. With three minutes to go in the training session the coach says “Ok – let’s have quick game before we go home”. During the three-minute game, the coach stops the players ten times to correct their technique and skills.

Selling Sport action: The coach says “OK – guys, let’s play”. The players commence playing a game. After five minutes the coach stops the game and says, “let’s have a stretch”. After three minutes of stretching, the players return to the game. After 5 minutes the coach notices that most of the players are struggling with low passes. He stops the game and the players practice low-passing skills for about 5 minutes. The coach then says, “OK guys – let’s get back to the game – and let’s get those low-passes sharp and fast”. The players play for another 10 minutes with the coach walking around the court working one-on-one with individual players as they play. The coach let’s the game flow through the entire training session believing that “the game is their greatest teacher”. At the end of the session, the coach asks a few players what they thought about the session, what they learnt and how that would help them in their next game.

Then there’s the 10-year-old swimmer. She loves swimming. She tried team sports. She had a go at athletics. But swimming is “her” thing. She loves the feeling of moving and flowing through the water. She can’t wait to get to practice each day and to hang out with her friends and her coach. All over her bedroom wall are pictures of national team swimmers. She went to national championships last year as a spectator and got a photo with her hero – one of the national team swimmers who won an Olympic Gold Medal – and that photo sits proudly on her bedside drawers.

She enters in a small local Swim Meet near her home. On the day of the Meet she gets up early, has a nice breakfast and excitedly prepares to get ready to race.

At the Meet she’s so happy and excited she can barely control her enthusiasm. When it’s her time to race, she heads down to the marshaling area and steps up on the blocks to race her favorite event: the 50 metre breaststroke.

There’s a small technical error with her breaststroke kick. It’s a relatively minor fault – but technically – under the rules of the sport – it’s a disqualifiable fault.

A race official meets her at the end of the pool.

Spoiling Sport action: The race official confronts the swimmer as she gets out of the pool. She tells the swimmer “You’re disqualified”. The race official then turns away to go back to her duties.

Selling Sport action: The race official confronts the swimmer as she gets out of the pool. She tells the swimmer, “Your breaststroke is coming along nicely. Well done. You’ve got a little technical issue with your kick. Is your coach here? I’d like to have a chat with her about your breaststroke and talk about some ways we can help you make it better”.

Or what about a teenage boy who loves Kart Racing. He’s got – as they say “a need for speed”. All his life he’s dreamed of going fast. At 8 he rode his skateboard down the local hill. At 11 he couldn’t wait to jump on his bike every day and ride to school as fast as he could. Then…at 15 years of age – he found Karts – and wow!

All over his bedroom wall there’s photos and posters of Formula 1 cars, NASCAR drivers, national champion Kart racers….he is completely and totally connected to motor sport of all kinds.

His parents are not wealthy but they love him and support him in everything he does. So because Kart racing is his passion they find ways to get the money together to buy him a second-hand Kart and help him to fix it up, re-paint it and get it ready to race.

His parents even find a way of borrowing a trailer so they can drive the Kart to a big race event being conducted over four hours away.

The teenage driver arrives at the track excited and ready to have a great day’s racing.

A race official inspecting his Kart prior to the start of the first race, identifies a minor technical problem with one of the Kart’s wheels.

Spoiling Sport action: The race official says nothing to the young boy but disqualifies the Kart – and therefore the young driver – from the day’s racing. The official posts the disqualification on the race day notices board and the young driver finds out about his disqualification from a friend who sees it posted there.

Selling Sport action: The race official says to the young driver, “Great to see you here. Amazing paint job on your Kart. There’s a little problem with one of your wheels. However, we’ve got some spares here at the Club which will fix this problem for today so you can race”. The official hands the young driver a booklet. “I’ve highlighted the page covering “wheels” in this handbook. Happy to go through this with you and your family later today if you like. Have a great race”.

The point is this.

Coaches and Officials can kill sport.

They can be the most negative and destructive forces within Clubs and Sporting Associations.

Or – they can be the most powerfully constructive forces for positive change, growth and engagement and help your sport to thrive like nothing and no-one else can.

It all comes down to how you’re training your Coaches and Officials and educating them about their real roles and responsibilities.

Selling Sport: What are the real roles of Coaches and Officials?

1. Connection – connecting sport with the sport’s “clients” – i.e. kids, families, participants, competitors etc.
2. Inspiration – inspiring the hearts and minds of the sport’s “clients”.
3. Education – educating the sport’s “clients”.
4. Experience creating – creating positive, engaging, entertaining, stimulating, safe and supportive experiences for the sport’s “clients”.
5. PLUS….Doing all the “stuff” coaches and officials have to do.

We’ve got it wrong!

We’ve trained and educated coaches and officials to do all the “stuff” they have to do as their first priority.

Coaches have put periodization ahead of people.

Officials have put the “Laws” ahead of learning.

Sure – there’s no doubt there are times when coaches have to coach and officials have to officiate.

However, if there are no kids coming to training or attending events….there’s no one to coach or to officiate.

The priority of sport – and that means the priority for everyone in sport – regardless of what your role is – is to create enjoyable, rewarding, meaningful experiences for kids and their families.

Summary:

1. Coaches and Officials ARE sport in many cases. They are the people who make the connections, who build the relationships, who create the experiences for kids and families. It is essential they realize the importance of their roles in ensuring the sustainable success of sport.
2. Stop Wasting your money on national marketing campaigns, advertising and promotional programs. Invest in the training, development and retention of your coaches and officials. Get that right – and your sport will flourish!
3. Important Message to all sports...train your coaches and officials to focus on their roles and responsibilities to growing the sport as THEIR priority.
4. At all times put the kids in your sport – and their dreams – first and foremost. If coaches and officials help kids to realize their dreams, rather than stamping on them – everyone wins!

Wayne Goldsmith

Check out Wayne’s new book Leading Without Leading – available now on Amazon Books.