When England’s world cup winning rugby captain Martin Johnson retired from the international arena, he famously made public his intention to keep playing rugby. The reason he gave was that he just loved the game too much to walk away completely.
There are millions like him around the globe who continue to play the sport they love even when their best days are long gone. This is something to be admired for there are many, who cannot face not being able to do what they used to be able to in their youth, or simply not be able to perform to the standards they expected in the past.
This enjoyment of the game itself along with the camaraderie of being a part of a club or a team may well be why we are witnessing a trend in many sports where the participation growth is coming in the over 40’s age groups.
There has always been a drop off in teenagers and young players in their early 20’s as their priorities in life change. For some it is the realisation that they are not going to be good enough to make a living from their sport. For others their focus has to shift onto studies or the early years of a career. For many it’s the temptations of the opposite sex, bars and night clubs. Currently with the rising cost of participation fees, for many who now have to stand on their own two feet and pay rent, buy groceries, keep a car running etcetera these fees can prove prohibitive. Some as we have seen in recent times simply walk away because they do not enjoy the sport the way those playing masters or Martin Johnson do.
There are many in the older age bracket who are still playing their chosen sports who feel that some of the reason for the drop off in participation amongst the younger generations is because we have over-complicated sport. That there is far too much emphasis on formations than on developing basic skills, and encouraging players to showcase those skills, to back themselves and make their own decisions and learn what works and what doesn’t. Instead there is an emphasis on trying to turn athletes with good physical attributes into players, rather than working with those who have a natural talent for the sport in question and making them better athletes.
In addition we put far too much pressure on the youth of today by creating all of these youth tournaments at under 13 and up. An age where it is impossible to predict whether a child has what it takes to progress and become a professional player. As we discussed in Podcast 76 with Alex Chiet, Sport NZ’s Talent Development Manager New Zealand has identified this as a major problem which has also played a part in reducing the quality of the players who do go on and play internationally.
In 1955 Austrian Willie Miesel wrote the superb, but at the time heavily criticised “Soccer Revolution.” Even though he was a big fan of football in England he predicted a bleak future for English football which clearly no one wanted to hear. Much of what he wrote has come true. Two years prior to the publication of his book he wrote in the programme for the 1953 clash between England and the Rest of the World. His words are as relevant today as they were then over a half a century ago, and are applicable to so many sports.
“We must free our soccer youth from the shackles of playing to order, along rails as it were. We must give them ideas and encourage them to develop their own.”
How many young players today are restricted from expressing themselves in a game? How many are told to play the way they are facing and not take on an opponent? When international players are told not to back themselves when they see an opportunity and stick to the process you know that sport is in trouble. Incredibly this is happening and these are the best players in the various nations.
Such edicts have an impact not only on the players but also on those coming through the turnstiles as well as those you want to pay to watch on TV. Most followers or fans of every sport go or tune in to be entertained. They want to see players do things that they could only dream of doing. To see people who make simple things look effortless. How many young girls dream of being ballerinas? Few will ever make it to a level where people will pay to watch them, yet they flock to shows to see those who have do what they try to do, and make it look effortless. They like many sports fans fulfil that dream through watching others perform.
In football the reason that Messi and Ronaldo stand out as players is for the same reason. They can in a moment change a game. They have the ability but also like all the greats that have gone before, they have been given the freedom to express themselves.
Brendan McCullum as a cricketer had a huge influence on a shift in thinking in New Zealand cricket, and appears to have done the same in England. As a captain of the New Zealand national side he suddenly had far more say in the way things worked. He rediscovered his love of the game, and his approach enabled others to enjoy what they were doing as a job. He has done the same since taking over as England coach, encouraging players to believe in themselves and back those instincts, as a result the players, many of who looked jaded in Australia during the Ashes tour look refreshed and enthusiastic again. McCullum’s influence is still permeating through the New Zealand team long after he has gone as they appear to be a team not caught up in the tribalism that is being promoted, and they are rarely petulant or arrogant. There is a humility to what is a very talented team and that is why they would have to be one of the most respected teams in World Cricket. When they lost the ODI World Cup there was no moaning from the team even if an umpiring decision which few were aware of went against them. They congratulated their opponents and moved on.
In many sports and on many levels in many sports it has become about winning at all costs, and enjoyment has become secondary to winning.
Bill Bradley is a US Senator after a career in Basketball, but he delayed his decision to pursue a basketball career until after he attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. This was the 1960’s and one wonders whether a player could manage to do that today. In fact many are bypassing college for a rookie contract because the money is preferable. Bradley, referring to success on a basketball court wrote in his book “Life on the Run” that “an exceptional player is simply one point on a five-pointed star. Statistics -such as points, rebounds or assists per game – can never explain the remarkable range of human interaction that takes place on a successful pro team.”
Even if you play an individual sport there is that interaction with a coach. How often do we see individual athletes reel off a support cast that helped them attain success. The key aspect though, as Bradley alludes, is it is about being a part of such interaction that makes sport so special, that is a major component in people deriving enjoyment from it, and the reason so many opt to keep playing well into old age.
With so much emphasis on winning or our young players achieving, and by that I mean making a representative side or playing for a side that will give them a better chance of making a passion or a pastime into a career, are we not changing their mindset? Are we not limiting it, and running the risk of eliminating that most important ingredient, enjoyment.
There have been many talented footballers, cricketers, golfers and tennis players that had the talent and the ability to turn professional. Many have turned their back on that because they do not want to play every day, they worry that if they did that they would lose that enjoyment, that love of the game.
Creating such a mindset around winning has its risks. It can frame behaviours. So is it any wonder that many young sports people exhibit many behavioural traits that are unhealthy?
Sports academies have become all the rage in the past three or four decades. However once again many of these are not built around enjoyment. Many are not free either. Parents are sold a dream, and they invest in their child becoming ‘the next big thing,’ so they happily invest in sending their child to that academy. The fact is for every one player that may go through that academy and make it to the top there will be hundreds who don’t make it. It is the fees from those who don’t make it that keep the academy alive, and increase their chances of uncovering that one player.
The fact is most of the players who make it many sports do not do so from academies, they are spotted playing with a team. They may then be taken into an environment where they are surrounded by players of an equal or better standard, and this is when they decide if they wish to continue or not. Much of that will come down to whether that greater focus is enjoyable or not.
Putting children into such an environment too young is running the risk of killing that enjoyment. The coaches at the academies in the main will not care about that as they are focussed on that one player who breaks through. Yet how many players have had their zest for a sport eradicated because of them?
The same is true of under age representative teams, why are we putting pressure on children to make an under 13 or under 14 team? Is this in fact more to do with many coaches ambitions? For decades there were no such teams, and one feels the world was a better place for it. Do we really need more than under 17, under 19, and under 21 teams? Here we can identify those who have matured and have talent and also there is still time for those who mature late?
Sadly, the current system sees many progress through the various junior sides and earn a place in these teams purely because they have been a part of the system for so long; even if they are actually not that good. In some cases this is only to justify the investment in said player. Some even progress to senior representative squads! (Walking Away). In many cases this still does not guarantee that they will enjoy playing.
As one international player who appeared on Not The Footy Show said, “it is just a job.” They admitted that they had ceased to enjoy playing a long time ago. Now it was all about the money, and setting themselves up for the future. That is fair enough, but surely many of us find that very sad?
Maybe that is why players who play with sheer joy and enjoy every moment and let that joy shine through hold a special place in our hearts.
When it comes to sport nine times out of ten enjoyment is the happiness that is derived from pursuing your potential and your passion. It’s about getting better and knowing that you are improving. Its about improving as a team, or being as Bradley said being “one point on a five-pointed star. It’s about the moment, being in that magical moment, and most important of all it is about doing something you love to do.
Not everyone will have the same view as Martin Johnson, but how many have lost that enjoyment long before the time comes when they should be hanging up their boots? What can be done to bring back the joy of playing at all ages?
