They say that you need to be focussed to succeed in life and in the competitive world of sports, but have some sports lost focus? Has their vision become blurred?
We have seen numerous sports talk about bringing the fun back into sport at junior level. They have realised that not everyone wants to be a professional athlete. Many people just want to play a game they love and enjoy with their mates. Some want to see what level they can reach with the talent they have, knowing full well that they are never going to become a professional athlete. (Podcast #76)
While the focus has turned on restoring the fun and enjoyment of playing sport, and not putting pressure on young children to achieve, everyone knows that the main goal is to try and keep people engaged in physical activity. The reasons are many, but in the main physical activity improves everyone’s well-being physically and mentally.
While many sports are to be commended for recognising the need to make sure that those playing the sport are enjoying it, how many are asking their top elite athletes if they are still enjoying it?
In the past few weeks two International athletes have told this writer that they walked away from their chosen sports earlier than they needed to, because they no longer enjoyed it.
Often today we see the money that our top athletes earn and think that everything must be great in their lives. That they are living the dream. They are earning good money, being adored by thousands and doing something that they love. Yet the real picture would appear to be very different. Certainly not all are loved, and social media has made live truly unbearable for many. Is it any wonder therefore that many have closed their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. As we covered in Podcast #84 the abuse can be extremely hurtful not only to the athlete, but also to their family and loved ones.
It has been interesting to listen to athletes say that some of that abuse would be bearable if they were enjoying what they were doing. In the end it has to come down to enjoyment or satisfaction, no matter what job you are in. Yes there are some that can simply take the money, but usually that attitude only lasts so long.
So why has the enjoyment gone?
It would appear that there are many reasons.
One former international stated that for them the enjoyment went when the focus went on purely the end result, rather than the way that result was achieved. In other words there was a game plan, and it was drummed into the players that there was to be no deviating from that plan, no backing themselves. Which may explain why there are so few players who set the game alight with brilliant individual skills.
This comment interestingly has been uttered by athletes from three different team games. In two cases the players possessed incredible individuals skill, but they were not told to harness that skill and given permission to use it when it would be most effective, instead they were told that they must play the way that had been determined was the best for the team.
This explains why crowds are falling at live sporting events across the globe. Clearly the fear of losing has became greater than the desire to win. The CEO looks at losses impacting on their bottom line, while the coaches see losses as impacting on their career as a coach. Many now putting that ahead of what may be best for the team. That was why it was so refreshing to hear Tom Sermanni of the New Zealand Women’s National football team discussing finding ways to win a game and how he felt that to play to avoid defeat was an insult to the players.(Podcast #85)
One of the other athletes that walked away from their sport when they still had several years left to compete at the highest level stated that the sport scientists were one of the reasons why they retired. Bearing in mind that this individual was a World Champion one would have thought that people would have been all ears to hear why they were retiring.
They claimed that the sports scientists came on board and broke up what was already working and tried to innovate new ways of training and also reduced their levels of training. This was supposed to increase their performance, but to many, and understandably so, it had the opposite effect. Ironically this athlete was across this area as they had in fact studied the subject. Again the accusation was that the sports scientists were more concerned with keeping their role within the national program that the focus became too narrow. No longer were the athletes human beings. They were instead a means to an end. The human factor was forgotten as they were made to jump through various hoops to achieve. Their feelings and whether they were enjoying what they were doing was never considered, it was simply assumed.
Another athlete cited a loss of freedom and being allowed to think for themselves as the reason they fell out of love with their sport. They accepted that within the sport there are routines like any job, where you are required to be somewhere and to do something at a set time. What they fell out of love with was not being allowed to let their true personality come through. Before a Press conference they would be briefed as to what they were to say, the “key messaging” that had to be put across. There was no trust that they could give their own answers. There was no latitude to stray from the team messaging, and show their individual personality.
These behavioural restrictions spilt over onto the field of play as well. Any over exuberance would see them warned or fined. There was no place for individual characters to stamp their individual mark on the game. We have all heard the expression ‘there is no I in team,’ in other words everyone pulls together for the common cause. However this individual claimed that it was almost as it you had to leave your personal beliefs, personality and character behind as well as you became a team of automatons.
Yet Australian sport has been built around characters, think of Doug Walters, Rod Marsh, Denis Lillee, David Campese etc.
How many of us have thought about these athletes at the top and whether they are still enjoying playing a sport that they clearly loved? Some of them must still love what they do, Roger Federer springs to mind as one. Former England Rugby captain Martin Johnson retired from International rugby but he kept playing with Leicester because he loved playing rugby and loved the camaraderie.
Sadly that is not always the case. As one former Premier League footballer stated nearing the end of his career, they no longer enjoyed playing, now it ‘was just a job.’
We have seen many top level athletes come out and reveal that they have mental health issues. Many of these are based around anxiety. The general public often scoff at such claims and wonder how someone who appears to have it all can suffer from anxiety.
Yet try and imagine, if every day when you woke up you were being told what time to be somewhere and what to wear. When you went to do the thing that you loved as a child, which was playing your chosen sport, you are now restricted in terms of how you play, what you are permitted to do and what you may not do. When you go to the gym, you can only work out for so long and lift so much weight and then you must stop. No longer can you trust your own body and how it feels or how you feel. Then when you speak in public even what you say is controlled. Is it really any wonder that our athletes suffer mental issues?
The very things that many did and trusted to bring them this opportunity they are now told that they are no longer able to rely on. Now they must rely wholly and solely on the support staff, the coaches, the sports scientists, their team mates. No longer must they think for themselves.
Is it really any wonder that some no longer enjoy the sport that they used to love? It is not just our youth who have fallen out of love with sport because it is no longer simply about playing, but many of our talented top flight players have too. This has nothing to do with indiscipline, but everything to do with being trusted and allowed to be who you are..
The cries of rebellion are a whimper at the moment, but soon they will become a roar if people fail to listen.
The fans have already seen the lack of characters in their chosen sports. We heard an outpouring of tales about the late Dean Jones who passed away recently. How many tales would be told about the modern day cricketers? Why will there be no stories? It is simple, because there is too tight a rein on every moment of their lives within their team and away from it. If they show any character, they will be shown the door.
Sport needs characters, mavericks, people who can do special things, or make special moments happen. It needs rebels and people opposition fans love to hate. Sport needs these players not only playing, but also when they retire, as their stories are the ones that keep the magic alive, that let us mere mortals have a glimpse as to what it was really like at the top. Sport is about drama, romance, the supposedly unbelievable becoming believable. With no characters the game becomes dull, the coverage suffers the same fate, and the after dinner circuit will die.
It is time to loosen the shackles, let us see, hear and enjoy a little more freedom amongst our athletes. Let us bring the joy back.
