Moving Towards Individualistic Sports

Article in brief: What are the factors contributing towards the change of direction in the sports world, which is heading towards more individualistic sports.

For the optimists who have not waved the white flag yet, the beginning of the New Year presents everyone with an opportunity to start on a fresh note. A new year was always seen as the best time to start new good habits and lose decayed older habits. Year after year, people are inserting new sports regime in their lives, and this is becoming apparent by the day. You can barely make it through the day without running into a Facebook status update, a tweet or an instagram photo that is about someone obsessing over their new workout. So, what is behind this new fevered sensation?

Besides the accessibility of social media and people’s obsession to show us their new training shoes, the sporting world is heading towards new horizons with more and more individuals heading towards sports that are more individualistic than collective. In this article, I will explore the reasons behind this phenomenon that is attracting our youth.

There are many reasons that could be attributed to the sudden surge in people participating in solo sports – but one of the main causes for this increase is the convenience of solo sports.

Looking back at my own experiences, one of the biggest drawbacks in team sports such as football, is that if you don’t make the numbers needed, the activity risks getting cancelled, therefore, people are never able to freely choose when they can participate in a sport. The convenience generated by solo sports such as cycling, which is a sport that an individual can exercise more freely on their own, is one of the main reasons people are heading towards solo sports. Besides the lack of dependency on people and facilities, solo sports have also, over the years, overcome many barriers of entry such as accessibility or costs associated, making these sports easier to access and cheaper to participate in.

Another reason behind the shift of sports can be credited to the change in the mentality of people. In team sports such as football, the victory is shared among the team and rarely celebrated the individuals. This is not an indication of people becoming more selfish, but more of a reinforcement of the notion that sports always had competitiveness in its roots, hence, a solo sports such as rock-climbing rewards the participants in a manner which is unique and more personal. Furthermore, extreme solo sports such as skydiving or rock-climbing are risky sports and the desire to overcome personal fears encourages people to conquer these sports.

Also, it must be said that technology played a role in changing the course of sports. Just like how people enjoy sharing images of their last meal and vacation, the same can be applied to people who would like to share with their friends the satisfaction of their new physique or the new sport they are practicing. Footage of our skydiving are far more interesting and enjoyable to watch than watching an amateur 90 minute football game waiting for someone to score.

In conclusion, there could be many other reasons behind the sudden change of sporting interests, but the important message is that more and more people are able to access sports. Whether this will have any impact on other sports, such as football and basketball for example, remains to be seen, but we can now say that day by day there are less excuses for people to fail on their New Year resolutions.