Here’s something to think about.
There’s a lot of talk about the level of privilege among modern athletes. Anyone who came up as a player 20 years ago must think current players are seriously spoiled. As one of the Volleyball Coaching Wizards I interviewed said, the older players were happy just to get a new pair of shoes each year.
Obviously, the degree to which players nowadays are spoiled or not, pampered to or not, depends a great deal on the level of play and the resources of the organization for which they compete (or the amount their parents are willing the spend). The team I coached at Svedala, for example, got the basics. The club did not provide the players nearly the gear and support in the form of trainers, etc. as most college players in the US get these days. This is despite being a professional team.
But I’m not here to talk about that stuff. I want to instead discuss the degree of player investment in their teams and the programs that surround them.
I recently thought about the structure of university level volleyball in the U.K. That is an entirely club-based system. By that I mean teams are not varsity in the way those of us in the U.S. think about it with the school running this. Instead, they are student-run clubs. They are much like club sports at colleges and universities in the States. Yes, there are varying degrees of involvement and oversight from school to school. Overall, though, the club membership is responsible for the direction the program takes and much of the day-to-day administration.
The result of all this is that club members are – to my mind – more invested in how the program does. This is both in terms of performance on-court and what they do outside the gym (club growth, community service, etc.). This leads me to wonder ….
Would athletes in other structures be more invested if they were more involved in the off-court parts of their programs?
I’m thinking primarily here of school programs (college/university or even high school), but we could use the same idea in a more professional club context. We sometimes talk about the need to have players feel like they are part of the process of determining how they train and/or play. This would simply take that same idea and apply it to the more administrative side of things.
Obviously, the coaching staff has to do certain things for one reason or another. For example, NCAA rules prohibit student-athletes from recruiting. There are plenty of things they can help out with, though. Making travel arrangements. Doing scheduling. Setting up community service activities. The list goes on.
As an added bonus, if we let players help out with that kind of stuff we can have less administrative staff. That means lower costs. 😉
Also, the admin experience wouldn’t hurt in terms of the athletes developing useful job market skills.
Just something to think about. Feel free to tear the idea to shreds in the comment section below. 🙂
