Catering to Different Tastebuds in Sport Delivery

There’s a reason Baskin Robbins offers 31 flavours and not simply vanilla! 🍦

Trying to deliver a ‘fun’ or ‘inclusive’ sports experience is like trying to serve a ‘tasty’ meal: on the surface it seems easy to visualise examples, but the reality is that it’s highly individualised.

Our food preferences are shaped by age, genetics and experience - our preferences for how we play sport are no different. Amanda Visek’s research highlights 81 determinants of fun in youth sport, and the challenge at a grassroots level is how we cater to such a range.

This is why elements like deliverer-to-participant ratios become highly important in programs, and investing in the skills of our deliverers. When one deliverer needs to coach a large group of participants, they’re prompted to think like a wedding caterer: “what would the masses like?” As a result, participants get the sporting equivalent of being served ‘the chicken or the beef’. I experienced this myself planning a session for 70 nine-year olds at my local club earlier this week. The same challenge could also be applied to peak bodies trying to develop a national program: we can strive for 'one size fits all' but it's always just out of reach.

Getting closer to the individual enables deliverers to operate more like wine sommeliers 🍷 – what does this particular participant like? Our challenge as sport developers is therefore to not only increase the number of deliverers, but to empower them with the skills/knowledge to:
1)       Understand what their participants want;
2)       Select the right type of experience (e.g. activities); and
3)       Execute the delivery (e.g. coaching style)

The pitfall of many sport organisations seeking hyper-growth in participation has been a primary focus on 'quantity of experiences' rather than 'quality of experiences', which ultimately wins in the long-term.