It’s well said that “Sports doesn’t build character; It reveals it”. This realization is sensed as soon as one begins to practice sports or fitness in life. It gives even much deeper understanding if one grows to be a fitness, adventure or outdoor sports enthusiast. An athlete also knows that mastering the art of any sport or fitness is an effort of lifelong craftsmanship. Any other connotation or display of this fact is mere shortcut, often a misleading conduct. Unfortunately, many athletes are distracted to endorse glorifying forms of marketing, social media buzz and promotional activities.
Body physique practices are gaining momentum due to growing stress levels in our daily lives. Our lifestyles are revolved around lesser physical efforts nowadays. With spiraling side effects of sedentary lifestyles as problems and globalization of commercial outdoor sports industry as solutions, a market for sports and fitness products industry is creating buzz rapidly across world.
However, this industry involves unique commerce. Its character is being built within consumer opportunities of showcasing physical prowess. “Conquering the wild”! Consumers can become celebrities as soon as they are ready with some unique idea of bravado. Desperate marketers, with a need to either enter new markets or to introduce new product innovations, are eager to sponsor fancy looking bravados without any authentic checks. This so happens because outdoor-sports is relatively a new industry, for both marketers as well as consumers! Lure of celebrity-hood, social recognition and prospect to monetize passions are great incentives for consumers to adopt shortcuts. As for marketers, it’s a new opportunity to tap low cost talent to dramatize brand proposition.
If the industry is growing, if consumers and brands are collaborating, and if it’s mutually beneficial, what’s the fuss all about? The concern is on wider cancerous outcomes of such shortcut collaborations. The very foundations of outdoor sports pursuits seem to be shaking.
Man’s need of stepping into wild or experimenting with nature is about exploring enormous physical potential of one’s own self. The learnings could be applied to overall fitness of our physical world or activities in any form. Better understanding on stretching physical limits also betters our general life practices. In the process, one also gets to deal with injuries, physical discomforts, need of wildlife conservation, chances, accidents, risks and other unpredictable circumstances. It helps us improve our social responsibility score. In all, we get to discover something unknown that keeps us better connected to the world. The learnings come with various perspectives.
When nature gives us gift of priceless learnings in exchange of our physical efforts, how can we term it as our personal achievements?
Instead of sharing context, learnings, techniques and other experiences, how can we ATHLETES resort to enjoying personal glories?
How can we not realize that glorifying act looks inspirational on the outside, gets blindly followed by newbies, and decodes very little to a needy! Blind following also gets ignorant followers to disturb natural codes/setups. We have seen unimaginable effects of global warming, air, water pollutions and likes. On top of this, in the moments of crisis it’s unlikely that these followers would be able to handle unexpected crisis, for lack of preparedness/knowledge. These are fundamental threats of glorifying acts of athleticism.
Commercial opportunity of any athletic or adventure pursuit must be managed with a responsible move. Many a times athletes are young, inexperienced and unaware of ways to move up professional endorsements or initiatives. They get dazzled in new found commercial glorifying opportunities. Likewise, corporates with fresh interests in athletic or outdoor products are less likely to understand environmental disciplines.
Dealing in the business of athletics requires a hand of neutral management. Final interests have to be about improving knowledge and ease of sportsmanship. There has to be a ‘neutral hand’ who can guide when things go overboard on both sides of collaboration. Setting up a committee with unbiased and experienced members of fields can prove to be a prudent decision at corporates dealing with athletes.
Another way to look at it is to understand that dealing in athletics is a lifelong commitment in bettering society’s fitness score. Roles at either side calls for micro contributions with broader perspective. It’s important to recognize one’s role in overall system and serve it well with relevant expertise i.e an athlete can impart knowledge and science at all levels of difficulty in games where as a corporate can identify needs to support initiatives that can truly move things forward. It’s not a matter of couple of days or months to reach individual goals and then leaving it once bored. It’s not about leaving when tired; it’s about leaving when done! Till then it’s about continuous improvements and contributions. Every day of a life builds a moment of lifetime!
Afterword:
Concluding moments in any game aren’t about the game; it’s about nerves. Getting on these nerves is about stepping onto will power beyond one’s physical realm. A winning point is also subject to perfect environment, coming together of all forces and energies. We aren’t equipped to focus on these aspects normally without practice. Individual notes, learnings and context experienced during practice sessions are great resources to propound further public knowledge.
It’s important to factor such subjective yet universal aspects while spreading buzzwords with any athletic story or branding initiative.
Epilogue:
Dealing in commerce of athletics should not be limited to only individual activity or goals. It mustn’t work in isolation. Every commercial activity in sports should be dealt with a vision to contribute to bigger responsibility towards nature, natural resources and environmental perfection.
Nature also has secret codes of our highest physical potentials. Venturing into outdoors or experimenting with sportsmanship has definite opportunity to decode these secrets. When we chance upon those learnings, we bear a responsibility to share with society at large.
Keep learning secret codes! Keep spreading knowledge free from personal glory! Keep supporting initiatives that matter to all!
