Funding, blah blah blah, elite sports (tennis, generally, yes I do play) those with loads of money, football (yes I do play) blah blah. Jobs for the boys (no I haven’t got one) etc etc.
Now if you look on the BBC there is a whole article about the following table. Yet, and I’m probably really really stupid, not once was triathlon mentioned. And yet (call me stupid) but my interpretation of the table is that triathlon has probably changed the participation levels by a lot and also cycling also just by itself.
| Apr2012-Apr2013 | Oct2012-Oct2013 | Change | |
Source: Sport England’s Active People Survey | |||
| Swimming | 2.88m | 2.93m | Increase |
| Athletics | 1.95m | 2.02m | Increase |
| Cycling | 1.86m | 2m | Increase |
| Football | 1.94m | 1.84m | Decrease |
| Golf | 771,000 | 751,000 | Decrease |
| Tennis | 423,400 | 400,600 | Decrease |
| Squash | 257,100 | 240,700 | Decrease |
| Rugbyunion | 166,000 | 159,600 | Decrease |
| Boxing | 149,7000 | 154,800 | Increase |
| Cricket | 189,000 | 148,300 | Decrease |
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Selfishness on the rise? Individual sports thrive and team sports suffer (even squash and tennis you have to have a partner to even train!) What does this say about the state of our society?
Hmm good point.
Swimming can be quite sociable if you are in a club and chat at each end. We have running partners to run with and cycling can be in groups.
But your point still stands of course.
You’re right, the individual sports can be done socially. I wonder if the implication is that people are too busy to commit to team or partner sports: might have to work late, or have to look after the kids, so cannot promise to be available, which makes arranging matches impossible? With running, if you make it to club training, great! If not, you can still do it during your lunch hour.