Steve Cram on a new vision for track and field

Athletics Weekly

Steve Cram talks about why the quest to find and retain new young athletes remains a priority in the sport, plus the moves afoot to improve the situation.

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. Steve Cram here. Hopefully most of you will know my life in athletics and how much I still care about it.

00:09My purpose of being on this call with you is that for the last year or so, I've been co-chairing a vision group,

00:15which has been trying to look at where we're at, some of the issues that the sport's facing,

00:21big issues the sport's facing, and perhaps some suggestions as to how we might approach a new vision going forward for the sport here in the UK,

00:32with particular focus on the home countries and understanding what's going on out there at the moment,

00:37the good things, the bad things, the things that historically we've been left with, if you like,

00:42and the opportunities that we can look forward to perhaps in the future as well.

00:46Steve Smith's been my co-chair. We came into this with absolutely no agenda.

00:56We had some great people who joined us, all of them with experience within the sport,

01:01bring all sorts of different levels from some of our young people, some older folk like ourselves,

01:08some who are involved in organising events, and for others, perhaps more on the recreational, the coaching side.

01:16So we tried to get a real cross-section of people who would come to the table with experience and thoughts, but no axe to grind.

01:25So the next stage of this, I guess, after we've all been looking at this as closely as we can and coming up with some recommendations,

01:33which I'll go through, is really to come to yourselves and people like yourselves who are involved in the sport on a daily basis

01:40and try to make sure that we're garnering as many thoughts and ideas based around some of the recommendations that we're going to put out there.

01:53This is never, ever meant to be, you know, here are the solutions to all of our problems and this is what we think.

01:59As ever, our sport has lots of great people with lots of great ideas.

02:05We have lots of people who sometimes don't get the chance to contribute, and that's really what we want to make sure is happening.

02:13The most important people, though, I would say, and one of the things that we did try to do was to understand that the future of our sport

02:20is about young people being involved in it and where they get involved, how they get involved, who they come into contact with,

02:27how they journey through our sport and hopefully stay involved in the sport.

02:31So their voice has been very important to this as well.

02:33So this is the point where, going forward, that everybody can contribute to this.

02:39We are, well, certainly from a personal perspective, I'm incredibly keen that we find a new way forward

02:46that understands and learns from what we've been great at in the past, but also understands the position that we're all in,

02:54in terms of the lack of people who want to get involved in our sport, particularly youngsters, for whatever reasons that might be,

03:03and to try and turn that around and try and have a much more positive outlook for all of us over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years,

03:12and make sure that as many people get the chance to do the things in our sport, which many of us have been able to do.

03:17So what have we come up with?

03:19Well, you know, it's not rocket science in the sense of, you know, we're going to completely change the face of athletics overnight.

03:25We're not.

03:26But I think it's about, you know, which direction do we want to go in and how do we implement that?

03:30So we've come up with kind of five pillars, if you like, which are underpinned by some really key principles

03:36that, again, you can look through with a vision document and would probably accept what they are.

03:42But two or three of them are almost self-explanatory, been around for a while, certainly have for me.

03:48You know, our sport can deliver and help other sports, running, jumping, throwing, forms,

03:53the key elements for young people in terms of physical literacy and everything else.

03:59And we sometimes, I don't think over the years we've been very good at pushing that.

04:04Yes, we need to be inclusive.

04:06It's also about not just competition, it's about well-being and health and all the rest of it,

04:10all sorts of things that our sport can offer.

04:12We need to be better in this digital age, though, of connecting all of that together

04:17and providing the right platforms, particularly for young people to get involved in our sport,

04:23to stay in our sport, and also then to help us make our sport more popular

04:28in the way that many other sports have done.

04:31The two key ones, which I'm sure are going to provide most discussion, though, are about if we're able to do that,

04:38if we're going to provide these opportunities, if we're going to be of more interest to young people

04:44and to keep them involved, things have to change.

04:48There are lots of great things happening in the competitive environment.

04:50I'm also an event organiser.

04:53I see what people like.

04:55I see what young people enjoy doing.

04:57And we've got to be able to look at where these new pockets of interesting things are going on,

05:03learn from them, and try and use that as a template to build a new competition structure.

05:09That's what I firmly believe, and I think the group do as well.

05:12And that really needs people to perhaps park where we've been and look at where we can get to.

05:19And then, coupled with that, then, is the ability for us to provide places where people can go

05:27to get the right level, the correct level for what they're after and where they live,

05:33experience of our sport and in our sport.

05:37And we would all love, you know, to be able to deliver all the things we know would be great,

05:43great coaching, fun, exciting competition, people coming to be involved in our sport

05:51for the community aspect, if it's not for the competition, a place where people love to be.

05:58You only have to look at all the running clubs that have grown up in the last 10, 15 years

06:03that are incredibly well populated right throughout the country, while our more traditional athletic

06:09clubs have been struggling to keep people engaged and keep people involved.

06:14So we'd love to look at how do we create these pockets, and we've called them hubs,

06:20where the experience is of a much heightened level than we're currently able to offer,

06:25where we can give people the chance to have professional coaching,

06:28where we can give people the chance to be looked after in the way in which they should be looked

06:33after, in good facilities as well, that's exciting to be going to and be part of.

06:40And then, obviously, that drives them into, hopefully, into a competitive environment as well.

06:45We need to also understand that, to deliver that, we need to be a bit more commercially savvy as well,

06:50and it's much easier for either a group of clubs or a group of people

06:54to be able to create commercial opportunities locally, regionally, nationally,

06:59to allow us to deliver the type of activities that we think we should be able to in our sport.

07:07That's going to sound a bit waffly to you, and the reason is because I know this could look different

07:11in different places.

07:13I've got thoughts and ideas, people in the group had thoughts and ideas,

07:16experiences of this is what happens here, this is what happens there, both abroad and here.

07:20I think the key thing now for us all is to kind of look at how do we find different solutions

07:26that work, whether in the South West, if you're in the Midlands, if you're in the North East,

07:30if you're in Scotland, you're in Wales, you're in Northern Ireland.

07:34There are loads of opportunities for us to do things a little bit differently.

07:37It won't look the same everywhere, but we need to have that kind of broader look at

07:45how do we deliver a much better quality experience for young people coming into our sport.

07:52So I'd encourage you to kind of come at this with a bit of an open mind and throw your thoughts in.

07:57By all means, please do that.

08:00And we'd love to hear what you think.

08:02I know that people say, we've been here before, we've done this before, we weren't listened to.

08:08So please, please don't have that attitude because that was a little bit me.

08:13I was like, really, do we have to go through this again?

08:15But I care so much about our sport.

08:17I know that most of you are exactly the same.

08:21And because of that, let's give this a bit of a shot.

08:26We've got a good group of people together who've come up with some thoughts and ideas.

08:31They may not be the solution, but we really need to have something to try and hang our hat on.

08:36And it would be great to hear from you.

08:38We'd love to do some webinars going forward, some opportunities to get people around the table,

08:44whatever it is, in the coming months.

08:46And it's got to be pretty quickly.

08:48We can't hang around too long with this.

08:50So please, please, please, if you want to get involved, then do so.

08:54Don't let this opportunity go by without throwing your two pennies worth in.

08:59Check it out on the home country websites as to how you get involved.

09:04But hopefully we can get something really, really exciting for the sport going forward.

09:08I'm getting involved.

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