Clinician Tony Retrosi just started a new personal blog called tonyatlantic.
One of his first posts:
… I have just returned from USA Gymnastics National Congress and Trade show that was held with the VISA Championships.
As a coach of women’s (girls) gymnastics, I don’t often get a chance to see a men’s competition. After watching the first day of competition I was so impressed. What a GREAT PRODUCT on the floor. The sad part was- there were very few spectators to see it …
read more – The Marketing of Men’s Gymnastics
The Men’s NCAA Championships are normally even more exciting than the Women’s, yet get far less attention.
We need some genius to find a way to market Men’s Gymnastics.
Related – Ron Noe’s rant about the lack of televised coverage of men’s club gymnastics.
21 comments ↓
Same problem here in Holland, people genuinely believe that gymnastics is a girls sport………
And thinking something is a “girls sport” is a problem because … ?
Numero Uno – get rid of the societal homophobia and sexism that pervades society to the point that many males don’t want anything remotely to do with anything “girly”.
Numero Duo – say the “serenity prayer” – have the serenity to accept the things you can’t change, the courage to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Please refer to number one. I hope you all can fix these problems. Best of luck to you.
People, it’s time to move on.
As long is I can see men’s gymnastics, I’ve stopped giving a rats backside about what the rest of America does or doesn’t do. The rest of America can go **** itself.
Boys – don’t like being overshadowed by women? Well, cry me a river.
California and the men’s NCAA in general caused be to do a lot of soul searching, and I came to the conclusion if I wanted to keep seeing it, somebody was going to have to pay for it. That somebody was ME.
There are already enough “Bad Boys” in other sports, anyway.
Don’t get me wrong here. The marketing for men’s gymnastics in the US could be better than it is, and every little bit helps. Doing nothing won’t help anything.
I just don’t think it’s the panacea that some seem to believe.
Societies do evolve, happily.
For a combination of reasons the number of smokers where I live are far fewer, far less conspicuous.
I can understand that they’d want a slice of the fame that the girls get – and the girls don’t get that much when you compare it to many other sports like basketball or football – but I prefer the environment in the men’s competitions. They’re competitive but friendly and not so uptight and serious about it. It definitely feels as if there’s less pressure due in some amount from the lack of attention.
JC, I agree with you about the environment at men’s meets. Justin Spring seems to have a few ideas but doesn’t always want to broadcast them all.
JC, I’m sure a lot of folks high up in the men’s food chain have some good ideas. They should all be aired out. Live streaming isn’t rocket science, and we don’t have to have so-called experts providing commentary. Guys or gals would line up to do it for free, and that’s a fact. Bottom line is that our junior boys continue to get screwed year-in and year-out from a complete lack of coverage of any kind. More doors to lines of communication need to be opened. There are too many secrets in the sport, which I find to be laughable. The sport is way too damn proprietary. Prep hoops, football, baseball & track & field are completely open books when it comes to up-to-date information.
Let’s face it: marketing without sex appeal is virtually impossible. And sexualizing the male gymnast is even more difficult because it is a tiny market with slim pickings. In mainstream sports, where billions of dollars are generated annually, it’s not hard to find sex objects with more star power — younger, bigger, faster, smarter, richer and cuter.
I think the best MAG can do right now is to show how gymnastics training philosophies and techniques DIRECTLY affect performance in other sports. For instance, the balancing act in the following paragraph sounds like a skill that can be learned using gymnastics progressions.
“Mr Pistorius’s [a South African double amputee with carbon-fibre prostheses] secret weapon is his ability, shared by only a handful of other athletes, including Mr. Johnson and Carl Lewis, to use so-called gravitational torque throughout the race. This involves leaning forward and remaining constantly on the precarious tipping point between falling to the ground and maintaining controlled forward momentum with each step. All runners use gravitational torque when accelerating. Yet only the very best are able to maintain this precarious balance over the entire sprint distance.” – The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/08/prostheses-sport
Next year at the Canadian Championships plan is to LIVE stream every routine: MAG, WAG, Trampoline sports and Rhythmic.
If that works, we’ll want to see every age group routine live streamed from major meets.
I’m sorry, but as a looooongtime spectator of womens gym, and growing spectator of men’s gym, I can guarantee that if the sexy factor for men was ramped up a little, it def wouldn’t hurt.
1. MANY male gymnasts are sexy!! They may be short, but their bodies are serious. True story.
2. Gymn is seen as a sport for little white girls from small towns. If men DO do it, the gen/ignorant public assumes theyre gay, (nothing at all wrong w that, but we know that much of the gen public cant differentiate)..for doing a ‘girls’ sport.
3. The dark haired guy in that pic certainly made me ask, ‘who is that?’
4. I know its not as simple as my list, but cmon, showing them as sexy, grown, male ATHLETES is a lot more impressive than portraying them all as innocent kids from the farm w a dream. It’s bad enough that after something amazing happens the public still have to sit and wait for a table full of middle aged ppl to decide what it means. Talk about back all ready against the wall..
I concur with JC and JO about the atomsphere at men’s meets. It’s probably the best of any sport I’ve ever watched. People need to be thankful for what they have.
Even most people who are WAG fans have been somehow involved in the sport. There are a lot more females (at least in the USA) who have been involved in gymnastics, so it makes sense that the attendance at women’s competitions (both elite and NCAA) is greater.
So…find a way to get more boys involved in the sport, and there will be more fans right there. Protect the existing opportunties in the men’s NCAA so some of these people will have something to aim for besides 5 spots on an Olympic team.
I don’t think we’ll ever get lots of kids really get into gymnastics until the rules settle down into something a 10 year old can mostly understand.
I was not in the “save the 10″ gang in years past, but I am now. The loss of the 10 has had a huge impact on the understanding of kids. Right now, most kids who DO understand the basic rules have no idea how they are getting deducted. Deductions are a complete black box at EVERY level of the sport. This is one of the few sports where nobody really knows how and why calls are being made, and hence how and why results are being made.
@Anon3G
“3. The dark haired guy in that pic certainly made me ask, ‘who is that?’ ”
Oh, the irony. That would be Danell Leyva, the newly crowned US National Champion.
When Danell Leyva is not a well known face for sports fans, we know that MAG is not yet marketed.
I can’t remember who won the Super Bowl…because I don’t care, and I’m not going to start anytime soon. Does that mean that the NFL has crappy marketing?
The marketing for men’s gymnastics could be better, because anything is better than next to nothing.
Aside from getting TV coverage for juniors (and others), none of the ideas I keep hearing make much sense.
Simplifying the scoring to make the sport more accessible is at least rational, but I don’t think the 10 is coming back anytime soon.
Shirtless gym meets and promoting a “badass” image are non starters as far as I’m concerned. I think USA MAG tried to go the “badass” route with Blaine Wilson. I don’t see that it did much good.
I can’t name any sport that has become popular mostly because it sold sex. The closest I can come is women’s beach volleyball, and nobody pays any more attention to that outside the Olympics than they do to gymnastics. Beside, who thinks little boys will become interested in the sport if it is marketed this way?
The one “sport” that “badassery” has played much of a role in is WWE. I wouldn’t really call that a sport.
Marketing can only do so much. Sports that many people don’t either play recreationally or can bet on will always have an uphill battle gaining fans.
Perfectly said, Ono.
I don’t think that the complexity of the rules has much effect on kids doing the sport. When I was a kid I had no idea how the sport was scored or even how I got my own scores. All I cared about was that it was a lot of fun, that’s why I kept going and did it for many years. The problem is that not many kids realise how much fun it can be so they don’t get into it. However, it is the perfect sport for kids as it is not only super fun (well, it is if you get the right coach and aren’t pushed to do things that you don’t want to do), but it is also great for developing things like confidence, coordination and strength which not many sports can do. So, if it is promoted properly it should be one of the highest participation sports.
@Bob: While I certainly agree that the sport has merits, regardless of scores and results, and that this alone should pull kids, it is true that many kids take great interest in their results.
But that’s not my real point. My point is that baseball is generally more appealing to the public, and hence kids, because it makes complete sense to everyone. A kid (and his parents) can follow the rules and scoring 100%, and the rules and scoring will barely change as he moves from little league to high school to college to pro or adult leagues. With gymnastics, that is not the case. A black box is not a good thing.
I see an opportunity right now that the men’s side could tap into. Jake Martin & Sean Melton, both high schoolers, are now training at the OTC. Does anybody here recall when that last happened? Both of these young men are good people and have a strong work ethic. I think it would be very interesting to do a story… better yet, a video, that would chronicle their careers. These guys gave up pretty normal lifestyles to go train in CO. Both will be rewarded with full rides to a college program, & arguably both will have strong future Olympic aspirations. This is the kind of story that would appeal to ESPN viewers, even if they no nothing about the sport. Their all-American allure wouldn’t hurt selling it.
[...] The German male gymnasts seem to be doing alright, even if nobody seems to be able to market the American MAGs. [...]
@denn333 there is still the mystery of gridiron, which makes absolutely no sense to anybody outside of USA and Canada. And from what I’ve heard, even some players in the NFL don’t know all of the rules.
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