Image Of The Sport

The image of the sport of lawn bowls has changed dramatically over the years. Once known as an old man’s game, the development and opportunities for younger players are becoming more appealing in the modern day.

Bowls is becoming Scotland’s local sport of choice through successful, modern and accessible to all pathways for any individual. Mission statements have been developed in Scotland which will enable clubs to develop, strengthen and grow players of all ages while ensuring that good governance is implemented at all levels of bowls in Scotland in order to deliver and support the strategy that has been created. This will help promote a more positive and modern image of the sport by focusing on particular values.

These values include bowls being an inclusive force in many communities and to continue to develop this as a key strength of the sport when moving forward. In doing so, decisions being made are made clear to all concerned for the best interests of the game while maintaining strong moral principles to help in the process of guiding the sport in a positive direction.

New technology should be utilised appropriately to develop and modernise both the business and sporting sides of the games of bowls, especially in relation to digital marketing aspects that the sport has begun to take advantage of. This most commonly includes social media through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with the continual development of online websites. By utilising these new technologies, this is beginning to target younger members to play the sport as they see other people who are similar in age to them being able to gain success in the sport all the way up national, international and world level.

Most recently, a young man Darren Weir from Prestwick whom I know very well won the Scottish qualifier to represent Scotland in the Youth Commonwealth Games. At the end of last year in 2015, in taking this opportunity he was able to represent Scotland at the highest level and junior has ever been able to. This experience took him all the way to Samoa, which is a once in a lifetime opportunity which he will take with him for the rest of his life. Other younger individuals could look at the opportunity he was able to carve himself through hard work and may wish to follow in his footsteps one day. For him personally, this opens pathways to other opportunities due to the nature of his accomplishment.

Collaboration is a vital asset as the sport is in an ongoing process to engage in greater consultation with many members and groups within the sport to offer a variety of different pathways. In addition to this, collaborating with other brands is allowing further promotion and funding in the sport which could prove an incentive for any up and coming stars. All the major teams across the world have sponsors, with international teams having multiple sponsors.

This relates to the accessibility of working towards reducing the barriers facing those who wish to access the game in their local communities, with new pathways being created on a regular basis.

With a lot of players starting from a younger age, the image of the sport is changing as many players are becoming successful at the highest level at a much younger age. Other non-participants in the sport can see this and with the more accessible pathways into the sport, individuals are joining the sport at a younger age on a wider scale to try take advantage of these opportunities and see if they have what it takes to make a name for themselves in the sport.

With all this being said, this continues to help deliver an accessible player pathway that will identify and develop talent to participate in a high performance environment which will ensure the success of the sport is guaranteed for the long term.

Following this,in my next blog I will discuss the promotion technique being deployed by the governing bodies of the sport.