What happened to "Grow the Sport" threads?

[turbosteve]

Grow the sport discussions have been a popular discussion subject in the past. In recent years they have been infrequent. What happened to them?

 

[RWPretzel]

Let's start a "Grow the "Grow the Sport" Threads" movement.

 

[DavidSauls]

Some of it's on the "DGWT Cancelled" thread right now.

 

[thrembo]

If you want to grow the sport give kids golf discs, or better yet, take them disc golfing.

Example: I came across a couple of kids at a local course throwing a football at a golf basket. I gave them a disc and suggested that they try this instead of that.

 

[sjberry2017]

I guess we finished growing it maybe? Although if that's true, then the sport's teenage years are right around the corner

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Maybe people realized the sport will grow at its own pace (which varies considerably from region to region), regardless of such threads.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I came across a couple of kids at a local course throwing a football at a golf basket.

No thanks... enough of my shots bounce off the basket as it is.

 

[dysmike]

There are already too many people on the course. Next?

 

[Keller]

The "rah-rah look how great we all are" people have moved on to a new topic.

Never liked those folks much anyway. You know the type, they say "you know what "WE" should do"! They type a memo and then disappear. They make a lot of noise, don't really do anything and move on. Social-media butterflies.

Help a neewbie
Take a friend or kid out to play for the first time.
Pick up some trash and don't be an arrogant a$$-hat to none-disc golfers.
The sport will grow just fine.

End of rant.

 

[DavidSauls]

I'm always perplexed, wondering what "the sport" in "Grow the sport" means.

A major spectator sport, TV coverage, wealthy players? A bigger general tournament scene? More people playing casually, more courses, more disc manufacturers, more retailers? More awareness that it exists, in the general population?

Seems that those who want to grow it---and their detractors---are talking about all sorts of different things.

Including the ways the sport is growing and will grow, regardless of what they do; the things they might do, more than just talk; and the things that won't happen, no matter how much wishful thinking is applied.

 

[davetherocketguy]

I'm always perplexed, wondering what "the sport" in "Grow the sport" means.

A major spectator sport, TV coverage, wealthy players? A bigger general tournament scene? More people playing casually, more courses, more disc manufacturers, more retailers? More awareness that it exists, in the general population?

Seems that those who want to grow it---and their detractors---are talking about all sorts of different things.

Including the ways the sport is growing and will grow, regardless of what they do; the things they might do, more than just talk; and the things that won't happen, no matter how much wishful thinking is applied.

Quite literally one of the best posts on DGCR. Ever. I rank this up there with the "Every Groove is it's own unique snowflake of suck" post made several years ago.

 

[KnightsDG]

I think a lot of the "Grow the Sport" threads and movements were more about people trying to legitimize the sport so others could understand their hobby. Most of us could care less what other people think as we just enjoy the game so now the movement has died. On the plus side to those threads in the 5 years I have been playing I think the game has grown just fine as there is more courses in my area and there has been an explosion of equipment and manufactures.

 

[Nova P]

I think we need to make a memorial wall for all the minor indignities that we have suffered when someone blurted GROW THE SPORT as a thought-terminating cliche in some situation or other. I'll go first:

So I had finished diving a pond, and recovered many inked discs for many happy disc golfers. (I return discs to their owners.) As usual, about a third of them were not inked. A GROW THE SPORT-er asked me what I do with the not inked ones which nobody had mentioned losing. I said I keep 'em, as my cut for doing all that work. He replied that I should GROW THE SPORT and donate the not inked ones to a local elementary school's gym department in order to GROW THE SPORT and that I was not doing enough.

Yeah, like the local elementary school really wants a box of stagnant-pond-stinky used max-weight DX Wraiths*, Champion Grooves, waterlogged droopy-top soft putters, and a motley assortment of varied discs. I know what it's like to be responsible for the inventory at a place, and to have some well-meaning dunderhead pull up with a cardboard carton full of essentially useless **** that I don't want. I hate their ingratiating and oleaginous smiles as they foist their white elephant off on someone else. No. Go away.

My refusal to do that to some poor gym teacher made me the bad gal in the scenario, because GROW THE SPORT.

(* No pond dive is complete until I have recovered a red DX Wraith. There's one in every pond.)

 

[brutalbrutus]

What happened to them?

Pessimism...

 

[Moose33]

I have often found DX Wraiths in our creeks as well, usually with the Walmart price tag still on lol.

But I'm the subject of growing the sport. We are doing it, but I think a lot of people are trying to get into managing their growth and making sure is sustainable.

The sheer amount of small disc companies out there and new courses popping up show that we are on the right track as far as the grass roots DG movement goes.

Personally I have no stake in us getting huge in a hurry and becoming a trend hit that regresses quickly.

I watch DG on my computer and play almost every day(in the field more than the course), but it's a difficult part of the growth pattern we're in to say, " yes this is a vaiable, self sustaining spectator sport".

But we can confidently say that it is a growing, self sustaining sport that for the most part is doing a good job of hooking many demographics and getting people out of the courses.

The one thing that is tough for me is that there are not so many good/interesting discs that I may never get to try everything that sounds cool to me. Five years ago, it was a daunting task, now nearly impossible.

 

[Nova P]

Personally I have no stake in us getting huge in a hurry and becoming a trend hit that regresses quickly.

I agree. There's been a lot of sports that had a nasty boom-bust-plateau cycle, similar to what happens in the wild when some species or other suddenly grows beyond the ecosystem's carrying capacity and then has a nasty starve-off. Just since the 1970's there's been a boom-bust-plateau in jogging, tennis, racquetball, inline skating, thirty different types of studio aerobic exercises (Jazzercise, anyone?), and more.

Each of these sports rocketed out of obscurity, had lots of manufacturers and facilities spring up, waned in popularity, crashed, and then plateaued out at some lower and sustainable level with a lot of bankrupt businesses left in the wake. Looking at the hockey-stick shaped curve on the membership chart, I wonder which manufacturers, retailers, online shops, courses, and tournaments will survive if or when DG goes boom-bust-plateau.

GROW THE SPORT is inane and, historically speaking, insane. Sustainable growth is where it's at.

 

[GMcAtee]

The "rah-rah look how great we all are" people have moved on to a new topic.

Never liked those folks much anyway. You know the type, they say "you know what "WE" should do"! They type a memo and then disappear. They make a lot of noise, don't really do anything and move on. Social-media butterflies.

Help a neewbie
Take a friend or kid out to play for the first time.
Pick up some trash and don't be an arrogant a$$-hat to none-disc golfers.
The sport will grow just fine.

End of rant.

Couldn't have said it better.

 

[davetherocketguy]

I agree. There's been a lot of sports that had a nasty boom-bust-plateau cycle, similar to what happens in the wild when some species or other suddenly grows beyond the ecosystem's carrying capacity and then has a nasty starve-off. Just since the 1970's there's been a boom-bust-plateau in jogging, tennis, racquetball, inline skating, thirty different types of studio aerobic exercises (Jazzercise, anyone?), and more.

Each of these sports rocketed out of obscurity, had lots of manufacturers and facilities spring up, waned in popularity, crashed, and then plateaued out at some lower and sustainable level with a lot of bankrupt businesses left in the wake. Looking at the hockey-stick shaped curve on the membership chart, I wonder which manufacturers, retailers, online shops, courses, and tournaments will survive if or when DG goes boom-bust-plateau.

GROW THE SPORT is inane and, historically speaking, insane. Sustainable growth is where it's at.

And another brilliant post.

Sustainable growth by it's own implication means setting reasonable expectations on "growing the sport." Whereas just saying, "grow the sport" really means nothing at all and is at best a nebulous term.

Want to grow the sport in a sustainable manner? It's pretty simple I think. Set some realistic goals both short term and long term for yourself and your local club. I've done this and with the help of many others have seen rather marked improvements in the local scene.

 

[GoobyPls]

I agree. There's been a lot of sports that had a nasty boom-bust-plateau cycle, similar to what happens in the wild when some species or other suddenly grows beyond the ecosystem's carrying capacity and then has a nasty starve-off. Just since the 1970's there's been a boom-bust-plateau in jogging, tennis, racquetball, inline skating, thirty different types of studio aerobic exercises (Jazzercise, anyone?), and more.

Each of these sports rocketed out of obscurity, had lots of manufacturers and facilities spring up, waned in popularity, crashed, and then plateaued out at some lower and sustainable level with a lot of bankrupt businesses left in the wake. Looking at the hockey-stick shaped curve on the membership chart, I wonder which manufacturers, retailers, online shops, courses, and tournaments will survive if or when DG goes boom-bust-plateau.

Texas Hold'em

 

[Dire Wolfy]

Maybe some people like less crowded courses...? Idk.