Sports Management Blog

As a competitive sportsperson, it’s always gratifying when you make it into the Top-x of the event you’re taking part in (with x = 3, 5, 10, 50 or 100, depending on your level and your fellow competitors’ level…).

Well, although I don’t really consider this blog as being “in competition” with others, I’m still happy to report that the Masters in Sports Administration website, which tracks “the best online master’s degrees in sport administration”, has just selected the Sports Management Blog as one of the Top 50 blogs covering the Sports industry ! Check us out here – we are among the 12 blogs listed in the “Sports Business & Management” category.

I am very honoured by this distinction, which encourages me to pick up the pace at which I post my comments on the management of sports, with a European perspective.

Although I only follow a few blogs in the list’s “Sports Agent, Scout and Sponsorship”, “Sports Law” and “Sports Science” categories, and so wouild be hard-pressed adding any blog to the ones already listed, I would definitely add the following 2 blogs as near-mandatory reading in the “Sports Communications & Marketing” and/or “Sports Business & Management” categories:

• Take A Peck – Social Media, Sports, Marketing and More, by Jason Peck
• The Sports Networker, by Lewis Howes

Thanks again to Rachel & the team for including the Sports Management Blog in their Top 50 list – and happy holidays to all of my readers!

When we get ready for some exercise, we all have our own routine. Some elite sportsmen are even known for having recurring habits bordering on the obsessive-compulsive (head here for an interesting NYT article on some habits of successful tennis players).

As I was getting ready for my bike ride yesterday, I thought about the process, and my own little habits. In particular, I asked myself what are the 5 objects that I cannot possibly do without, regardless of the type of physical exercise I choose.

So here are the 5 sports-related things I can’t do without.

1. Garmin Forerunner 405 – I keep checking my pulse and my speed when I run, skate or cycle, so my trusted heart-rate monitor, coupled with a very decent GPS captor, is my trusted friend. It’s amazingly small, contained and light for a GPS-enabled device, which is why I have remained faithful to successive Forerunner models over the years (although some would say its predecessor, the 305, is not necessarily very intuitive to operate…).
2. Nike sports sunglasses – I wear lenses, and am extremely sensitive to any particle hitting my eyes, so I’m always looking for glasses which wrap around my eyes very tight; I also like to practice in any weather, so I need the lenses to be easily interchangeable; I bought the pair I’m using a few years ago already, but they keep serving me very well.
3. Ventolin inhaler – I have developed chronic asthma (due to several allergies), so I simply have to spray before I start exercising, or I find myself out of breath pretty quickly (in particular in cold conditions); on long runs or bike rides, I even take the spray with me, just in case I have a bad crisis.
4. uBanana’s uCan – A tiny, light, simple, sleek and clever little MP3 player, which even claims to be waterproof (I have never tried swimming with it, however); it has not always been totally dependable (I had to return the 1st one I bought to the Swiss manufacturer as it had simply died after just a few weeks, and it has mysterious and random ways to rearrange my playlists), but I have grown used to not feeling it at all, yet enjoying my musical background.
5. OnTri iPhone app – As I have started training for 2 forthcoming long-distance events happening in my own town, the Lausanne Triathlon (olympic-distance) and Lausanne Marathon (the 1st time I’ll try any of the 2 !), I have grown used to dutifully logging my training sessions in this clever little app.

Your turn now – which sports-related “thing” can you not live without? Let us know in the comments !

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An interesting article was posted recently on the Online Degree Programs blog. Entitled 100 Best Books for Serious Sports Fans, it groups the books by sports (baseball, basketball, American football, football [soccer for our US friends], tennis, golf) or genre (fiction, sports & society), and provides a short comment on each suggested book.

While the list is fairly heavily US-centric, some entries are more relevant to this blog’s main focus (a business/management perspective on sports, with a European focus), and are noteworthy. Among them, Soccernomics by the FT’s Simon Kuper, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, and The Elusive Fan by Irving Rein, Philip Kotler and Ben Shields.

Personally, I would have mentioned some more “technical” tomes in the list, e.g. one of the many more academic volumes covering the management of sports, or even sports-specific training manuals; I simply assume that a “serious sports fan” also practices their favourite discipline, and is inherently interested in seeking new ways to train and improve their performance in it, and as a result, likes to read about how to get better at it. But that’s obviously bound to be very personal ! (When I decided to get serious about inline speedskating a few years ago, I bought the only “bible” in this field, Speed on Skates by Barry Publow, and have since read and used it so much that it is almost falling apart !)

Which book is, in your opinion, a must-read for you fellow Sports Management Blog readers? Chime in in the comments below !