This Post Complements Author's following Contribution:
Dedicated to F.J.Lubin
Captain of the 1st ever Olympic Basketball Golden Team
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Why the sports audience is coming in the 1st place. Well organized elite competition? Prime years of athletes involved? Their superb conditioning? Unique reactions? Timing? Inspiration? Yes!Yes!Yes!andYes!
Audience involvement in between the elite events requires separate discussion. As basketball coach and former player I followed Olympic basketball evolvement from F.Lubin*(1936 Olympics) to A.Sabonis^(1988-96) to its current state. I admire Olympics in all its variety and significance. To benefit future Olympics current contribution analyzes photo collage of Olympian-fan synergy, few advanced virtual developments and introduces Hoopathlon concept. The analysis is dedicated to all athletes, not only basketball players.
NBA.COM MODEL
Nothing is more exciting than seeing fans going wild, all in one breath. Creative movements, waves, chants and songs during the game inspire fans to come back for more. NBA goes beyond the game time experiences by creating activities for involvement between the games. NBA.com marketing model today is advancing before our eyes and it keeps audiences coming. Just check
http://www.nba.com/ to see what NBA offers this year. My favorite options are Game Broadcasting, Fan Stuff, NBA Stock Exchange.
Game broadcasting - League Pass as well as NBA Videos and Highlights help to stay in the flow of real action. As coach, I witness plays and strategies on the court. As former player, I pickup moves of today NBA players to advice my current/future players. This watchful approach allows me to follow on how some moves and mindset evolve in time. It is widely used today by many NBA video scouts and coaches.
Fan Stuff - Fan Voice, Forums, Widgets, 3 Point Shootout etc. is important in order to engage the audience and NBA.com does excellent job on bringing new features. Check it: Fan Stuff->Online Games -> NBA 3 Point Shoot-out. I just tried the online game and I believe in nearest future fans will be able to play “Horse” or “Around the World” against each other online, then to get on court for live contest or game. Model
Online -> On Court will grow the sports audiences. Fan forums and chats for real-time discussions during the game is definitely exciting tool.
NBA Stock Exchange. Here are the rules:
http://nbase.nba.com/web/guest/howtoplay. This fantasy game defines you as team manager who operates based on players real game stats. As basketball coach, I expect this feature to evolve from fantasy game to monetizing benefit for the players, coaches and fans.
NBA is also dedicated to photo marketing of its players: Photo Store,
www.nba.com/photostore, and Greeting Cards,
http://www.nba.com/greetingcards/. It is significant parallel to Olympians’ photo marketing.
On other hand, NBA created special league for entertainment industry and this practice is worth applying in Olympic Movement’s networking with global corporations. My example:
http://www.pwc.com/ with its presence in 112 countries. Aligning with such a company and helping to organize its internal Olympics would benefit each other on few levels.
NBA also licenses its logo, private properties to selected software companies such as
http://www.sixdegreesgames.com/, which develops web based basketball games, nurtures children and youth toward honest and skill based competition.
EDUCATION
CBS recently featured
Quidditch For Muggles: muggles are catching on to quidditch across college campuses. CBS basketball analyst Greg Gumbel gives a play-by-play of a real-life match between Middlebury and Princeton. And Dave Price plays a round. This report demonstrates the viability of TV sponsorship to sport development and also the known trend to invigorate sports through schools, colleges, universities.
With significant portion of education moving into virtual classes, sports should also adapt the trend and sponsor development of Online -> OnCourt model. One example: NBA.com provides online NBA 3 Point Shoot-out but at this time it does not lead to anywhere. Online game may serve as a tool to select 1st round prospects for regional OnCourt contest. Online Olympics University could be the place to develop such a trend.
IOC is doing its job by opening communication doors through this Virtual Olympic Congress, through its Multimedia Gallery available for rating and discussions. With focus on more intense interactivity, we may significantly enlarge sports audiences - “Yes We Can”: different exchange-interaction models are effectively used on the
www.change.com/ - web site of President Barak Obama:
http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/,
http://change.gov/open_government/yourseatatthetable,
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions etc.
INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
It is known fact that after playing days many good basketball players go to work into investment field. There they face similar challenges and operate in the environment no less competitive than basketball court: timing, protective positions, seal, assist, screen, developing mindset, focus, team work, game plan... Game of basketball is played on two planes: physical and mental. Physical is what we see, mental is what we prepare in advance and strive to implement. Isn’t it similar for other athletes?
As coach design the play and players deliver it, the same way investor operates in the investment world of options trading. It’s strategy. If the designed plan does not include enough protection, or adjustments, investor-player gets burned as we had in recent market collapse. But if investor-player has a game plan which places protective positions or goes with straddle strategy to play market volatility, then the player is covered. The same goes in sports. If the athlete-player design protective points and deliver them, than flow of the game is in control.
Why I am bringing this investment parallel to sports competition? Investment world grows its audiences as no other field does: it provides complimentary practice/demo accounts to learn the action by DOING IT, then it offers options to go with real accounts. Transition from Fan to Practitioner to Expert is smooth. Everyone here is not only WATCHING the action, but actually PARTICIPATE in it. Olympic Movement has yet to rethink this PARTICIPATORY approach. On other end, every sport has not only action side, but also strategy side. Importance of strategy may be well expressed in terms of real-time investment race Hoopathlon, below.
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HOOPATHLON
2012 Olympic Games will celebrate 100 year anniversary of Decathlon, which was added to the
1912 Olympic Games in
Stockholm. Biathlon, Triathlon, Pentathlon, Decathlon - these fields not only allow athletes to explore variety of available options but also serve as model for developing new concepts and strategies.
This brings me to the concept of Hoopathlon or LubAthlon. It consists of three contests: Hoop Shooting, Hoop Play and Strategic ETF. Thus we have Triathlon with focus on hoops, risk management and staying fit:
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Hoop Shooting: contest selected by organizing committee: from free throws to 3 point shots to virtual reality hoop shots:
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Hoop Play (2x2 or 3x3): pick&roll is ageless 2x2 strategy, perfected by many generations. It is also developed on electronic games and may serve as virtual interaction tool. 3x3 provides even more variety of plays and I support its placement into Youth Olympic Games. Each player earn points upon team scoring in ongoing tournament games. This contest may also run 17 – traditional speed drill to develop endurance and conditioning.
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Strategic ETF – evening before contest, player selects his favorite country-based ETF, chooses risk management strategy. Next day during 3 hour live contest player tries to achieve maximum result. Chart of all competing ETFs shows their corresponding positions relative to 0%. E.g., EWY = +1%, EWZ = +2%, RSX = +3%, EWG = -1%, EWK = 0% (find: which countries they represent?). Competitor may stick to chosen strategy and do nothing, or may get involved and adjust position accordingly. Use of option investment is encouraged. Check for such chart at the
post on sports and investments synergy.
All three contests record achieved results and place competitors successively. Lowest Total decides the winner of the Hoopathlon/LubAthlon.
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CONCLUSION
During the last decade new virtual worlds, online games and tools grew in sophistication and they encourage to bring selected applications into creative vision of the IOC for the benefit of future Olympic Games. One of the most dynamic areas is advancement of photo cam applications and developing collages of Olympians-fans synergies.
On other hand, online investment community at the same time developed sophisticated tools for competitor- investor. Sports have a challenge to compete with their convenience and gradual participatory model from fan to practitioner. Then why to compete? Let’s think how to apply the advancements for the future Olympic benefits.
Youth Olympic Games is perfect platform to start this new trend. New vision and developments are needed to sustain Olympic Movement, integrate it with the advancements of online investments and be relevant. Risk management and strategies are the key elements in either sports or investments. Because of this competitiveness in both of them, Hoopathlon tries to bring sports and investments into one contest. On the way we will pick up investment companies interested in partnership with Olympic Movement. We even have 5 years experience of the international Chess-Boxing contest, which paved the way for integration of intellectual and action competitions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess-boxing.
The Chess-Boxing seeks to combine the #1
thinking sport and the #1
fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors. Taking the essence of their 5 years experience, it moved us to rethink the place of mindset and strategy in the sports. It reinforced my vision of Hoopathlon, which I was already developed and written down before knowing about Chess-Boxing. By the way, the Decathlon link referred me toward Chess-boxing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon, see on the bottom Other multiple event contests just above References.
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Thank you to my Lithuanian basketball coaches and friends for sharing with me internal wisdom of basketball and eternal fire of competition,
http://www.musukrepsinis.lt/en/index.In the U.S., I am especially grateful to Mr. Nicolas Colon and Mr. Brian Couso, Los Angeles SPL VPs of Player Personnel for opportunity to team up at the LA SPL.
Coach ArtuM
* Frank Lubin - captain of the US Olympic Basketball Team in 1936, 1st gold medal in basketball,
http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OralHistory/OHLubin.pdf,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lubin
^ Arvydas Sabonis-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvydas_Sabonis
Lithuanian Basketball Federation
