Hot vomit on a searing rock, where the smell did 2024 go?
It’s a shame to have to wave goodbye to this year. For TWHQ, things turned around and a major part of our progress is down to the evolution of the game we’re in.
So with that, we’ll keep it short. Thank you all and …
Hang on – that’s not us …
Ponderings
Audiences, brand power, awareness, breakthroughs and discourse – there’s activity galore at the crossroads of women’s health and sport. It’s progress and it’s brilliant but the popularisation of the genre throws up new and nuanced challenges.
For example, brands entering the space have had a rude awakening. Women’s sport might be cheaper to buy into but it ain’t a quick buck. Its foundations are immature hence this is a very long play, not your classic in-and-out 3:1 ROI type of deal.
That fact alone acts as a decent filtering mechanism to weed out organisations and brands pining for PR pomp and circumstance. TWHQ aren’t about the money (if we were we wouldn’t be in women’s sport) but it is essential to make up for several lifetimes of sweet, sweet nothing. With that, in 2024 we found it much easier to say no; to hold our value and tell organisations to come back when they’re serious.
And plenty are. Adidas for one does an amazing job reaching girls, coaches and communities with its education programme. Their commitment looks like rolling the project out in numerous languages and launching a new Train the Trainer initiative.
Also interesting, with brands and resources now in the space we’re seeing more competition as service providers, organisations and NGBs move towards the money. This isn’t bad per se, but the greater goal is to hoist up women’s sport, not just certain parts of it. Collaboration is the key to progress – and we can’t lose sight of that.
Perspectives
Two years ago you’d get a round of applause and an offer from the BBC just for shouting the word “period!” in public.
It was a necessary step in our evolution but in 2024 things moved on. People now expect women’s health insights to be served up by credible experts on a bed of fresh evidence. That’s where we’ve been able to step in and lead.
However. Relaying messages is one thing – quality controlling them is quite another. Organisations such as CIMSPA do a great job in defining better standards but those insights need to reach every sport at every level in every corner in every postcode. Generations of winging it in women’s sport won’t be undone with a PDF.
Getting coaches to put insights to work with confidence is a massive undertaking and we’ve had to recognise that coaches — even seasoned ones — often want to be told and / or shown what to do in a very prescriptive way.
A version of that is in play in football, and the Women’s Professional Game may win the prize for innovation and commitment in 2024. By mandating female health training, making it accountable, and demanding collaboration between rival clubs, the model might be more stick than carrot – but the sport can build a solid future on it.
Another big bright spot from 2024 is the eagerness with which male coaches are stepping up. In 2023 perhaps two in fifty attendees at a women’s health workshop were male. Today it’s more like 20. The next generation of PTs, coaches and teachers are proactively pushing for progress and it bodes well for days ahead.
Pish
A picture paints a thousand words, eh?
Like anyone we’re low-key nervous about AI, but also excited for its potential and how data, dashboards, wearables and beyond can address imbalances and speed up progress wherever women’s health and sport meet.
But AI is only as good as the people programming it and it is only as good as what has come before; what has been standardised and normalised in days past.
With that, here’s some prime time white blondes so leggy one even has three of ‘em.
This picture (and others like it) was released as part of a women’s golf tour prospectus. No one spotted it, or if they did they didn’t care or think enough to refine the parameters and hit GENERATE again. Three-legged Melissa made the cut.
Demographically this pic doesn’t represent women’s golf in our time. Oh and sidenote, if you did have three legs golf would be a piss-poor choice of sport to maximise that particular advantage. Running, swimming, gymnastics … anything but golf.
It’s funny but it tells a story. The smartest tech around thinks this is women’s golf. Wonder what gave it that idea.
This is where we’ve been. This is what we’re fighting. This is the distance yet to travel.
To 2025 …
Before bowing out here’s some personal 2024 highlights from the three of us:
Emma embraced nutritious lunches, Baz made all her kids’ sports days and Bella fell in love with Taylor Swift.
All true. So from the whole team here at The Well HQ, Merry Christmas. We hope you enjoy some rest and that you’ll come back for more next year.
We need each other, but you know that 🙃
TWHQ offer four groundbreaking, evidence-based courses on the female body across her different lifestages.
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