The prognosticators at the ACSM have released their top fitness trends for 2011. It is an interesting read… but nothing too earth shattering in my opinion. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the apparently rapid decline in the popularity of Pilates (only time will tell if this is true).
While it is interesting to make these kinds of predictions (and arguably no organization is better positioned to make them then the ACSM) it would be a mistake to allow them to directly influence your day-to-day decision making. For example, if in fact Pilates is in decline globally but your classes are still doing well keep them, improve them, reinvent them, or perhaps integrate them into a fusion class.
Remember what computing guru Alan Kay said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”.
Along those lines my advice for 2011 is to become the “best” as something in your local market. Pick one thing that matters and completely dominate it in your market. When members, or potential members, ask who has the best (fill in the blank) the answer is a swift and unequivocal… YOU!
To be the best at something, however, means not trying to be the best at everything. This is difficult for owners and managers to understand. In fact, most genuinely believe that if they work hard enough they can be the best at everything.
It’s a noble ideal but it is absolutely wrong. Think about it… decathletes are tremendously talented athletes across ten disciplines but their individual event performances generally aren’t good enough to make the finals in any one discipline.
Now tell me… who won the gold for the decathlon at the Beijing Olympics? Any idea? Nothing?
It was Bryan Clay from the US (OK I didn’t know either I had to Google it).
Now tell me who won the men’s 100 meters… Usain Bolt (that was a whole lot easier).
It makes perfect sense of course. Clay has to divide his training across ten different disciplines he is never going to be the best at any single event. Bolt just has to concentrate all his efforts on short distance sprinting.
If you are out at a bar one night and Bryan Clay is at one end and Usain Bolt is at the other who are you going to want to have a beer with. I don’t know either gentleman personally but I’ll bet Usain will get most people’s attention.
Why? Because people want to associate with the best.
Guess what… so do your members.
Trying to be everything to everyone is a fatal mistake.
Don’t become the Swiss Army Knife of health clubs in your local market… reasonable at a lot of things but the best at nothing.
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