2007 will bring in a lot of major developments for the world of sports, and the Philippines will be a laboratory for some sports experiments that have succeeded in other countries. Some of them will be beneficial to everyone, while some trends will only give an advantage to those who start the bandwagon, and eventually force a systemic change in the way things are run.
One disturbing trend is the growing influx of foreign variety athletes, a pattern that has become more widespread in Southeast Asia. For a quick fix, particularly in basketball where height is a major factor in success, some of our neighboring countries have begun importing student-athletes or naturalizing them to boost their campaigns in collegiate competitions or international meets. Although some countries like Vietnam and Malaysia have remained steadfastly nationalistic, other like Singapore has made it convenient for mainland Chinese to gain citizenship and play for the city-state.
This trend has also started here in the Philippines. In the NCAA, Nigerian Sam Ekwe led the league in rebounding and blocked shots, was crowned Rookie of the Year and MVP, and gave San Beda College its first basketball title in 28 years. The undersized squad of University Perpetual Help will be fielding in two Indonesians who reportedly stand 6’8" and 6’6". There are also rumors of other schools scouring the Internet and e-mailing contacts abroad to scout for athletic scholars. Where will it end?
For the first time, Filipinos will start to grasp some of the innovation that has helped sports superpowers maintain their advantage over a rapidly progressing world. The Sports Science and Fitness Council (SSFC), started by most of the foreign-educated Filipino sports scientists, aims to upgrade and standardize the practices in the medical and scientific aspects of sports.
"There are many challenges," admits Jimbo Saret, Welcoat trainer and one of the SSFC’s founders. "We are meeting on a regular basis to also draft a plan for teaching what we know to those in the local sports sciences. We are also thinking of ways to unify all of us who are in the fields that supplement athletic training, therapy and fitness, as well."
An example of what the SSFC plans to make widespread would be the new practices in the US and other countries of modifying the weight training and exercise regimens to tailor-fit them to an athlete’s specific needs, and perhaps change some of the views on weight training.
"If you think about it, in what sport do you do the movement that you do in the bench press or the bicep curl?" Saret asks. "The trend now is towards functional mobility. Granted, having big chest muscles and so on looks good, but if you are a competitive athlete, does that really help in your sport?"
Sending athletes abroad will become more and more viable for our elite athletes, considering the success it brought us in the last Southeast Asian Games. The private sector has seen the great benefit it has given by exposing our athletes to world- and Olympic-class trainors, not to mention keeping them away from local politics in sports. This trend will continue, and the sports who refuse to cough up money for travel and training will continue to be left further behind. If we can manage to assist the equestrian team in covering the travel costs of its horses, why not the human athletes themselves?
In television, the trend towards non-events coverage will continue, as the mainstream media will see the value of increasing the exposure of known athletes and those poised to break out. The launching of programs like ABS-CBN News Channel’s "Hardball" and PBA TV will just be the beginning. Of course, this may just start new feuds regarding the rights to cover athletes whose teams are bound by contracts to specific networks or producers, but then again, exposure is always good. At least two other weekly sports programs are in the planning stages.
In print, at least two new sports supplements and magazines are expected to be launched in 2007. A regular sport-specific (and non-motoring) supplement by one of the country’s leading broadsheets is finally expected to see daylight by the middle of the year. Advertisers are looking for publications which will directly target their markets, and this is a need that will be met in the next few months.
The NBA will continue to increase its exposure in Southeast Asia, with the expansion of its Junior NBA program in the Philippines. Expect a major announcement regarding this and NBA Madness within the the first two months of the year.
Lastly, expect more of the same: plenty of basketball, boxing and billiards, with badminton in a transition phase.