How to become a sports manager: training, features of the profession

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Today, there is an interest among students in the sports industry and speci alties related to it. This is due to the development of the international market for services in the field of sports business. Interest in sports is also growing among advertisers, investors and journalists. Russia has been noted by the international sports community, which has entrusted a number of major international sporting events to be held in the country. For their organization, a titanic work was done: construction and then management of sports facilities, meeting and accommodation of foreign fans, organizing ceremonies and starts at the highest level, training personal and coaching staff, developing sports medicine … Analysts predict an increase in the need for professional personnel in this area because there is already an acute shortage of them. This means that graduates of this speci alty should easily find a decently paid job.

The concept, essence and objectives of the profession "sportsmanagement”

In order to understand how to become a sports manager, you must first consider the essence of this speci alty. It includes the theory and practice of effective management of sports culture enterprises in today's market. The object of study is sports-oriented organizations (many FSOs - sports schools, clubs, teams, stadiums, centers, federations, etc.), whose activities are aimed at providing physical culture and sports services. Sports management itself is aimed at managing internal and external relations of subjects and objects of the FSO. Its essence is the purposeful influence of the subject of control on the controlled object in order to achieve a new planned qualitative state of the latter. The overall goal is to ensure the effective functioning of the FSO in the modern market, and the task is to understand the patterns of their functioning and social development in society, as well as to develop a mechanism for the effective management of these processes.

Functions of a sports manager

Studying the question of how to become a sports manager, we can conclude that professional athletes do not always become them, but necessarily people who are fond of sports and go in for it at least at an amateur level. Perhaps a person who could become a successful bank manager became a sports manager, and all because he is not indifferent to sports and was involved in the sports section as a child. In general, as a profession, sports management appeared with the approval of the positionhead of the FSO. For this speci alty, it is important to master the art of scientific management of a sports organization. Separate elements of such activities are inherent in both coaches and teachers of physical education.

But the authority of a manager as a manager is much broader. Its functions:

• making responsible decisions on the direction of the FSO and the allocation of resources;
• gathering information about the internal and external environment of the organization, disseminating it in the form of facts and normative guidelines, explaining to staff the policy, immediate and long-term goals;
• formation of internal relations, motivation, coordination, representation in external relations with other organizations.

Studying the question of how to become a sports manager, we can conclude that the art of management lies in the ability to use the principles, methods and technologies of management in a particular case. He needs to have specific skills in the production and use of sports equipment, establishing relationships between physical activity, diet, etc. So, traditionally, the functions include: planning, organization, motivation, leadership, control and analysis. In addition, the work of a sports manager involves the physical education of wards, physical culture and sports work with the population, training of highly qualified sports personnel in their types and reserve staff, holding competitions and entertainment events, scientific and methodological support for physical education, organizing the production resources of sporting goods, international relations.

Principles of sports management

When a future student plans to enter a university, he thinks about choosing a profession. Many athletes are looking for a speci alty close to sports, and come to the conclusion: “How to become a sports manager, and what does it take?” First of all, you need to find out more about the activities of such a specialist. In the field of sports and physical culture management, there are principles and rules, regulations and regulatory documents that are necessary for the implementation of the management process. These include principles:

• science;
• consistency (FSO is an integral social system that requires a comprehensive study of applied solutions, analysis of all implementation options, linkage with financial and material and technical resources);
• optimal combination of centralization and decentralization;
• material and moral incentives for FSO workers and athletes;
• control optimization;
• democratization of governance;
• legal security legal security;
• combinations of sectoral and territorial management.

Management methods

Professional training of sports managers involves the study of management methods, which are divided into:

• organizational;
• administrative;
• economic;
• socio-psychological.

To achieve high professionalism, you must be able toto form a psychological climate, to give a positive assessment of the individual achievements of each employee. It is this level that involves the training of sports managers, since it is important to be a socially and psychologically competent specialist who knows the methods:

• business conversation, meetings, training and exercise;
• persuasion, approval and encouragement, condemnation and punishment (creative and inhibitory methods).

The choice of methods depends on the objectives, the type of organization and the specific situation. The effectiveness of the application of certain methods requires art, constant creative search and training from a sports manager.

Specializations

It is worth noting that this professional training means different specializations with the general name of a sports manager. Education according to the chosen direction is carried out after general training according to the program of the corresponding educational institution. The specialization types of sports managers are constantly evolving. Along with the general, functional management is distinguished. Here are the main specializations:

• strategic (top management area);
• project-project;
• organizational;
• personnel management;
• innovative;
• risk management;
• financial management.

Styles

Every professional has his own style of activity. The sports manager is no exception. Educationprofessional style is theoretically possible, and its stable formation occurs already with experience in practice. According to management theory, managerial relations are divided into democratic and authoritarian. Accordingly, the management style is formed:

• authoritarian - excessive centralization of power, strict regulation of activities;
• democratic - uses motivation and persuasion;
• liberal.

Authoritarian style usually becomes when, in terms of their personal qualities and level of professional preparedness, the manager is lower than his subordinates and when his subordinates have a professional culture, responsibility and discipline.

A manager becomes democratic with trust in the team, respect for the opinions of subordinates, mutual assistance and support.

A liberal manager will be in the absence of perspective and initiative, the scale of thinking and the expectation of instructions "from above". Such a leader has little control over subordinates and, as a result, receives low performance.

It happens that the style of work can change when changing the team, place of work or deep introspection of the leader.

Categories of sports managers

At the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, such a speci alty was called the head of a sports club or a school administrator, etc. Today, everything has changed, and now the title of the position sounds like a manager of a sports club or FSO. Each sports organization has its own managers. They are of different levels and solve different problems. Buttraditionally there are categories of sports management that divide all managers into three groups:

1. Those involved in development strategy (for example, the president of a football club).
2. Those who manage themselves (for example, structural divisions).
3. Lower level performers (e.g. sports school administrators).

Training

Teaching the profession of "manager in a sports organization" is carried out in many universities. There are Moscow and regional universities that provide an opportunity to get this speci alty. The MESI educational institution is best known in this area. Here, professional athletes and students who are fond of sports study at a special faculty. Their planned future monthly salary should be 80 thousand rubles. And that's not bad. In today's world, sport is a spectacle. In 2010, the Federation of Sports Managers of Russia was organized in the summer. Sports manager Denis Semenikhin, author of the bestseller "Fitness is easy", is training to become a sports manager at the RMA business school. At one time, he served as a fitness director, president of the Olympic Star fitness center in Moscow, manager of the MaxiSport and Reebok fitness club chain, editor of the corresponding section of Men's He alth and Men's Fitness magazines, host of sports programs and tournaments. He has been a fitness trainer for many years.