Little is said about soft skills or Soft Skills in the academic and business fields, but they are practically non-existent and go completely unnoticed in the sports world.
Sports culture has always been associated with values such as teamwork, willpower, sacrifice, adaptability, emotional intelligence, resilience, control of emotions, etc., without losing sight of the increasingly advanced connection of sport with the technological world from the perspective of high performance and advances both at a physiological and biomechanical level and data analysis.
In the same way, all the tools available to us that make use of artificial intelligence and the use of Big data are very helpful, aimed at reducing subjectivity and promoting impartiality in the game, achieving a more fair and objective sport ( Fair Play).
For this reason, I emphasize and want to present a small approximation of the important responsibility that sports professionals have in terms of working and developing Soft Skills both in the technical bodies of athletes and in the managers of sports entities, event organizers , and even the athletes themselves from amateur levels to high performance professionals with exclusive dedication.
The objective is to make known the always present in the sports world, but unknown at a social and popular level, soft skills, Soft Skills, difficult to evaluate and imperceptible when showing their development, but fundamental for both personal, academic and success. professional.
Some competences of a transversal nature
These skills are applicable to all areas of life in a transversal way, they are dynamic and evolve over the years. Present in all revolutions and not much less in this third technological and digital revolution that is automating a multitude of jobs, services, and tasks that can already be replaced by new technologies.
Everything except these soft skills. When we talk about them, we refer to the communication capacity of the coach, monitor or manager of a sports entity, the ability to work as a team of those responsible for the coaching staff, being able to motivate and extract the talent of each of the components of your team, sports or professional or family. The ability or ability to visualize future needs and communicate socially using social networks, or making good use of their network of contacts, having sport as a socializing element.
The ability to adapt , both of athletes who have to adapt to calendars, schedules and demands, as well as to all the events of their season planning, to the physical and mental acceptance of an injury, failure or unforeseen incident.
The ability and work involved in a good use of emotional intelligence to apply the necessary temperance before adversaries and to dose efforts to reach the end of an established plan. As well as the control of emotions , in the face of frustrations, decisive moments, work under pressure …
Creativity and innovation in the face of new training techniques, game systems, improvement plans, statistical analysis that, through new technologies and scientific studies, sports advance is periodic and vertical.
Needed to grow
That is why, we should not ignore the work of soft skills, pending analysis and work in order to optimize our results.
In the world of physical activity, having a good cast of professionals, specialized, trained and constantly updated, who provide us with a cutting-edge sports service, will allow us to move in the right direction and achieve the expected results of excellence, complying with values of balance both physical and mental.
For its part, the Official Master’s Degree in Sports Management at the International University of Valencia was born with the vocation of training its students in the broad knowledge of the sports market, its trends and business possibilities, as well as teaching the skills and tools necessary for the sport management.
For this reason, I encourage you to bet on progress and promote this differentiating element of the machines that are our Soft Skills with a critical spirit based on continuous improvement. An attitude typical of the generation of the XXI century in which in the short or medium term we will all have to adapt.
Willingness, attitude and effort, and the advancement will go in all the senses of our life.
