The national picture also applies to Drenthe. “Organized team sports in particular have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels,” says Hans Slender of Sport Drenthe. There are particular concerns about the youth, the 12 to 18 year olds. “It is difficult to get them back, as is the vulnerable group. It is disastrous that we lose them at that age. Sport is a basis for a lifetime of exercise, a basis for staying healthy and you make social contacts. Among young people mental problems are increasing, some feel lonely. Sports can help enormously.”
Although young people ignore sports in a club context, fitness in that age group has actually increased, according to the research. Patricia de Weerd owns a gym in Hoogeveen. She can confirm that image. “The increase among young people is extreme. We had a meeting this morning whether we should continue the free trial week. In a short time 120 new, young members have registered.” Compared to previous years, the number of members has increased by 30 percent.
Social media and popular influencers such as Joel Beukers strike a chord with young people. “They show the children that they can already do sports,” says De Weerd. And that works, because the youngest participant of the Hoogeveen gym is 12 years old. “I watch those movies too. I want to feel stronger and better.” Another boy, 15 years old, has left his football club, where he played football since he was four years old. “I wasn’t having fun anymore. I’ve been doing this for three months now, together with friends. Gain some muscle and lose fat.”
Still, hanging on to devices at a young age is not without risks. “They all think they already know what to do, but the body is not yet fully grown. Ask for the right guidance,” warns De Weerd.
Another striking result of the study is that more people have taken up swimming. Were there almost 500,000 in 2021, in 2022 that number rose to almost 850,000 members. But the Drenthe swimming clubs do not recognize that national trend. In fact, at swimming and polo club De Spatters from Beilen, the number of members has fallen due to corona. “We are even handing out flyers to boost our membership,” says Martine Pomper. “We now have 200 members, but if that number drops further I worry about the future of our club.”
“I cannot explain where this huge national increase comes from,” says Frans Thomas of swimming club Aqua’68 from Assen. “We have a stable membership of 300. Fortunately, there has been no decline during corona, but no one has joined either.”
During the pandemic, the outdoors turned out to be the best place to get some exercise, often individually. There was more walking than ever and cycling such as mountain biking also became popular. Those sports are now on the decline, according to the research by NOC*NSF. Slenders of Sport Drenthe thinks he has an explanation for this. “People are social beings, we often want to do things together. Meeting is important and that goes better in associations. But I didn’t expect it to drop so quickly.”
It is still a long way to go before the level of sports is back to the level before 2019. Sport Drenthe is certainly going to work hard. “It’s going slower than I had hoped. I estimate it could take years.” In any case, it is not the ambition of Sport Drenthe. “We want to get even more people to exercise than before 2019. So there is still plenty to do,” concludes Slenders.