"Art-letics" - The Parallels of Competitive Sports & Artistic Expression

Has your creative team faced adversity, struggled to land a huge pitch, failed in “crunch-time,” or wrestled with bouncing back from a quick cultural shift?  Consider exploring the connections between artistry and competitive sports to build a fresh mindset of creative fortitude.  Introduce the concept of “art-letics.”
 
Artistic pursuits share many similarities with competitive sports.  First, in a broad sense, both professions share parallel trajectories.  Most athletes specialize in a particular sport or position – i.e. basketball, baseball, soccer, just as artists may specialize in a genre of artistic expression – i.e. painter, writer, actor.   Second, athletics and arts are both “top-heavy,” meaning a very small percentage of the best in-the-field, earn the majority of the income.  Finally, just as athletes compete for starting positions, artists seek to “win” jobs.  An open “try-out” for a team , for example, is comparable to an “open-call” to audition for a play or television series, in that both scenarios involve a competition for a role that fits the needs of a team.  So, in a general sense, athletics and artistry have analogous worlds. 
 
Also, there are numerous cultural phrases and vernacular that merge the arts with sports -  “poetry in motion,” for instance, is a phrase to describe someone that moves with effortless grace and beauty.  “The stage is set,” is often used to describe the beginning moments of a competition with high-stakes.  A baseball pitcher can “paint the corner” of the plate with a pitch, while the catcher can “frame” a strike for the pitcher.  A football player might “dance” in the end zone or “tip-toe” along the out-of-bounds line.  Teams can “draw up plays” in a competition and so on and so on…In short, the semantic connections between the arts and athletics are abundant and they permeate the culture.
 
Not surprisingly, since these two fields have so many similarities, they can work in tandem.  Most notably, sports have inherently narrative themes that lend themselves to stories - i.e. the underdog, redemption, against-all-odds, unity.  A season, for instance, has a built-in arch, with adversity, conflict, success and failure.  All of these narrative themes pair nicely with the art of storytelling.  Consequently, having an awareness of the innate similarities between competitive sports and artistic expression yields creative advantages for agencies, production houses and artists. 
 
If we operate from the notion that the careers are analogous, that the verbiage blends the two together and that the narrative themes are comparable, then it is conceivable that the mindset of the artist and the athlete are similar.  Just as the greatest athletes possess mental strength - playing their sport with passion, practicing relentlessly, persevering through adversity, and patiently working a process towards championships, mental toughness can easily be applied to the pursuit of creativity – perseverance, passion, practice, patience and implementing strategies towards winning business.  Finding a weakness in an opponent is the equivalent to discovering an opportunity in the marketplace.  Winning new business with a successful creative pitch is the same as hoisting a banner from a championship. Therefore, in addition to the numerous cultural parallels between arts and athletics, the mindset is similar. 
 
In reality, it is not arts or athletics, rather arts AND athletics – “art-letics.”  Culturally, semantically and psychologically, there are countless parallels between the two fields, and by acknowledging the similarities, fresh approaches can be applied within a creative team.  Applying mental fortitude with the comprehensive understanding of storytelling, creates a well-rounded artistic mind that is resilient, disciplined and sharp, allowing for adaptability in the fast-paced field of advertising.  Advertising agencies and production houses that recognize the symmetry in the two fields can gain a competitive edge by welcoming athletics into their art, creating a foundation for artistic excellence.

Did you read this far?  Thank you.  Let's connect in the real world and continue this conversation.  - CB