Blue Ocean Strategy - Whiffle hurling to replace swimming at next Olympics?

Blue Ocean Strategy - Whiffle hurling to replace swimming at next Olympics?

"Beating the competition within the confines of the existing industry is not the way to create profitable growth." -- W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy co-authors.

We’ve blogged in the past about the parallels between Blue Ocean Strategy and sports. Of course, the most common theme which ties the two together has been victory through highly unconventional means.

But have you ever wondered if Blue Ocean Strategy could be used to completely re-invent sports themselves? We have. So we were intrigued to read a recent Wired article discussing “Aesthletics.”

Take, for example, whiffle hurling: Invented in July 2005 by a Tom Russotti, an MFA grad student at Rutgers University -- and the sole practitioner of what he calls ‘aesthletics.’ So far, only 10 games of Whiffle Hurling have ever been played. According to Russotti: “I can personally attest that it's insanely fun and offers up a genuinely new blend of activity: The crazy intensity of Irish hurling mixed with the low-stress, low-injury appeal of Whiffle ball. It manages to be simultaneously casual and intense.”

And in classic Blue Ocean Strategy-style, whiffle hurling and similar, newly created sports alleviate the traditional hierarchy among athletes by leveling the playing field. As Russotti describes, “When you join a pickup game of basketball or football, it's always marred by the fact that some of the players will be totally experienced -- making it more dull for the less-expert folks. A new sport wouldn't have that problem.”

Kudos to Russotti for defying conventional wisdom. Be sure to check out the whiffle hurling video clip above and let us know what you think.