Youtubers aren't just destroying pro running, they are destroying all running
Some people feel that they create a nice middle-ground between Elite Athletes and your local jogger, but in reality they are diverting away from the true understanding of the sport
- Dodgy training advice, passed around, misunderstood by unqualified hacks who just have a camera and a website - this creates a chinese whisper or passing on running training mis-information, both through training tips but also various short and long form videos. If they are not willing to offer truly personalised training plans, then how will people ever get to know real training facts? I recently watched a youtuber suggest "threshold should be anything you can hold for 30-60mins, so about marathon pace" sorry WHAT, who is running a 30-60min marathon??
- Many of these youtubers champion 1) only road running/trail running 2) their own local races 3) large corporate races. What happened to people finding local track meets or their local XC league? Impossible from these quasi-athletes who care more about clicks than performance.
- Funnelling runners towards their own social run clubs, diverts people away from local club athletics. Idk how the landscape is in the US, but in the UK the club scene is dying, and the birth of youtubers sending copy and pasted plans to people
- By virtue of being a Coach despite only running 19/18mins for 5K, their prescence gives a misguided understanding for followers of what high performance is in the sport - championing average results stops others from shooting higher. People dont get the fundamental understanding that some young viewer given the right conditions has the potential to be a great athlete - elite athletes arent just born running 12:40, and much of the public dont realise the trajectory many western athlete's lives have taken or the very relatable backgrounds they come from.
- Many of their videos are actually pedalling sponsored products, often which isn't highlighted upfront, so advising people to take things they really dont need all for their own bottom line. Do you know how much you DONT need a Puresport CBD balm?
- Equally I've seen people hype up shoe reviews only because the shoes were gifted to them and others who do shoe reviews after only 10miles.. offering purely lip service to the real pros and cons of the pair.
- lying about or hiring certain race results give people a misinformed understanding of performance as well as of the influencer, setting a wider gap between them as the viewer assumes there must be something wrong with them because they had a bad race but their youtuber PR'd.
- all of the above also turns people away from the sport: people think that to be involved in running you need to pay $200/month for an influencer to talk to you monthly and send a pdf, just for you to jog around your park solo, not realising that for <$50/month you can join a local club with facilities, teammates, free competitions and qualified coaching advice
I appreciate that elite runners cannot fill a lot of this gap with their time, but the point is for people to join a local club, find a community and people to train with, instead they get a dumbed down understanding of the sport and an overly-compensated 'participation is best' style of the sport. Gone are the days of this sport being about athletic achievement, anyone thinks they run well and thus doesnt try harder. These people prey on the low barrier to entry the sport has and milk uneducated people for money and views.
it's not so much an issue of youtubers diverting money away from where it should be allocated, but instead them disfiguring the sport and misleading people who dont know better. Brands can use influencers as relatable marketers, but the influencers use this position and warp it for their own greed.