#full swing

"FOOLY COOLY!"

•••

"What's Fooly Cooly?"

"How should I know?! I'm still in grade school! You think I'm that crazy?"

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the wave of Netflix-style docuseries sweeping through every major sport—Drive to Survive (F1), Break Point (Tennis), Full Swing (Golf), Full Speed (NASCAR), and so on. And honestly? I think they’re starting to ruin what makes sport… sport.

To be fair, these series have done a lot of good. They’ve expanded audiences, made niche sports more accessible, and offered fans a new, behind-the-scenes perspective. The editing is slick, the storytelling is compelling, and there’s undeniable entertainment value. But there's a side of this trend that no one seems to be talking about.

These docuseries are turning sports into reality TV.

Athletes—real people doing high-stakes, physically and mentally demanding jobs—are being reduced to characters. Their struggles and setbacks are edited into “redemption arcs.” A single glance between competitors becomes a manufactured rivalry. Before you know it, you’re no longer watching a sport—you’re watching a scripted narrative, complete with dramatic voiceovers and swelling music.

Even worse, many of these shows are starting to feel indistinguishable. Golf, Formula 1, tennis, NASCAR—they’re all edited with the same tone, structure, and pacing. They don’t reflect the unique rhythm or identity of the sports themselves. Instead, they feel like part of a sports-themed cinematic universe: Hot Guys With Commitment Issues But In Different Uniforms: Season 4.

Now, I want to be super clear: I have nothing against the fans who come into a sport through these series. That’s actually one of the best parts of them—getting more people to care, to pay attention, to fall in love with something they might never have discovered otherwise. Everyone starts somewhere, and new fans are a good thing.

The problem isn’t the fans. It’s the framing.

These series flatten nuance into narrative. They turn competitions into episodes and reduce complex performances into moments designed to go viral. And once you start seeing the sport through that lens, it becomes really easy to forget that these are real people. Athletes start getting treated like fictional characters. Fans speculate about their personal lives, assign them “roles,” take edited drama as truth, and start online wars over things that were literally just good editing.

As well as this, some athletes genuinely dislike being filmed for these shows. They’re not trying to be marketable or camera-ready every second—they’re trying to win. And the constant presence of film crews can mess with their prep, their focus, and their mental health. It’s invasive. It’s distracting. And sometimes, it actively hurts their performance.

It’s also created a weird kind of culture clash:

Longtime fans who care about the stats, the strategy, the ugly wins and quiet losses.

Newer fans who are sometimes more interested in storylines, aesthetics, and vibes.

And look, I get it. Storylines are fun. Vibes are fun. Watching with emotional investment is part of being a fan. But when athletes are only celebrated when they fit a narrative—or worse, villainized when they don’t—it stops being about the sport and starts becoming something a little… toxic.

Sports are already full of drama, heartbreak, triumph, and tension. That’s the beauty of them. They don’t need to be edited into TV shows—they are the story. Just let the athletes compete. Let the sport speak for itself. And let the people on the field, track, or court be human, not content.