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Joe Baker (M.Ed.) is a PhD student in the School of Physical and Health Education at Queen's University. His research examines the development of sport expertise and the psychosocial factors associated with long-term physical activity involvement. Joe can be reached at [email protected]
Jennifer Robertson-Wilson (M.A.) is a PhD student in the School of Physical and Health Education at Queen's University. Her research interests include the development of youth in sport and the psychosocial factors influencing this development. Jennifer can be reached at [email protected]
Sport success is the result of the complex interaction among psychosocial, physiological, and biological variables. While athletes, coaches and physical educators have little control over genetically determined factors such as predisposition toward a specific body type (e.g., Bouchard, Perusse, & Malina, 1999), this does not mean the development of exceptional sport performers is pre-determined. Proper training, undertaken during key periods of development can lay the groundwork for future success. One point of contention among sport researchers is the role of early sport specialization (i.e., limiting sport participation to a single sport with the specific goal of guiding the child athlete to top achievement; Grupe, 1985). Some researchers argue that early specialization is essential to future success, while others support a more diversified approach suggesting that participation in a variety of different sports is more effective for developing multilateral physical, social and psychological skills (Wiersma, 2000).
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The Case for Early Specialization
There appears to be strong evidence supporting the early specialization approach. In a study of expert musicians, Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer (1993) indicated that experts began training around five years of age. They also indicated that if training did not begin soon enough, late beginners would be unable to catch up to peers who began specialized training earlier. Much of the empirical evidence to support the conclusions presented by Ericsson et al (1993) centers around the power law of practice (Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981) and the 10-year rule (Simon & Chase, 1973).
Research examining the accumulated effects of prolonged practice and the rate of learning has robustly indicated performance increases monotonically according to a power function. Put more simply, the more time an individual devotes to practice, the greater their level of achievement. Based on these...