Making It to the Top in Team Sports: Start Later, Intensify, and Be Determined!

It is debated whether young athletes need to specialize early, or if it is more beneficial to follow the path of early diversification. The present study investigates the career paths and related motivational and volitional factors of Danish elite and near- elite team sport athletes. Seventy-six athletes matched by sport, age and sex participated in the study. Elite athletes started their career later and showed higher self-determination and lower values in postponing training. The logistic regression showed that fewer accumulated training hours up to age 12, but more up to age 15 significantly predicted elite group membership. All other investigated variables did not show significant results. It is concluded that there are more similarities than differences between the two groups.

[1]  J. W. Atkinson.  Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. , 1957, Psychological review.

[2]  H. Heckhausen.  Hoffnung und Furcht in der Leistungsmotivation , 1963 .

[3]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[4]  H. Gabler,et al.  Leistungsmotivation im Hochleistungssport , 1972 .

[5]  Lauren A. Sosniak,et al.  Developing Talent in Young People , 1985 .

[6]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior , 1975, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

[7]  R. Carlson.  The Socialization of Elite Tennis Players in Sweden: An Analysis of the Players’ Backgrounds and Development , 1988 .

[8]  E. B. Zechmeister,et al.  Research Methods in Psychology. , 1990 .

[9]  Robert J. Crutcher,et al.  The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. , 1993 .

[10]  J. Beckmann,et al.  Action and state orientation and the performance of top athletes , 1994 .

[11]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  The Road To Excellence: The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports, and Games , 1996 .

[12]  J. Harackiewicz,et al.  Approach and avoidance achievement goals and intrinsic motivation: A mediational analysis. , 1996 .

[13]  J. Starkes,et al.  Wrestling with the nature expertise: a sport specific test of Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer's (1993) theory of "deliberate practice". , 1996 .

[14]  H. Halvari,et al.  Achievement Motivation and Involvement in Sport Competitions , 1996, Perceptual and motor skills.

[15]  D. Gould,et al.  Burnout in Competitive Junior Tennis Players: I. A Quantitative Psychological Assessment , 1996 .

[16]  J. Starkes,et al.  Deliberate practice in sports: What is it anyway? , 1996 .

[17]  W. Helsen,et al.  Team Sports and the Theory of Deliberate Practice , 1998 .

[18]  Nicola Brace,et al.  SPSS for psychologists , 1999 .

[19]  K. Davids.  Skill acquisition and the theory of deliberate practice: It ain't what your do it's the way that you do it! Commentary on Starkes, L. "The road to expertise: Is practice the only determinant?" , 2000 .

[20]  A. Williams,et al.  A multidisciplinary approach to talent identification in soccer , 2000, Journal of sports sciences.

[21]  Pringle,et al.  Motor learning and performance: A problem-based learning approach , 2000, Journal of manipulative and physiological therapeutics.

[22]  R. Lidor,et al.  A retrospective picture of early sport experiences among elite and near-elite Israeli athletes: developmental and psychological perspectives. , 2002 .

[23]  J. Baker.  Early Specialization in Youth Sport: A Requirement for Adult Expertise?. , 2003 .

[24]  J. Cȏté,et al.  On the utility of deliberate practice: Predicting performance in ultra-endurance triathletes from training indices , 2005 .

[25]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Expert Performance in Sports: Advances in Research on Sport Expertise , 2003 .

[26]  B. Abernethy,et al.  Sport-Specific Practice and the Development of Expert Decision-Making in Team Ball Sports , 2003 .

[27]  J. Baker,et al.  A review of primary and secondary influences on sport expertise , 2004 .

[28]  N. Holt,et al.  Toward a Grounded Theory of the Psychosocial Competencies and Environmental Conditions Associated with Soccer Success , 2004 .

[29]  J. Starkes,et al.  Predicting performance times from deliberate practice hours for triathletes and swimmers: what, when, and where is practice important? , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[30]  Paul Ward,et al.  Deliberate practice and expert performance : defining the path to excellence , 2004 .

[31]  J. Baker,et al.  Expertise in Ultra-Endurance Triathletes Early Sport Involvement, Training Structure, and the Theory of Deliberate Practice , 2005 .

[32]  David W. Eccles,et al.  Tracing the Development of Athletes Using Retrospective Interview Methods: A Proposed Interview and Validation Procedure for Reported Information , 2005 .

[33]  J. Beckmann,et al.  The development of volition in young elite athletes , 2005 .

[34]  J. Cȏté,et al.  Shifting training requirements during athlete development: Deliberate practice, deliberate play and other sport involvement in the acquisition of sport expertise , 2006 .

[35]  G. Tenenbaum,et al.  Essential processes for attaining peak performance , 2006 .

[36]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using multivariate statistics, 5th ed. , 2007 .

[37]  B. Abernethy,et al.  Practice and play in the development of sport expertise. , 2007 .

[38]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Deliberate practice and the modifiability of body and mind: Toward a science of the structure and acquisition of expert and elite performance. , 2007 .

[39]  K. Ericsson,et al.  Characteristics of expert development in rhythmic gymnastics: A retrospective study , 2007 .

[40]  J. Cȏté,et al.  Developmental activities that lead to dropout and investment in sport , 2007 .

[41]  J. Starkes,et al.  The road to excellence: deliberate practice and the development of expertise , 2007 .

[42]  Paul R. Ford,et al.  Expertise and expert performance in sport , 2008 .

[43]  Bharath Sriraman,et al.  The International Handbook of Giftedness , 2009 .

[44]  Larisa V. Shavinina.  International handbook on giftedness , 2009 .

[45]  Jacques H. A. van Rossum,et al.  Giftedness and Talent in Sport , 2009 .

[46]  E. Emrich,et al.  Evaluation of the Elite Schools of Sport , 2009 .

[47]  R. Lidor,et al.  ISSP position stand: To sample or to specialize? Seven postulates about youth sport activities that lead to continued participation and elite performance , 2009 .

[48]  R. Philippaerts,et al.  Talent identification and promotion programmes of Olympic athletes , 2009, Journal of sports sciences.

[49]  J. Beckmann,et al.  Testgütekriterien des Fragebogens VKS zur Erfassung volitionaler Komponenten im Sport , 2009 .

[50]  N. Yperen.  Why Some Make It and Others Do Not: Identifying Psychological Factors That Predict Career Success in Professional Adult Soccer , 2009 .

[51]  J. Baker,et al.  Play and practice in the development of sport‐specific creativity in team ball sports , 2010 .

[52]  J. Richards,et al.  Early Specialization in Youth Sport , 2010 .

[53]  A. Elbe,et al.  Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports , 2011, Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports.

[54]  Lauren M. Shea,et al.  Predicting Performance , 2012 .

[55]  Raoul Huys,et al.  Methodological Review and Evaluation of Research in Expert Performance in Sport , 2012 .

[56]  A. Williams,et al.  Skill acquisition in sport: Research, theory and practice , 2005, Sport & Exercise Psychology Review.