Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports

Abstract

A controversial question within elite sports is whether young athletes need to specialize early, as suggested by Ericsson et al., or if it is more beneficial to follow the path of early diversification proposed by Côté et al., which includes sampling different sport experiences during childhood and specializing later on during adolescence. Based on a Danish sample of 148 elite and 95 near-elite athletes from cgs sports (sports measured in centimeters, grams, or seconds), the present study investigates group differences concerning accumulated practice hours during the early stages of the career, involvement in other sports, career development, as well as determining whether or not these variables predict membership in the elite group. The results clearly reveal that elite athletes specialized at a later age and trained less in childhood. However, elite athletes were shown to intensify their training regime during late adolescence more than their near-elite peers. The involvement in other sports neither differs between the groups nor predicts success. It can be concluded that factors related to the organization of practice during the mid-teens seem to be crucial for international success within cgs sports. Future research should adopt a longitudinal design with means of drawing causal inferences.

Long-Term Athletic Development- Part 1

“…Inter-estingly, an editorial by Ericsson ( 18) highlights how his earlier work has actually been misconstrued in recent times, citing that expert performance does not simply require the accumulation of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and that the focus should not be placed on simply accruing a set number of hours in any given activity. Furthermore, re-searchers have shown that late specialization and reduced levels of specific training during childhood are significant predictors of elite performance in adulthood ( 36). Research-ers have also shown that youth who participate in a greater breadth of sports at a younger age performed better in gross motor coordination tasks and had a reduced injury risk in comparison with children who specialized in a single sport at an early age (22,24).…”

Strength Training and Metabolic Conditioning for Female Youth and Adolescent Soccer Players

“…Given current evidence on late specialization (35), variety in young players training should be encouraged. Conversely, careful planning of the design of training programs requires greater innovation and monitoring to be incorporated into busy schedules without risking overload.…”

Long-Term Athletic Development, Part 2

“…Although soccer may be the primary sport that the child participates in, they are likely to develop perceptual and decision-making skills such as visual scanning, anticipation, and movement pattern recognition from participating in similar invasion-based sports (e.g., basketball or rugby). Researchers have also shown that a diversification approach to sampling many different sports during childhood is optimal for the development of gross motor coordination (38) and subsequent athletic performance later in life (56,76). Such research refutes the misnomer of the "10,000-hour rule," which is underpinned by an individual seeking to acquire expertise in a given activity needs to engage in 10,000 hours (or 10 years) of deliberate practice, a theory that has been adopted by previous athletic development models (8).…”