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Making It to the Top in Team Sports: Start Later, Intensify, and Be Determined!
Abstract and Figures
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.
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... Ccomo hemos mencionado, pocos estudios han valorado si la especialización y el entrenamiento intensivo preadolescente en un solo deporte son necesarios para alcanzar la élite (Hastie, 2015). La mayoría de los deportistas preadolescentes que se especializaron en edad temprana en un solo deporte de equipo no alcanzaron el alto nivel ni fueron profesionales Ginsburg et al., 2014;Güllich, Emrich, & Schwank, 2006;Malina, 2010;Moesch, Hauge, Wikman, & Elbe, 2013). Parece ser que especializarse en un solo deporte en edades tempranas no garantiza un futuro en el alto rendimiento deportivo. ...
... Siguiendo con los deportes individuales, un estudio reciente sobre los atletas olímpicos de Gran Bretaña (Staff et al., 2020) ha destacado la mayor rapidez en la adquisición de habilidades específicas por parte de quienes optan por la práctica multideportiva de forma temprana como paso previo a la especialización. En general, salvo algunas disciplinas deportivas (gimnasia y patinaje artístico), parece que las habilidades deportivas generales y las capacidades físicas desarrolladas a través de la práctica multideportiva temprana pueden transferirse más adelante a la especialización de una única modalidad deportiva, por lo que se puede concluir que esta transferencia se da en deportes tanto individuales como de equipo (Moesch et al., 2013). ...
... Otros trabajos científicos han arribado a conclusiones similares, elevando la edad de especialización en una única modalidad deportiva hasta los dieciocho años. La especialización tardía fue considerada clave para obtener resultados en aquellas disciplinas valoradas en centímetros, gramos o segundos o en deportes de equipo (Leite et al., 2009;Moesch et al., 2013). Un estudio llevado a cabo por Arede y colaboradores (2019) con 68 niños y niñas menores de trece años seleccionados para la selección portuguesa de baloncesto señala que quienes se especializaron en menor medida gozaban de mayor capacidad de esprintar y saltar comparados con quienes se especializaron en mayor grado. ...
... The general trend of participants' increasing amounts of deliberate practice at the expense of play activities found in this study is consistent with previous research (86,87). However, while some studies have found that higher amounts of accumulated sportspecific practice results in better performance [e.g., (72,76)], others find that expert status is not explained by accumulated practice hours alone [e.g., (88,89)]. One explanation for the early accumulation of deliberate practice hours in youth sports is that some coaches pressure young athletes into training at higher levels than needed due to an overemphasis on winning (90). ...
Early sport specialization is a popular and contentious topic in the scientific literature and popular media. The lure of extrinsic rewards has led to increasing rates of specialization among young athletes, while expert recommendations promote multisport participation. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze developmental activities of a group of elite junior hockey players in Canada. Within this context, elements of specialization were investigated in accordance with existing theoretical frameworks and long-term athlete development models to enhance the literature. Fifteen participants from the Ontario Hockey League completed quantitative retrospective interviews, detailing past sport and recreational activities. Thirty-one developmental milestones were assessed. Accumulated hours of activity were categorized in accordance with Côté's (1999) Developmental Model of Sports Participation, along with the number and types of sports in which they participated during childhood. Jayanthi et al.'s (2015) continuum was utilized to determine the age at which the athletes became moderately and highly specialized. Accrued hours of deliberate practice reported by participants increased from ages 6 to 16 years, as did competition in organized hockey games. Reported hours of deliberate play peaked at 9 years of age and decreased thereafter. Participants played a combined 16 sports other than hockey, ranging from an average of 2.0 at age 6, to a maximum average of 5.6 at 12 years old, and decreasing each year to 2.3 by age 15. The greatest number of hours in other sports was accumulated at 12 years of age. Using a three-point scale, participants considered themselves “highly specialized” at 14 years old; however, other quantitative indicators suggested this may have occurred at 12 years of age. Relative to previous research on early sport specialization, participants in this study spent more time practicing hockey, while ceasing hockey-specific play and other sports at younger ages. Despite a diverse sport history, hockey competition was initiated earlier than recommended, showing high levels of sport commitment as young as 9 years old. The early specialization path remains a popular trajectory among coaches, parents, and athletes in Canadian ice hockey.
... In current literature, namely from the realm of talent selection, it is recognized that sports performance is limited by psychological factors like motivation, volition, mental toughness, perfectionism, emotional control, anxiety and perception of self efficacy (Crombie, Lombard & Noakes, 2009;Gonçalves, Rama & Figueiredo, 2012;Moesch, Hauge, Wikman & Elbe, 2013;Baron-Thiene & Alfermann, 2015). The ability to cope with injuries as well as the affinity to doping is most probably related to psychological factors (Adams, Brassington, Steiner & Mathseon, 2004;Johnson, 2007;Barkoukis, Lazuras, Tsorbatzoudos & Rodafino, 2008). ...
The habilitation project aims to reaerch the athlete's surrounding factors.
Please note that I am still looking for participants (questionnaire):
https://www.umfrageonline.com/c/iycvfkqe
... From another perspective, Côté emphasized development through deliberate play and early sport sampling with later specialization to facilitate healthy athlete development without sacrificing elite performance (Côté et al., 2007;Côté, Lidor, et al., 2009). According to this perspective, less training at early ages followed by later specialization is found to be beneficial for athletes in different sports (Güllich et al., 2022;Moesch et al., 2013). ...
Increasing professionalization and adulteration of children’s sport has led football clubs, academies, and federations to systematically identify talent and select children at earlier and earlier ages. The purpose of this PhD thesis was to explore the significance of early talent identification and selection processes for children’s understanding and negotiation of their identity. An initial systematic scoping review of talent identification and selection processes in football identified that the dominant research interest was centered on optimizing the processes, largely overlooking children’s perspectives. Consequently, this PhD thesis is based in 1.5 years of fieldwork in a suburban football club in Denmark to explore 10–11-year-old boys’ experiences of talent identification and selection processes—comprising a combination of those considered to have been ‘selected’ and/or ‘unselected’.
Using Jenkins’ perspectives on the interaction between external categorization and internal identification processes, it became evident that the football system’s skill-level division (in A-, B-, and C-groups) was a salient feature in the boys’ understanding and negotiation of their identities. Further, the boys that were selected to an extracurricular training program displayed an emerging athletic identity with an exclusive focus on football and largely refrained from exploring other aspects of their identities.
In sum, taking an ethnographic approach, this PhD thesis contributes empirical insight into the significance of early identification and selection practices for the
everyday lives of children. Further, the theoretical perspectives on social identification processes applied in this thesis contribute to research on talent identification and selection processes by highlighting how salient the skill-level division of football is for young boys’ identification of themselves and others. Lastly, the findings amplify the need for stakeholders to be aware of the meaning that young boys attribute to being good at sports (football), but also the potential consequences of early selection practices for the lives of children.
... Gulbin et al., 2013;Johnson et al., 2008). For example, studies have shown that the amount of training during a career appears to be similar for more and less successful adult athletes (G€ ullich & Emrich, 2006; see also Moesch et al., 2013), and that success during adolescence does not automatically lead to long-term success in adulthood (G€ ullich & Emrich, 2006(G€ ullich & Emrich, , 2012. Moreover, research has found that children who had higher levels of participation in peer-led football were more likely to be selected to participate in a male or female national youth initiative (Erikstad et al., 2018), to be selected to play on a woman's senior national team (G€ ullich, 2019;Hendry et al., 2019), or to be selected to play professionally on a male Bundesliga team (Hornig et al., 2016). ...
This study investigates players who have been selected to a district team in the Swedish Football Association U15 talent programme. Using register data on all selected 15-year-old boy and girl district team players (3943 boys and 4056 girls born between 1986 and 1996) from Sweden’s 24 football districts, we analysed the relationships between club affiliation at age 15, the player population of the district, date of birth, and continuation with football and competitive level as young adults. The results show that a higher percentage of boys than girls continued playing football into young adulthood and that continuation is related to district size. Belonging to an elite club at age 15 reduces the likelihood of girls playing football at age 21, but it has no effect on the likelihood of boys playing football at age 21. In addition, 15-year-old boys and girls from larger districts who played on an elite club at age 15 were more likely to play elite football at age 21. In sum, the study shows that football district size and club affiliation at age 15 affect whether boys and girls continue to play football and whether they play at an elite level as young adults.
... There is a large body of research suggesting that motivation is one of many important factors in athlete development and success (e.g., Adie et al., 2008;Moesch et al., 2013). Motivation drives talent development in sport and ultimately impacts athletic performance and wellbeing (e.g., Elbe & Wikman, 2017;Martindale et al., 2005). ...
Early specialisation is largely advised against, partly due to the postulated negative motivational implications. However, early specialisation is commonly considered necessary for high-level performance in aesthetic activities, such as gymnastics and dance. The present study, therefore, explores the relationship between motivation and early specialisation in a sample of Swedish aesthetic performers, from a self-determination theory perspective. The aims of this study were twofold: (1) to identify whether early specialisation is associated with motivation (autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and dropout intentions) within a sample of aesthetic performers, and (2) to investigate if such relationships are moderated by perceptions of parental influence. Two hundred and ninety high-level aesthetic performers (M = 15.88 years old, SD = 2.34; 83% female) were recruited from Swedish clubs and schools to complete a questionnaire pack. The questionnaire pack included questions concerning demographic information, specialisation history, motivation, dropout intentions, and perceptions of parental influence. The results of our analyses do not support the claims that early specialisation is associated with negative motivational implications. In fact, the results show that those who reported a higher degree of specialisation ≤ 12 years old reported less controlled motivation than those who reported a lesser degree of early specialisation. Additionally, perceptions of parental influence were not found to moderate the relationship between early specialisation and motivation. These results are discussed in relation to the growing critique regarding the conceptualisation and measurement of early specialisation in sport literature.
... Moreover, these smaller population areas can also foster more supportive relationships between coaches and athletes, and even with the social context that surrounds the sport that favor the feeling of belonging as well as a much more positive learning context. Under such circumstances, young athletes are more likely to develop a positive self-concept and acquire the necessary motivation for a long-term and positive involvement in sport (Moesch et al., 2013). Additional benefits have been associated to smaller communities. ...
The aims of this study were two-fold: (1) to inspect separately for the relative age and birthplace effects for players selected in the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft; (2) to explore the interaction among these factors and analyse this interaction in players' career performance. The database was obtained from the official records of the players (n = 1,738), who were selected during the annual editions of the NBA Draft from 1990 to 2019. The participants' date of birth was analyzed according to the month of birth and divided into four quartiles. The place of birth was compared to the distribution of the general population' places of birth based on different communities' sizes. Chi-square analysis were used to determine if the relative age and birthplace of the players drafted differed in any systematic way from official census population distributions. Cluster analysis and standardized residuals were calculated to analyse the interaction among the contextual factors and the players' career performance. The data revealed that early-born players (Q1 and Q2) were over-represented. Moreover, players born in smaller cities (<100,000) were over-represented. The interaction analysis revealed that the players born in the bigger communities relate mainly with relatively younger players, and clusters that correspond to players born in smaller communities integrated the relatively older players. No differences were found in the players' career performance. Researchers, coaches and practitioners should be aware of the interaction between contextual factors to help nurture the development of sport talent regardless of age-related issues or communities' size.
Performance in many competitive sports is limited by motivation as well as constitutional factors. In this paper the question is addressed whether motivation is related to performance in wheel gymnastics and whether the manifestation of motivation is related to gender, performance level or competitive discipline. To this end, 203 German wheel gymnasts of varying performance level were studied. Different levels of motivation, competitive results and percentages of body fat were found in different groups of gymnasts: gymnasts performing in all-around/ straight line male and female athletes and in gymnasts competing at different performance levels. Also, female and male gymnasts differed significantly in body fat percentage, age and overall merit. Differences between performance levels underline the importance of individual coaching regarding, e. g., hope for success (p ≤ 0.003, η2 = 0.108) and other performance limiting factors. Further, individual coaching for athletes competing in different disciplines seems necessary, as shown by differences in the overall performance motive (p ≤ 0.033, η2 = 0.042). Therefore, each group of athletes should receive coaching tailored to their needs during training and performance that considers their individual background and circumstances, in order to optimize performance.
Motivation is a performance-limiting factor in sports. Thus, the relevance of motivation forperformance in wheel gymnastics must be clarified. 203 German gymnasts were studied.Motivational differences were found between different disciplines and performance levels.Differences between performance levels were also present in groups grouped by discipline.Additionally, a connection was found between hope for success and body fat percentage aswell as motivational factors and deductions to difficulty score. Several motivational aspectscorrelated with age. There were significant correlations between motivational factors and ageat different performance levels. Results suggest that motivation might be relevant for thedevelopment of talent in wheel gymnastics
The theoretical framework presented in this article explains expert performance as the end result of individuals' prolonged efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints. In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years. Analysis of expert performance provides unique evidence on the potential and limits of extreme environmental adaptation and learning.
I: Background.- 1. An Introduction.- 2. Conceptualizations of Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination.- II: Self-Determination Theory.- 3. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Perceived Causality and Perceived Competence.- 4. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Interpersonal Communication and Intrapersonal Regulation.- 5. Toward an Organismic Integration Theory: Motivation and Development.- 6. Causality Orientations Theory: Personality Influences on Motivation.- III: Alternative Approaches.- 7. Operant and Attributional Theories.- 8. Information-Processing Theories.- IV: Applications and Implications.- 9. Education.- 10. Psychotherapy.- 11. Work.- 12. Sports.- References.- Author Index.
The role of practice is considered in view of two models: Ericsson's framework of Deliberate Practice and Scanlan's Sport Commitment Model. As tests of the model of Deliberate Practice several studies are reviewed that examine career progress in accumulated practice, amount of practice per week and relative importance and demand of various practice and everyday activities in: wrestling, figure skating, field hockey and soccer. A series of studies on the ≪microstructure≫ of practice question whether practice activities really are optimized for the athlete to acquire the most/best forms of practice. Finally, the article examines coaches' perception of ≪talent≫ Data are presented that suggest that much of what coaches term early talent may be explained by relative age effects.
One-hundred and forty-one Israeli athletes (63 elite and 78 near-elite) were interviewed in order to obtain a retrospective picture on their early experiences in sport, both in individual and team activities. More specifically, information was provided on developmental and psychological perspectives of talent detection and early phases of training among the best Israeli achievers in sport. It was found that the elite and near-elite athletes shared similar demographic backgrounds, such as age and living area, but differed in their family status. A few developmental and psychological perspectives were revealed that distinguished between the skilled and less skilled. Among the dissimilarities were the amount of time and number of practice hours allocated to sport activity, type of motivation that characterized the young at an early stage, and the psychological profile which described the athletes. It was concluded that: (a) elite athletes may be aware of the contribution of inherent capabilities to their final success; (b) elite athletes are more intrinsically motivated, and they consider consistency as an important contribution to success in sport compared with the near-elite athletes; and (c) retrospective analyses may provide an in-depth analysis on the processes occurring within the athletes and among the athletes at an early stage of their ability detection and development.