Developmental Model of Sports Participation - Jean Cote Sampling / Deliberate Play - 8.2

Question 1

Developmental Model of Sports Participation

Answer 1

Highlights the importance of developmentally appropriate physical training patterns and psycho-social influences.

Identifies 2 pathways towards expertise in sports: early specialisation and early diversification.

Proposes a 3 stage trajectory towards elite and recreational performance:
– Sampling Years; (childhood) age 6-12
– Specializing years; (early adolescence) age 13-15
– Investment years; (early adolescence) age 16+

Start early - more at risk of injuries and burnout

Doesn’t have to be the only pathway

Sampling - as many sports as possible

13-15 - specialise to few sport

16+ investment in one sport

Sampling happened more in the past

see slides

Early specialisation can lead to poor health and lack of enjoyment - muscle imbalances, stress fractures

Question 2

early specialisation

Answer 2

Focus on deliberate practice

Early introduction of specialised skills

High concentration

Less emphasis on enjoyment

High adult involvement

Single sport

Player drop out

Question 3

diversification

Answer 3

High amount of deliberate play

Modified rules positive skill development

Increased player involvement

Enjoyable experiences

Little adult involvement

Sample a variety of sports

Increased player retention

Question 4

Cote et al. (2012)

Answer 4

“The underpinning principle of sport programs for children is to provide space, opportunities for playing and training, and equipment for a large number of children across various sports, so that the best athletes among a large pool of motivated adolescents can be selected.”

Question 5

7 postulates about youth sport activities

Answer 5

1. Early diversification (sampling) does not hinder elite sport participation (in sports where peak performance is reached after maturation).
2. Early diversification (sampling) is linked to a longer sport career and has positive implications for long-term sport involvement.
3. Early diversification (sampling) allows participation in a range of contexts that most favourably affects positive youth development.
4. High amounts of deliberate play during the sampling years builds a solid foundation of intrinsic motivation through involvement in activities that are enjoyable and promote intrinsic regulation.
5. High amounts of deliberate play during the sampling years establishes a range of motor and cognitive experiences that children can ultimately bring to their principal sport of interest.
6. Around the end of primary school (~12) children should have the opportunity to either choose to specialise in their favourite sport or continue in sport at a recreational level.
7. Late adolescents (~16) have developed the physical, cognitive, emotional, social and motor skills needed to invest their effort into highly specialised training in one sport.

Question 6

testable tenets - deliberate practice

Answer 6

Elite athletes:

1. specialize in their main sport earlier than sub elite athletes
2. Start deliberate practice earlier than sub elite athletes
3. Accumulate more deliberate practice hours than earlier than sub elite athletes

Question 7

testable tenets - DMSP

Answer 7

Elite athletes

1. Sample various sports during childhood instead of specializing in one
2. Are involved in greater amounts of deliberate play than deliberate practice during childhood
3. Are involved in more deliberate practice and less deliberate play during their teenage and adult years

Question 8

early specialisation?

Answer 8

Early specialisation through deliberate practice - to gain the 10,000 practice hours need to specialise early in primary sport to become an expert performer.

However, soccer, field hockey (Helsen, Starkes, & Hodges, 1998) and basketball (Baker et al., 2003) - accumulated practice hours are consistently lower than the 10,000 hours.

Soccer research - starting age of elite and later senior professional football players can vary as much as 10 years (5- 14 years) (for review see, Haugaasen & Jordet. 2012)
- Don’t need to specialise early

Question 9

sampling

Answer 9

Instead of specialising in one sport children should take part in a number of different sports during childhood (Côté, 2007).

Provides an excellent foundation of general motor skills that can be applied in a variety of sports (Baker, Côté, Abernethy, 2003)

Can be a critical factor to the acquisition of decision-making expertise in sport (Berry, et al., 2008).
- More sports played = better at making decisions - training it in a variety of different situations

Question 10

1. can you ‘make it’ if you sample?

Answer 10

Early involvement in a variety of sports can lead to elite performance
– Especially if peak performance occurs after athlete is fully matured
– Perhaps not in gymnastics (peak performance is in mid-late teens)
– Especially if decision-making is a key component

Question 11

Baker and Cote (2003)

Answer 11

see notes

team ball sports

Experts had:

1. More practice (after 12 yoa)
2. More additional activities

Matched accumulated hours until 12

Per week differs earlier

Elite train longer and do less sports after 12

But more before 12

At 5.- experts do extra activity per week

Question 12

programme in which Olympians made the commitment to pursue excellence - Gibbons et al. (2002)

Answer 12

see notes

Few specialised at primary school

Specialisation not until college or later

Not necessary better to specialise early

Question 13

number of sports played by Olympians from childhood to adulthood

Answer 13

see notes

No. sports reduced at 19-22

Question 14

number of sports played by male summer Olympians, medalists v non

Answer 14

see notes

More specialised at 19-22

10-14 when most sports tried

Question 15

2. Will you ‘hang around for longer’ if you sample?

Answer 15

Engaging in a variety of sports promotes long term sport participation

cf. early specialisation – psychological and physical costs
– burnout / injury/ dropout etc. (Fraser Thomas et al., 2008; Law
et al., 2007)

Question 16

Law et al. (2007)

Answer 16

Olympic gymnasts rated their health as lower than international gymnasts and reported experiencing less fun

Question 17

3. more positive youth development through sampling

Answer 17

Different sports offer distinct social contexts and opportunities

Wright and Cote (2003)
– University students
– Diversified sporting experiences related to more positive peer relationships and leadership skills
- Develop important life skills

Important contributor to physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development
- Tend to be more outgoing

Question 18

Fraser-Thomas and Cote (2009)

Answer 18

Positive:

• Challenge
• Meaningful r’ships
• Sense of community

Negative:

• Poor coach r’ships
• Negative peer influences
• Parent pressure
• Psychological environment

Question 19

Fraser-Thomas et al. (2008)

Answer 19

Comparred drop-outs and enhaged adolescent swimmers

dropouts were:

• Engaged in fewer extra-curricular activities
• Completed less unstructured swimming play
• Had less 1-1 coaching
• Researched developmental ***

Question 20

Fransen et al. (2012) - fundamental movement skills

Answer 20

see notes

Boys aged 10-12, who spent many hours in various sports, performed better on standing broad jump (p < 0.05) and gross motor coordination (p < 0.05).

Spending many hours in more than one sport might be beneficial in helping develop strength and motor coordination.

Question 21

psychosocial development

Answer 21

Sampling provides more enjoyable experiences and increases individual motivation.

Advantages of children sampling:
1. Life skills
2. Pro-social behaviour
3. Healthy identity
4. Diverse peer groups
5. Social capital.
(Côté et al., 2009)

If goes wrong less distressed - more going on in life

Question 22

classification of elements that may be transferable across sports (Schmidt and Wrisberg, 2000)

Answer 22

see notes

Question 23

early specialisation/diversification

Answer 23

No full clarification of the potential negative or positive effect of early specialization or diversification (Malina, 2010).

Concluded that the literature is inadequate to resolve this issue (Baker, Cobley, & Fraser-Thomas, 2009).

No clear solutions have been drawn in:

• psychology (see Gould, 2010)
• physiology (see Kaleth & Mikesky, 2010)
• biomechanics (see Mattson & Richards, 2010)

Question 24

deliberate play (Cote, 1999)

Answer 24

Sporting activity that are:

• intrinsically motivating,
• provide immediate gratification
• specifically designed to maximise enjoyment.

Activities such as ‘street’ or ‘backyard football, basketball , with rules adapted from standardised sport rules and monitored by the children playing or an adult involved in the activity

Playful, flexible activities – stimulus for development of intrinsic motivation as well as fundamental motor and cognitive skills through experimental learning.

Trying different sport

Doing it because you want to do it - enjoyment

Motivated by fun

Learning is an aside to having fun

Why is it not used as a tool?

Question 25

4. deliberate play increases IM

Answer 25

Deliberate play is enjoyable and intrinsically motivating
– No adult involvement
– Designed by kids (free to change micro goals)

Kids play because of their own interest (not extrinsic factors)
– More self-directed (self-determination theory; Deci and Ryan)
– Mastery climate

Even if Deliberate practice is ‘enjoyable’ – between 6-12 should kids just play?

just kids?

Question 26

USOC report - the path to excellence

Answer 26

The USOC surveyed more than 300 athletes who competed in one or more
Olympics between 2000 and 2012 to identify the factors and circumstances surrounding their success.

Question 27

USOC - factors influencing sport decision (1-5 scale)

Answer 27

Intrinsic love of activity – 4.32 Love of sport – 4.309
Early success – 3.583 Parental influence – 3.489 Coaches recruitment – 3.400 Peer recruitment – 2.805 Sibling recruitment – 2.557 PE teacher influence – 2.299

need to get children to enjoy sport

Question 28

USOC - average number of sports played

Answer 28

Age U10 – 3.11
Age 10-14 – 2.99 
Age 15-18 – 2.2 
Age 19-22 – 1.27 
Age 22-older – 1.31

Question 29

5. deliberate play - good for learning

Answer 29

Explore physical capacities in various contexts and at minimal cost
– Generate and experiment with new skills
– Adapt to novel and uncertain situations
– Do we need a coach????

Compare 2 hours of backyard basketball with 2 hours basketball class.

Berry et al. (2008) – Australian Football
– Exceptional decision-makers had engaged in more deliberate play in invasion style games as kids.

Question 30

professional ice hockey players - Soberlak and Cote (2003)

Answer 30

see notes

Over one third of the time that professional ice-hockey players had spent involved in the sport (approximately 3500 hours) were in deliberate play activities while only 3,000 hours were spent in structured hockey activities.

Majority of the deliberate play hours were accumulated prior to the age of 15, whereas the majority of deliberate practice hours were accumulated after that point.

Question 31

cricket - Weissensteiner et al. (2009)

Answer 31

Focused on the development of expert batting.

Experts reported that a vast investment in unorganised play in the sampling years was important for fostering the creativity, problem-solving ability and adaptability fundamental to later success.

They also reported that they had participated in a variety of sports before opting to devote their efforts exclusively to cricket.

Question 32

Australian team sports - Baker et al. (2003)

Answer 32

Similar results - comparing expert decision makers an non-expert decision makers from the same Australian national team sports.

The authors claimed that participation in other sports where dynamic decision making is necessary during the sampling years may have augmented the physical and cognitive skills necessary for the athletes’ primary sport

Question 33

Berry et al. (2008)

Answer 33

see notes

Question 34

characteristics of informal games (Coakley and Pike, 2009)

Answer 34

84 games in backyards, parks, vacant lots, and school playgrounds.

Observations and interviews indicated that children were interested in four things:

1. Action, especially action leading to scoring
2. Personal involvement in the action
3. A close score (that is, a challenging or exciting contest)
4. Opportunities to reaffirm friendships during the game.

Deliberate play provides this…

Question 35

6. at 13 children should have choice to specialise or play

Answer 35

important period for development of identity and competence
– Can fully understand the effects of effort, practice and ability on their competence (Horn and Harris, 2002)

Reduction in number of activities

Increase in practice time / intensity

Increased emphasis on competition

More support provided by family, school, clubs

Question 36

7. from 16 children will specialise

Answer 36

Now is the time to invest in specialised training
– Soberlak and Cote (56% of total practice time took place
between 16-20)

Can make independent decision about the benefits and costs of the intense focus required