Developmental Model of Sports Participation - Jean Cote Sampling / Deliberate Play - 8.2 - research Flashcards
Cote and Fraser-Thomas (2008)
In coaching, play and practice are the variables that have the most influence on skill acquisition. However, there are many unanswered questions regarding how much and what type of play and practice activities are necessary at different stages of an athlete’s development. Much of
the experimental work on the relationship between learning and performance has been conducted using laboratory tasks in which changes in performance are recorded over a relatively small number of trials using novices as participants in the experiments; however,
studying the development of expertise in sport is much more complex. From a coaching perspective it is often easy to focus on the factors that are most influential in the development of motor skills (i.e. specialized practice and training time), with little consideration for physical
(i.e. injury, health) or psycho-social (i.e. enjoyment, drop-out, burn-out) costs; however, it is important also to consider the potential costs throughout development associated with a sole focus on practice and motor skill acquisition.
Berry et al. (2008)
The developmental histories of 32 players in the Australian Football League (AFL), independently classified as either expert or less skilled in their perceptual and decision-making skills, were collected through a structured interview process and their year-on-year involvement in structured and deliberate play activities retrospectively
determined. Despite being drawn from the same elite level of competition, the expert decision-makers differed from the less skilled in having accrued, during their developing years, more hours of experience in structured activities of all types, in structured activities in invasion-type sports, in invasion-type deliberate play, and in invasion activities from sports other than Australian football. Accumulated hours invested in invasion-type activities differentiated between the groups, suggesting that it is the amount of invasion-type activity that is experienced and not necessarily intent (skill development or fun) or specificity that facilitates the development of perceptual and
decision-making expertise in this team sport.
Cote et al. (2009)
A comprehensive approach to sport expertise should consider the entire situation that is comprised of the person, the task, the environment, and the complex interplay of these components (Hackfort, 1986). Accordingly, the Developmental Model of Sport Participation (Côté, Baker, & Abernethy, 2007; Côté & Fraser-Thomas, 2007) provides a comprehensive framework for sport expertise that outlines different pathways of involvement in sport. In pathways one and two, early sampling serves as the foundation for both elite and recreational sport participation. Early sampling is based on two main elements of childhood sport participation: 1) involvement in various sports and 2) participation in deliberate play. In contrast, pathway three shows the course to elite performance through early specialization in one sport. Early specialization implies a focused involvement on one sport and a large number of deliberate practice activities with the goal of improving sport skills and performance during childhood. This paper proposes seven postulates regarding the role that sampling and deliberate play, as opposed to specialization and deliberate practice, can have during childhood in promoting continued participation and elite performance in sport.
Waldron et al. (2019)
There is a growing trend toward specialization in American youth sport, evident in the number of elite youth competitions and position statements from major medical organizations. Despite growing interest on this topic for kinesiology professionals within higher education, there is a dearth in research regarding the relationship between
specialization and athlete health outcomes, especially psychosocial outcomes. This critical review describes specialization theory and the limited extant research on the costs and benefits of single-sport specialization. Topics include: (a) the proposed benefits of specialization from the performance perspective; (b) early specialization and
alternative sport participation pathways; (c) the posited psychosocial and physical health risks of sport specialization; (d) ethical concerns; and (e) methodological issues and recommendations for future research. Deeper understanding of the costs and benefits of sport
specialization has significant practical implications for youth athletes’ performance and well-being and for other relevant stakeholders in the youth sport system.
Gould (2010)
Specializing too early in life can lead to emotional stress, loss of motivation, and burnout, but the research is inadequate to resolve the question of whether early specialization or diversification is more beneficial from a psychological perspective. Nevertheless, some best practices are recommended based on the known benefits and detriments.
Soberlak and Cote (2003)
The purpose of this study was to analyze the development of four 20 year-old elite hockey players through an in-depth examination of their sporting activities. The theoretical frameworkof deliberate practice (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993) and the notion of deliberate play (Côté, 1999) served as the theoretical foundations. Interviews were conducted to providea longitudinal and detailed account of each participant.s involvement in various sporting activities. The interviewer asked questions about the conditions and sporting activities for eachyear of development. The data obtained were validated through independent interviews conducted with three parents of three different athletes. The results were consistent with Côté.s(1999) three stages of development in sport: the sampling (age 6.12), specializing (age 13. 15), and investment (age 16+) years.
