essay for early specialisation vs diversification

Question 1

evaluate, using evidence, the early specialisation vs diversification argument?

Answer 1

early specialisation - playing only one sport from a young age
in accordance with Erricson’s model of 10 000 hours of deliberate pratice model whereby training intensely from a young age, with main aim of improvement, which differentiates athletes, no benefits of play

support: early maturational sports but report lack of enjoyment and poorer health, meta-analysis but only 1% in elite level and original musician study but limited
against: negative aspects of drop-out, injury

early diversification: trying lots of activities and engaging in lots of deliberate play when younger, in accordance with the developmental model of sports participation of Cote et al, 2007 of sampling, speccialising and investment, with emphasis on transferable skills and enjoyment

support: findings that better at generic measures of jumping and coordination when multiple instead of only one sport, and negative relationship between number of other activities and hours needed to become an expert

findings from olympians that higher number of sports participated in, 28% in less than 4 years, main motivator was intrinsic enjoyment

findings that uni athletes diversified had better leadership skills and peer relationships

Question 2

paragraph 1?

Answer 2

what is early specialisation and who proposed the idea of it?

early specialisation refers to engaging in deliberate practice in one, chosen sport, from a very early age

main advocate for this is Ericsson with his 10 000 hours of deliberate practice model (Ericsson et al, 1993) - believed it takes 10 000 hours of deliberate practice, which is repetitive practicing with the sole focus and motivation of improving performanc, requiring maximimum physical and psychological effort with continuous feedback from a coach, to become an expert

• link to early specialisation as if need to get in 10 000 hours then that’s 20 hours a week for 50 weeks each year for 10 years
• warned of 3 constraints to getting enough deliberate practice: motivation (improving not enjoyment), resources (financial and parental support) and effort (attention and physical)
• suggested that there were no benefits to sport-related play, however, suggested that may motivate individuals to stay in the sport through enjoyment or aid future ability to process information in sporting situations (Baker et al, 2014)

Question 3

paragraph 2

Answer 3

is early specialisation supported?

SUPPORT

• ericsson et al, 1993 used hours of practice by musicians to justify his theory, as the best expert and professional violinists were the only categories to achieve over 10 000 hours (beginning at age 5 (ES)) - however this is limited due to these categories having added hours due to their jobs and therefore they may have been at their level before 10 000 hours
• found that in early maturation sports such as gymnastics, olympians had fewer activities participated in as a child and entered regional competition earlier, implicating early specialisation in their sport and higher number of deliberate practice hours led to their success and supporting ericsson through having 18 000 plus hours compared to 6500 in internaitonal at age 16 (Law et al, 2007). however, finding that these gymnasts (olympic) reported poorer health and less enjoyment
• some limited support can be offered from a meta-analysis finding that 18% of variance in sporting performance can be accounted for by amount of deliberate practice (thus specialising early to get this amount), however only accounts for 1% of variance in professionals (MacNamara et al, 2014)

AGAINST

• early specialisation associated with earlier drop-out in swimmers, having shorter careers in the national team (Barynina et al, 1992) and younger drop-outs before elite level were associated with fewer activites, less unstructured play and fewer friends in swimming (issue with specialisation) (Fraser-Thomas et al, 2008) which may be due to the emphasis on improvement as a motivational factor in deliberate play and not on enjoyment, which may also stem from reduced amount of play and chosing sport due to enjoyment not based on ability (Baker et al, 2014)
• more likely to get an injury, finding that getting a sport-specific overuse injury is more likely when exceed 16 hours of training a week (Rose et al, 2008) and those specialising in just tennis were 1.5 times more likely to be injured (Jayanthi et al, 2011)
• therefore it seems that early specialisation and 20 hours of deliberate practice per week takes away all the aspects that sport is meant to bring to child and adolescent lives (lack of effectiveness will be discussed in the next paragraph when relating to early diversification)

Question 4

paragraph 3?

Answer 4

what is early diversification and who advocated it?

early diversification involves playing lots of sports when young to maximise enjoyment, transferable skills and better informed selections, it also includes an element of deliberate play which motivates, enables practice without pressure and adaptation to new situations

Cote et al, 2007 Developmental Model of Sports Participation (DMSP) of 3 stage trajectory towards elite and recreational performance and provides a pathway enabling early diversification

1. sampling years (6-12) - lots of deliberate play and low amount of deliberate practice in several sports, enabling developmpent of decision-making (Berry et al, 2008) and general motor skills (Baker et al, 2003)
2. specialising years (13-15) - balanced amount of each in several sports
3. investment years (16+) - high amount of practice and lower amount of play in 1 sport - 56% of total practice time takes place after 16 for ice hockey players (Soberlak et al, 2003)

Question 5

paragraph 4?

Answer 5

support for early diversification over specialisation

• develops motor and cognitive abilities that can be applied to other sports, for example, found that children from 10-12 who had multiple sports training for many hours a week had further standing broad jump and gross motor coordination than single sport athletes (Fransen et al, 2012). indeed found a negative relationship between number of additional activities and hours of sport-specific practice require before becoming an expert, highlighting the gain and use of skills (Baker et al, 2003)
• when looking at elite athletes, it was found that 28% had been in their sport for less than 4 years and had played 3 or more sports before choosing their specific one (Oldenziel et al, 2003)
• olympians played 3 sports when they were 10 to 14 but before 22, medallists averaged 1.5, showing investment (Gibbons et al, 2002)
• more than 300 olympians surveyed and found main factor influencing sport decision was intrinsic love of activity, played 3 sports in sampling years and 2 in specialising years (USOC report) pointing towards early diversification
• found that uni students who diversified sporting experiences had more positive peer relationships and leadership skills (Wright et al, 2003)