A Skill Acquisition Perspective on Early Specialization in Sport

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
David I. Anderson ◽  
Anthony M. Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Elite Athletes ◽  
Deliberate Practice ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
Elite Status ◽  
Early Specialization

This paper examines the costs and benefits of early specialization in sport from a skill acquisition perspective. The focus is on whether early specialization in a single sport is the best way to facilitate the acquisition of skill in that sport. The paper is organized relative to the two major conceptual frameworks that have motivated much of the discussion about early specialization in sport: the theory of deliberate practice and the Developmental Model of Sport Participation. Our analysis reveals that while early specialization in sport is one way to reach elite status, it is not the only way. Considerable evidence shows that many elite athletes specialized in their sport late, following diversified experiences with other sports. These findings raise a number of exciting questions about the long-term development of skill in sport.

scholarly journals Expertise development in musicians : the roles of deliberate play and deliberate practice

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jacqueline Louise Lordo
Keyword(s):  
Sport Participation ◽  
Deliberate Practice ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Expertise Development ◽  
School Students ◽  
Traditional Practice ◽  
Warm Up ◽  
Development Of Expertise ◽  
Chess Players ◽  
Deliberate Play

For many years, researchers have been investigating how and why certain people develop into experts in a given field. A primary difference between experts and non-experts is how they practice. Experts spend considerable amounts of time in deliberate practice, i.e., an intense, targeted form of practice (Ericsson, 1996), rather than mindless repetition. While this explains expertise in musicians, chess players and medical students (Ericsson, 2008), it does not fully explain the differences among athletes (Starkes, Deakin, Allard, Hodges, and Hayes, 1996). At first, sport psychologists were not able to understand why some athletes were able to change sports and learn the skills for the new sport with less than predicted amounts of deliberate practice. While studying athletes, sport psychologists developed a more comprehensive model to explain athletic expertise by including activities in a new category, deliberate play. The Developmental Model of Sport Participation (DMSP) includes the intense activities of deliberate practice, and the more flexible, play-like activities of deliberate play. Like many other fields, music study requires a great deal of time and effort before a student can progress to expert levels of performance. DMSP has clarified how athletes develop, particularly by accounting for the skills gained before intense, deliberate practice becomes a priority. Research has shown that musicians also gain skills through deliberate practice; however, deliberate play activities have not been considered in a music setting. Given recent advances in research related to the development of expertise in athletes, the purpose of this dissertation was to apply these theories to the development of expertise in musicians, through three studies. The first study is a review of literature pertaining to expertise development and the activities of development. The second study was based on interviews to determine if DMPS and the concept of deliberate play could be applied to expert musicians. Findings from the two studies indicated that DMSP did explain music expertise development, and that a new aspect termed awareness should be added to the model for musicians. The third study was an experiment to investigate the use of deliberate play activities in band classes, carried out with two groups of middle school students. One group of students replaced traditional music scale practice as part of their group warm-up with deliberate play scale games. The second group of students continued to practice their scales using the traditional methods. Each week, the students audio recorded a scale for the researcher. The weekly scale performance scores were compared for accuracy and overall skill level, but there was no difference between groups. Results of a practice behavior and motivation questionnaire indicated that attitudes did not change during the short study. By considering the results of the three papers, I have determined that music deliberate play is an idea relevant to musicans' development, and that students can learn through music deliberate play activities. Although more research is needed to determine how deliberate play functions in a classroom setting, educators should consider using these types of activities because they may be more enjoyable than traditional practice techniques.

The Provision of Incentives in Firms

1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Canice Prendergast
Keyword(s):  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
Piece Rates ◽  
Made In

This paper provides an overview of the existing theoretical and empirical work on the provision of incentives. It reviews the costs and benefits of many types of pay-for-performance, such as piece rates, promotions, and long-term incentives. The main conclusions are (i) while there is considerable evidence that individuals respond to pay-for-performance, there is less evidence that contracts are designed as predicted by the theory, (ii) there has been little progress made in distinguishing amongst plausible theories, and (iii) we still know little about how incentives are provided to workers whose output is difficult to measure.

The Development of Music Expertise: Applications of the Theories of Deliberate Practice and Deliberate Play

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Jackie Lordo
Keyword(s):  
Sport Participation ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Deliberate Practice ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Developmental Model ◽  
Practice Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Expertise Development ◽  
Deliberate Play ◽  
Music Play

Musicians and athletes share many common traits. Both groups learn a combination of physical and mental skills to attain expert status. In this literature review, I provide a short history of research on expertise development and two models: Bloom’s model of expertise development and the Developmental Model of Sport Participation. The Bloom model categorizes learning activities between combinations of free play and deliberate practice throughout the three stages of development. However, Developmental Model of Sport Participation includes a new category, deliberate play, which combines aspects of play and deliberate practice. Research indicating music learning through deliberate practice, deliberate play, and music play is presented. If students are able to learn through the more enjoyable deliberate play and music play, teachers should consider including these activities to better match developmental stages and potentially improve retention. Implications for future research and music teachers are discussed.

Heterogeneous Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19: Costs and Benefits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
Mental Health Functioning ◽  
Health Functioning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mental Health Costs ◽  
Long Term Impact

In this commentary, I argue that the mental health impact of COVID-19 will show substantial variation across individuals, contexts, and time. Further, one key contributor to this variation will be the proximal and long-term impact of COVID-19 on the social environment. In addition to the mental health costs of the pandemic, it is likely that a subset of people will experience improved social and mental health functioning.

The Acceptance of Party Unity in Parliamentary Democracies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Willumsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Ideal Policy ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Policy Incentives

The central argument of this book is that voting unity in European legislatures is not primarily the result of the ‘disciplining’ power of the leadership of parliamentary parties, but rather the result of a combination of ideological homogeneity through self-selection into political parties and the calculations of individual legislators about their own long-term benefits. Despite the central role of policy preferences in the subsequent behaviour of legislators, preferences at the level of the individual legislator have been almost entirely neglected in the study of parliaments and legislative behaviour. The book measures these using an until now under-utilized resource: parliamentary surveys. Building on these, the book develops measures of policy incentives of legislators to dissent from their parliamentary parties, and show that preference similarity amongst legislators explains a very substantial proportion of party unity, yet alone cannot explain all of it. Analysing the attitudes of legislators to the demands of party unity, and what drives these attitudes, the book argues that what explains the observed unity (beyond what preference similarity would explain) is the conscious acceptance by MPs that the long-term benefits of belonging to a united party (such as increased influence on legislation, lower transaction costs, and better chances of gaining office) outweigh the short-terms benefits of always voting for their ideal policy outcome. The book buttresses this argument through the analysis of both open-ended survey questions as well as survey questions on the costs and benefits of belonging to a political party in a legislature.

scholarly journals Potentially Prolonged Psychological Distress from Postponed Olympic and Paralympic Games during COVID-19—Career Uncertainty in Elite Athletes

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Anders Håkansson ◽  
Karin Moesch ◽  
Caroline Jönsson ◽  
Göran Kenttä
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Female Athletes ◽  
Job Insecurity ◽  
Elite Athletes ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Sporting Events ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Career Uncertainty ◽  
Paralympic Games

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on the world of sports due to periods of home quarantine, bans against public gatherings, travel restrictions, and a large number of postponed or canceled major sporting events. The literature hitherto is sparse, but early indications display signs of psychological impact on elite athletes due to the pandemic. However, beyond acute effects from lockdown and short-term interrupted athletic seasons, the postponed and still uncertain Olympic and Paralympic Games may represent a major career insecurity to many athletes world-wide, and may lead to severe changes to everyday lives and potentially prolonged psychological distress. Given the long-term perspective of these changes, researchers and stakeholders should address mental health and long-term job insecurity in athletes, including a specific focus on those with small financial margins, such as many female athletes, parasports athletes, athletes in smaller sports, and athletes from developing countries. Implications and the need for research are discussed.

scholarly journals The role of sport-based social networks in the management of long-term health conditions: Insights from the World Transplant Games

2020 ◽  
pp. 101269022097920
Author(s):  
Gareth Wiltshire ◽  
Nicola J Clarke ◽  
Cassandra Phoenix ◽  
Carl Bescoby
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Sport Participation ◽  
Organ Transplant ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Transplant Recipients ◽  
Organ Transplant Recipients

In the context of an increasing clinical need to better support self-managemt for people living with long-term health conditions an interest in the role of social networks has emerged. Given that sport participation often provides opportunities for social engagement, a space to explore Self-managemt at the intersection of medical sociology and the sociology of sport has opened up. This article presents findings from an exploratory qualitative study with organ transplant recipients who have participated in Transplant Games events – national and international multi-sport competitions for organ transplant recipients. Our findings illustrate how sport-based Social networks serve as resources for health-related knowledge, provide participants with additional affective support and help shape health expectations for the future. Although sport-based Social networks were seen as an overwhelmingly positive resource for our participants, it is plausible that harmful unintended consequences could arise for patients with existing Self-managemt issues. As such, it is recommended that people seeking to use sport as a tool to enhance illness Self-managemt should consider the various and powerful ways that Social networks can be impactful and anticipate the potential consequences accordingly.

Companion Trainer Aircraft: Aspects of Dual Qualification

1982 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 605-609
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Killion
Keyword(s):  
Short Duration ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Initial Training ◽  
Aircraft Performance ◽  
B 52 ◽  
Difficult Part ◽  
Military Airlift

The use of surrogate aircraft for aircrew training involves two major issues. First, what effect does flying the secondary aircraft have on primary aircraft performance? This issue was addressed in the previous paper. Second, can the crew learn to safely operate the secondary aircraft while continuing to fly the primary aircraft? This paper addresses this second aspect of dual qualification. Of interest is the acquisition of skill in the secondary aircraft. For the purpose of testing the concept of a Companion Trainer Aircraft (CTA), eight B-52 pilot/copilot teams from the 2nd Bombardment Wing, Barksdale AFB, LA, were dual qualified in the T-39. Initial training in the T-39A occurred at Scott AFB, IL, followed by the flying of B-52 style training sorties in a specially modified T-39B at Barksdale AFB, LA. Pilot/copilot performance in the T-39A was evaluated by Military Airlift Command (MAC) instructor pilots (IPs), in the T-39B performance was monitored by a 4950 Test Wing IP. The results of these evaluations suggest that: 1, approach and landing is the most difficult part of the mission to learn; and 2, certain behaviors which are appropriate in the B-52 intrude on T-39 performance, where they are inappropriate. The data also suggest that in the early phase of skill acquisition, frequent sorties are necessary to avoid degradations in performance. In the T-39B training, the frequency required appeared to be about every two weeks. Although the short duration of this study prohibits conclusions concerning long term learning effects, the results do identify some areas for concern in any future CTA type program.

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