Early Specialization in Youth Sport: a requirement for adult expertise?

By J. Baker. High Ability Studies, 2003

285 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The role of early specialization in the development of sport expertise is a point of contention among researchers. While there is consistent evidence linking quantity of training with level of proficiency attained, a focus on specialized training during early stages of development has been linked with several negative consequences. Diversified involvement in a number of sports during early stages of development has been presented as a possible alternative to early specialization. Considering the consequences of advocating the early specialization approach and research suggesting the effectiveness of early diversification, coaches and sport scientists should consider the early diversification approach as an alternative. Further research is required to expand our understanding of the relative contributions of diversified versus specialized training.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1a0dfe7f8d422a14a6a6178f5978837f803d2873

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Play and practice in the development of sport‐specific creativity in team ball sports (2010, background): “…than sportspecific deliberate practice in Ericsson et al.’s theory, recent research suggests that in some sports participation in other nonspecific activities could play a functional role in the development of experts (Baker, 2003; Baker, Côté, & Abernethy, 2003; Côté, Baker, & Abernethy, 2003).”
Can Creativity Be Improved by an Attention-Broadening Training Program? An Exploratory Study Focusing on Team Sports (2007, methodology): “This is supported by concepts from current literature (cf. Baker, 2003; Baker, Côté, & Abernethy, 2003; Côté, Baker, & Abernethy, 2003; Wiersam, 2000), in particular current multitheoretical approaches (cf. Sternberg & Lubart, 1995; Sternberg, 1999), and by empirical evidence from research on…”
The role of ecological constraints on expertise development (2010, background): “Indeed, Davids and Baker‟s (2007) review highlighted that an increasing number of studies have considered the important influence that environmental constraints have on the acquisition of sport expertise.”
20 years later: deliberate practice and the development of expertise in sport (2014, background): “Not only do experts typically invest in greater amounts of deliberate training overall, but studies have demonstrated that they devote more time to participating in the specific activities most relevant to developing the essential component skills for expert performance (Baker, Côté, & Abernethy, 20”
Talent development in sport: A critical review of pathways to expert performance (2016, background): “The early specialisation approach to talent development in sport includes an early start age in one sport and an early investment in focused intensive training such as deliberate practice.(16,17,46) According to the original study of Ericsson et al.”
The Standard Model of Talent Development and Its Discontents (2013, background): “Further psychosocial concerns linked to early specialization include compromised social development, sport dropout, burnout, and eating disorders (Baker, 2003).”
What do we know about early sport specialization? Not much! (2009, background): “It has also been suggested that the skills and physiological conditioning developed through diversified childhood sport involvement may be transferable to athletes’ later sport of specialization (Baker, 2003).”