From a review of David Epstein’s new book "The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance":
http://takimag.com/article/white_men_cant_reach_steve_sailer#axzz2dIZpMPc4White Men Can’t Reach
by Steve Sailer
Taki's Magazine
August 28, 2013
Finally, if you are a Tiger Father dreaming of your progeny surpassing your sporting achievements, when should you insist your child specialize in one sport?
Not too young. A study of 243 Danish athletes in sports that are measured in “centimeters, grams, or seconds” (such as swimming, weightlifting, or track and field) found that burnout is a sizable threat. The most successful don’t start specializing until after age 15. Until their late teens, contra the 10,000 Hour Rule, they have fewer cumulative hours of practice than the future also-rans.
In other words, let your kid play normal schoolyard sports such as soccer or basketball for a long time before picking a specialty. The more obscure sports tend to be boring for children, so don’t make play an ordeal.
Obviously, this Danish finding, like almost all of Epstein’s book, is commonsensical. This lack of counterintuitive Gladwellian advice will no doubt limit the author’s success on the public-speaking circuit. But it may prevent a few unhappy childhoods.
I think the study is
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21401722Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2011 Dec;21(6):e282-90. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01280.x. Epub 2011 Mar 15.
Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports.
Moesch K, Elbe AM, Hauge ML, Wikman JM.
Source
Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Karin.Moesch@psychology.lu.se
Abstract
A controversial question within elite sports is whether young athletes need to specialize early, as suggested by Ericsson et al., or if it is more beneficial to follow the path of early diversification proposed by Côté et al., which includes sampling different sport experiences during childhood and specializing later on during adolescence. Based on a Danish sample of 148 elite and 95 near-elite athletes from cgs sports (sports measured in centimeters, grams, or seconds), the present study investigates group differences concerning accumulated practice hours during the early stages of the career, involvement in other sports, career development, as well as determining whether or not these variables predict membership in the elite group. The results clearly reveal that elite athletes specialized at a later age and trained less in childhood. However, elite athletes were shown to intensify their training regime during late adolescence more than their near-elite peers. The involvement in other sports neither differs between the groups nor predicts success. It can be concluded that factors related to the organization of practice during the mid-teens seem to be crucial for international success within cgs sports. Future research should adopt a longitudinal design with means of drawing causal inferences.
© 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
