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      Early Single Sport Specialization in a High-Achieving US Athlete Population: Comparing National Collegiate Athletic Association Student-Athletes and Undergraduate Students

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          Abstract

          Context

          Early single-sport specialization and the relative age effect are often cited as improving the chances of sport success. Both concepts suggest that genetics and the environment have little influence on sport success.

          Objective

          To compare National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I student-athletes (SAs) with their undergraduate nonathlete peers (NAs) in terms of birth month, age of sport initiation, and age of single-sport specialization. A family history of sport participation was examined as a potential marker for genetic and social influences.

          Design

          Cross-sectional survey.

          Setting

          Large urban university.

          Patients or Other Participants

          A total of 273 Division I SAs (138 women, 135 men) and 155 NAs (78 women, 77 men) participated. The NAs had been involved in competitive youth sports before entering the university.

          Main Outcome Measure(s)

          Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that addressed the age of sport initiation, birth month, age of single-sport specialization, and parental and sibling sport achievement.

          Main Results

          Neither birth month nor the age of sport initiation differed between groups (age of sport initiation = 7.16 ± 2.6 years for the SAs versus 7.71 ± 3.5 for the NAs; P = .176). A larger proportion of SAs began participating before 10 years of age (80% versus 63%; P = .02). The parents of SAs were more likely to have participated in collegiate (32.4% versus 8.4%; P < .0001) and professional (10.9% versus 1.3%; P = .0005) sports. The SAs specialized in a single sport at an older age (15.38 ± 2.7 years versus 14.30 ± 2.6 years; P = .002). Both groups participated in multiple sports in childhood (SAs = 3.9 ± 1.8 sports, NAs = 3.2 ± 1.8 sports; P = .366).

          Conclusions

          The Division I SAs did not specialize in a single sport at a younger age than the NAs. No evidence of a relative age effect was present. Importantly, higher levels of sport achievement among the parents and siblings of SAs suggest that genetic endowment and family or other environmental dynamics play a large role in athletic performance. Overall, the results are not consistent with deliberate practice theory and point toward an alternative model that includes not only sport-specific skill development but also genetic and social factors as key elements of long-term sport achievement.

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          Most cited references18

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          The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.

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            What makes champions? A review of the relative contribution of genes and training to sporting success.

            Elite sporting performance results from the combination of innumerable factors, which interact with one another in a poorly understood but complex manner to mould a talented athlete into a champion. Within the field of sports science, elite performance is understood to be the result of both training and genetic factors. However, the extent to which champions are born or made is a question that remains one of considerable interest, since it has implications for talent identification and management, as well as for how sporting federations allocate scarce resources towards the optimisation of high-performance programmes. The present review describes the contributions made by deliberate practice and genetic factors to the attainment of a high level of sporting performance. The authors conclude that although deliberate training and other environmental factors are critical for elite performance, they cannot by themselves produce an elite athlete. Rather, individual performance thresholds are determined by our genetic make-up, and training can be defined as the process by which genetic potential is realised. Although the specific details are currently unknown, the current scientific literature clearly indicates that both nurture and nature are involved in determining elite athletic performance. In conclusion, elite sporting performance is the result of the interaction between genetic and training factors, with the result that both talent identification and management systems to facilitate optimal training are crucial to sporting success.
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              Early Specialization in Youth Sport: a requirement for adult expertise?

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal of Athletic Training
                Journal of Athletic Training
                Journal of Athletic Training/NATA
                1062-6050
                October 2019
                October 2019
                : 54
                : 10
                : 1050-1054
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Primary Sports Medicine, Hospital for Special Surgery, and National Basketball Association, New York, NY
                [2 ]Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics, University of Washington, Seattle
                [3 ]Department of Family Medicine and Orthopaedics, University of Missouri, Columbia
                [4 ]Maine Medical Center, Portland
                [5 ]Shriners Hospital for Children, Spokane, WA
                Article
                10.4085/1062-6050-431-18
                6805068
                31633415
                28e8999d-90d0-4eaa-831d-e0d63a866ef7
                © 2019
                History

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