In an effort to understand the process of skill acquisition and decline, researchers have largely neglected a critical aspect of this development--maximizing time at the highest levels of achievement. This study examined length of career for professional athletes in basketball, football, ice hockey, and baseball and considers whether career length…

Ziegler and Phillipson make a strong case for the need to reconsider traditional models of gifted education. Although their evidence and argument are compelling, the reviewers argue that several additional steps are needed to justify the theoretical foundation of the theory in order to facilitate its evaluation by researchers. First, Ziegler and…

Current theoretical approaches regarding the development of creativity support the view that gathering diversified experience over years is an ideal medium for creative thinking. This study examined the role of practice conditions in the development of creative behavior in team ball sports. Twelve trainers selected the most creative and the least…

In November 2005, the International Olympic Committee's Medical Commission issued a statement on "Training the elite child athlete" recommending that "more scientific research be done to better identify the parameters of training the elite child athlete". This paper focuses on a specific issue related to training the child athlete: early…

Ericsson and colleagues have provided an exhaustive review of research on the role of training in the acquisition of expert performance and their framework continues to be invaluable for examining issues in this area. However, several researchers have noted limitations with the theoretical foundations of the deliberate practice approach. In this…

Sport scientists have examined numerous factors influencing the acquisition and manifestation of high levels of performance. These factors can be divided into variables having a primary influence on expertise and variables that have a secondary influence through their interaction with other variables. Primary influences on expertise include…

Several sport-specific talent detection models have been developed over the last 30 years (Durand-Bush & Salmela, 2001). However, these models have failed in at least one important standard of judgment--accurately predicting who will develop into an elite level athlete. The authors believe that the WICS model presented by Robert Sternberg also…

This article examines evidence both for and against early specialization in the development of sports expertise and presents the early diversification approach as another path leading to elite levels of performance. It discusses sports dropout and questions the link between early sports specialization and exceptional sports performance. (Contains…