Gold, silver, and bronze Olympic medallists may not the people that
practice more than everyone else. A new analysis of almost 3,000 athletes
showed that to become a world class athlete takes an enormous amount of
practice, but it is not the most number of practice hours that clinches a gold
medal. So what does it take to win a gold medal?
Swedish psychologist K. Anders Ericsson published a study in 1993 that
suggested that the difference between mediocre muscians and maestros was
largely determined by the number of hours they spent practicing. He conducted
further studies in sports, chess, and medicine. He said the world’s best
athletes, musicians, doctors and chess players were simply the ones who
practiced the most. He called it the 10,000-hour rule – put in 10,000 hours of
deliberate practice and you’ll become great. Deliberate practice is defined as
the practice that is closely monitored by coaches at all times.
A new study, published in July 2016 in Perspectives
on Psychological Science by Case Western University researchers, says
practice is just one factor that contributes to greatness – and gold.
Brooke Macnamara and her team of psychology researchers analyzed 34 studies
that tracked the number of hours that 2,765 athletes had practiced in their
sport. Those studies recorded the athletes’ achievements by race times,
performance ratings by experts, or memberships in elite groups.
The results showed that deliberate practice could explain 18% of the
difference in performance between elite and non-elite athletes. But when the
researchers looked only at the very best competitors – Olympic or world-level
athletes – differences in the number of hours practiced explained just 1% of
the difference in their performance at competitions. Macnamara said, ‘This
suggests that practice is important to a point, but it stops differentiating
who’s good and who’s great.’
At national and world-level sporting competitions, genetics, psychological
traits, and other factors influence performance, say the researchers of the new
study. Other researchers who were not involved in the study question whether
this study will change people’s behaviour, because sporting competitors will
still practice – and they will still practice a lot. It is becoming more
difficult to pinpoint with any accuracy what it takes to win gold – that
defining factor that separates the difference between a gold, a silver, and a
bronze medallist – and those who narrowly miss out despite years of practice.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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