Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

parents may facilitate skill development by encouraging him or her to take some lessons
in the activity in question. Stage 2 can extend over a long period. It is here that a
protracted period of preparation occurs during which the young learners are taught to
perform their skills better. Therefore, “deliberate practice” begins in earnest in Stage 2.
As explained previously, this form of practice stems from having a well-defined task with
an appropriate level of difficulty for the individual concerned, informative feedback, and
opportunities for the correction of errors. During this stage, the young athlete’s
performance usually improves significantly. Usually, the stage ends with some
commitment from the performer to pursue activities in the domain on a full-time basis.
Finally, in stage 3, the average amount of daily deliberate practice increases and
specialist or advanced coaches are sought by the parents to assist the young performer.
Indeed, on occasion, parents of some performers may move home in order to live closer
to specialist coaches or advanced training facilities. Stage 3 usually ends either when the
performer becomes a full-time competitor in the sport in question or when s/he abandons
the sport completely. A fourth stage has been recognised by Ericsson and his colleagues.
Here, certain outstanding performers may go beyond the competence (skills and
knowledge) of their coaches to achieve exceptional levels of success in their chosen
sport. One interesting implication of Ericsson’s stage theory is that it suggests that mere
exposure to a given sport will not make someone an expert performer in it. Research
shows that the ability to perform to an expert standard in sport does not come from
merely watching it but requires instead active interaction with its structure (Starkes et al.,
2001).

Testing the theory of deliberate practice in sport

As we learned above, Ericsson (2001a, 2001b; Ericsson et al., 1993) proposed that
expertise in any field is directly related to the amount of deliberate practice undertaken by
the performer in question. How valid is this theory when applied to the domain of sport?
Although only a small number of studies have been conducted on this issue so far,
research reviews by Starkes (2001) and Starkes et al. (2001) lend qualified support to
Ericsson’s crucial emphasis on the importance of deliberate practice. Thus as Starkes
(2001) concluded: “In every sport we have examined to date, we have found that level of
skill has a positive linear relationship with amount of accumulated practice throughout
one’s sports career. The best athletes...have put in significantly more practice than their
lesser skill [sic] counterparts” (p. 198). But some caution is necessary when interpreting
this conclusion. To explain, research suggests that there are at least two key differences
between the deliberate practice schedules of musicians and athletes. First, whereas most
musicians tend to practise on their own, athletes tend to train with team-mates or practice
partners (Summers, 1999). Second, the concept of deliberate practice in sport may differ
from that in the domain of music. To illustrate, recall that one of the criteria of such
practice stipulated by Ericsson is that the activity in question should be relatively
unenjoyable. In sport, however, there is evidence that many athletes (e.g., wrestlers;
Hodges and Starkes, 1996) seem to enjoy engaging in deliberate practice activities. This
finding was confirmed by Helsen et al. (1998) who analysed the practice habits of soccer
and hockey players of various levels of ability. The results of this study revealed two key
findings and an anomaly. To begin with, the ten-year rule was confirmed. Specifically,

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