Yesterday I started what I hope is an interesting and thought-provoking in young children. I looked at a recent study of Danish elite and near-elite athletes where the authors concluded that “There is no delay in the athletic development that cannot be made up later with late specialization”. Practice trajectory leads to performance? That conclusion was […]
High performance management
Early vs Late Specialization: When should children specialize in sport?
There is no single pathway to success in sport. If there were, we wouldn’t be able to compare the stories of Chrissie Wellington, who discovered her remarkable talent late in life but went on to dominate IronMan Triathlon within a few years, to that of another endurance athlete, say Floyd Landis, who began cycling at […]
Pressure points and performance: Choking and panic
Cricket is not a sport that we’ve done a great deal of analysis of here on The Science of Sport. The irony is that the very first post we ever did, way back in April 2007, was the day of Cricket World Cup Final, which is currently on again in India. That post, and maybe […]
An Olympic musical – why every millisecond matters
Canada sits atop the Winter sporting world this morning, having claimed a record 14 gold medals in their home Olympic Games. It’s a record for any Games, beating the previous record of 13 held by Norway (Salt Lake City, 2002) and the Soviet Union (Innsbruck, 1976). The 14th medal also probably felt like five for […]
The mental edge: Thoughts and opinions
It’s been far too long between posts for me – I do apologize, but as Jonathan said in yesterday’s post, things have been rather frantic for both of us. And seem likely to continue, but (fortunately, I guess), I’m recovering from jet-lag and a round-the-world trip which has me waking up at 4am, so I […]
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