Författare: Justin Keogh Associate Dean of Research Faculty of Health Sc

Most children have now returned from their summer holidays and are perhaps considering what sports to play this year.

For some, this means sampling a wide range of sports, but others might continue to focus on the same one they’ve been addicted to since they were able to walk and run.

But when it comes to possible sporting success, is it best to concentrate on one or give many a go?

Early specialisation

As the name suggests, early specialisation is typically defined as participation in one task or activity, with the aim to improve subsequent performances.

The rationale for its purported benefit can be traced to the theory of deliberate practice – or what some readers may have colloquially encountered as the “10,000-hour rule”.

Broadly, this theory proposes the attainment of excellence is proportionate to the number of accumulated hours invested into deliberate skill rehearsal.

So, the earlier someone specialises via deliberate practice, the more likely they’ll expedite the acquisition of expertise – or so the theory suggests.

While first explored in the musical domain, there are some examples of athletes who specialised early in a sport who went on to highly successful careers.

These include Simone Biles (who started gymnastics at the age of six), Tiger Woods (who hit a golf ball on the Mike Douglas TV show at the age of two) and Serena Williams (who was profiled hitting tennis balls on CNN at the age of nine).

There are also a host of athletes who specialised early and achieved outstanding success as a junior but never reached sporting success as an adult for myriad reasons.

Doesn’t practice make perfect?

Everyone would have encountered the saying “practice makes perfect”.

But does it really?

Of course, practice is an integral component of acquiring, developing and sharpening any skill. But perhaps we should be a little cautious.

Let us explain by first asking a few key questions that we encourage readers to ask themselves as the article unfolds: how much practice is needed to be perfect? What type of practice is needed to be perfect? And can “perfect” practice actually help us develop skills that are transferable between sports?

In other words, if practice makes perfect, should we not be advocating for sporting specialisation as early in life as possible?

It may seem logical, but is this belief – held by many parents, youth sport coaches, and perhaps children themselves – actually supported by evidence?

A 2022 systematic review suggested most elite, professional and Olympic level athletes engaged in multisport activities during their youth.

That is, they did not specialise in their chosen sport but actually diversified their sporting experiences up to the age of about 12, with some level of specialisation occurring from the age of 13 onward.

That was not all they found.

Youth sport specialisation was actually linked with increased risks of injury in athletes at the highest levels of competition when compared to those who engaged in multisport activities.

A similar review noted there was no evidence to support specialisation prior to puberty in the attainment of sporting excellence later in life.

What sport specialisation did increase, however, were risks of injury, psychological stress and sporting drop out.

A model to follow

In support of these findings, Jean Côtè (a leading expert in the field of youth psychology) and colleagues proposed a developmental model of sports participation.

This model is broken into three general stages of participation: the sampling years (between the ages of 6-12), the specialising years (13-15), and the investment years (16 and beyond).

As the name of each stage suggests, they are defined by unique types of participation.

For example, the sampling years are characterised by the acquisition of functional motor skills (such as running, throwing and jumping), developed through a wide variety of experiences.

The specialising years feature a progressive increase in focus on the deliberate practice of one or two sports, while the investment years are characterised by more deliberately increasing the volume of practice around one sport. In Australia, this may be the stage where seasonal sports become year-long through the establishment of pre-season training.

Since its inception nearly two decades ago, there has been a growing amount of research supporting these suggestions.

Food for thought

So what does this all mean for parents, youth coaches and children?

We suggest not to rush the process even if your child dreams of an elite sporting career: children under the age of 16 should engage in a wide variety of sporting experiences.

This is not only fun, but the research shows us diversity is likely to reduce the risk of overuse injuries and increase the likelihood of sporting excellence later in life, should that be their ambition. Läs mer…

Jordan Mailata is an Australian-born NFL star who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles as an offensive left tackle. This position favours very tall, heavy and strong athletes who also possess good footwork, agility and tactical awareness.

His main job is to protect his quarterback and provide gaps for his running backs to run through.

Mailata is one of four Australians to play in a Super Bowl, with the others being punters (kickers) Ben Graham, Arryn Siposs and Mitch Wishnowsky.

Unfortunately, no Australian has won the game that matters most every year but Mailata has a chance in his second Super Bowl, against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday morning.

So, how did Mailata reach the pinnacle of his “new” sport?

Read more:
It’s the most American of sports, so why is the NFL looking to Melbourne for international games?

A rugby league giant

Mailata’s initial sporting success came in rugby league.

He played in the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs under-18 team and was offered a contract by the South Sydney Rabbitohs under-20 team. Both of these clubs are part of the elite National Rugby League (NRL) competition.

Mailata, who still hadn’t reached his 21st birthday when offered the Rabbitohs contract, stood out as a giant even in professional rugby league circles at 203cm and 147 kilograms.

But after fainting during a rugby league training session, he was diagnosed with a heart condition that required surgery. He then became even bigger, reportedly tipping the scales at close to 170kg.

Ultimately, this resulted in some of the South Sydney staff and sport agents suggesting American football might be a better option for someone of his stature and physical capacities.

Tranasferring his talent

This brings us to what is known as “talent transfer”.

In high-performance sport, talent transfer refers to a high-level athlete from one sport transferring to another based on their existing skills and physical capacities.

This can be done for a number of reasons, like injury, burnout, loss of interest, or, in the case of Mailata, finding another sport that would suit their physicality better.

Examples of talent transfer include sprinting to bobsleigh (Jana Pittman), rowing to cycling (Bridie O’Donnell and Rebecca Romero) or Sonny Bill Williams, who was highly successful at rugby league, rugby union and heavyweight boxing.

For talent transfer to be successful, there needs to be a lot of similarities between the two sports in areas such as skill requirements (kicking, passing, tackling), physical traits (height, mass) and physiological demands (aerobic vs anaerobic).

These similarities can allow athletes to capitalise on their previous training to succeed in their new sport faster and to a higher level than their competitors.

The similarities between American football and rugby (league and union) – such as catching and kicking an oval-shaped ball, evading or running through defenders and full-body tackling – would have benefited a mature athlete like Mailata to transfer from one code to another.

A whole new ball game

His transition from a monster-sized rugby league player in Australia to a more regular-sized offensive tackle in the NFL was initially facilitated through the NFL International Player Pathway (IPP) program.

The IPP was established in 2017 to provide high performance adult athletes from all over the world (like Mailata) the opportunity to learn the complexities of American football and increase the number of international players in the NFL.

The program has been highly successful, with 37 international players signing with NFL teams, of which 18 are currently on NFL rosters.

When Mailata was drafted to the NFL in 2018, he had to work on many aspects of his body to meet the physical challenges of playing in the NFL against other exceptionally massive and strong athletes.

He also had to learn a range of sport-specific technical and tactical skills.

As a part of the IPP, he started working with coaches including Jeff Stoutland, the Philadelphia Eagles offensive line coach.

Stoutland took Mailata into the classroom, teaching him the intricacies of offensive line play including protection and run schemes. These lessons extended into what footwork patterns he would need to master, where and how to position his body when initiating contact and how to use his hands to control the defensive line.

Such skills are the bread and butter of the offensive line – these athletes provide the quarterback time to make key passing decisions and increase the chance of their running backs making big yards on their carries.

Mailata has also mentioned how Strickland taught him the importance of critically watching NFL games, initially to learn the technicalities of the sport and now to further refine his performance against the best defensive lines.

The next wave

In addition to the IPP that looks at talent transfer from adult athletes, the NFL has developed the NFL Academy for school-aged children.

The first academy was based at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom and the second was developed at A.B. Patterson College on the Gold Coast.

These academies combine full-time education with intensive American football training in the hope of promoting pathway opportunities at US colleges.

Hopefully, these academies will see more young Australians transferring their skills and following Mailata into the NFL. Läs mer…