Predicting Performance Times From Deliberate Practice Hours for Triathletes and Swimmers: What, When, and Where Is Practice Important?

Abstract

In Studies 1 and 2, the authors evaluated deliberate practice theory through analyses of the relationship between practice and performance for 2 populations of athletes: triathletes and swimmers, respectively. In Study 3, the authors obtained evaluations of practice from athletes' diaries. Across athletes, length of time involved in fitness activities was not related to performance. For the triathletes, a significant percentage of variance in performance was captured by practice. This was not so for sprint events for the swimmers, in which gender was a significant predictor. In the diaries, physical activities were perceived as enjoyable. In contrast to the results obtained from questionnaires, enjoyment did not covary with an activity's relevance to improving performance. Although these findings highlight the importance of sport-specific practice, the authors question a domain-independent account of expertise based on deliberate practice.

How experts practice: A novel test of deliberate practice theory.

“…Similar to the expert group, they improved the accuracy of the weaker kick and rated practice as more effortful and less enjoyable than did their own group. Our data suggest that other factors may have led the athletes in previous studies (e.g., Helsen et al, 1998) to retrospectively rate deliberate practice activities as enjoyable, such as the social interaction and environment of sport (Hodges et al, 2004) or the lack of engagement in deliberate practice during sessions (e.g., . The ratings provided by the expert group in the current study provide support for the idea that they were engaging in a higher quality of deliberate practice compared to the intermediate group.…”

“…Moreover, a number of other factors may have led athletes (e.g., to rate activities they identified as being highly relevant to improving performance as enjoyable. First, the social interaction and environment of sport might interfere with participant recollections of their in-the-moment enjoyment of a practice activity (Ericsson, 1996;Hodges, Kerr, Starkes, Weir, & Nananidou, 2004). Second, the method of retrospectively rating the enjoyment of an activity by aggregating the perceptions of an activity that has been engaged in many times into a single rating could lead to changes in those perceptions.…”

Practice, intelligence, and enjoyment in novice chess players: A prospective study at the earliest stage of a chess career

“…Ericsson's deliberate practice theory leaves no room for an influence of individual differences of an innate nature, except for height in certain sports such as basketball. Many studies have added to these findings by replicating the results in diverse domains such as soccer (Helsen, Starkes, & Hodges, 1998), martial arts (Hodge & Deakin, 1998), triathlon and swimming (Hodges, Kerr, Starkes, Weir, & Nananidou, 2004), chess (Charness, Krampe, & Mayr, 1996;Charness, Tuffiash, Krampe, Reingold, & Vasyukova, 2005), music (Sloboda, Davidson, Howe, & Moore, 1996), and teaching (Dunn & Shriner, 1999). Deliberate practice was defined as practice that (1) is primarily focused at improving performance, (2) is of an adequate difficulty level, (3) contains informative feedback, usually by a coach or teacher, and (4) provides numerous opportunities for repetition and correction of errors.…”

A Q-Methodology Approach to Investigating the Relationship Between Level of Reflection and Typologies Among Prospective Teachers in the Physics Learning Assistant Program at Florida International University

“…In 1991, Ericsson and Smith wrote that "the study of expertise seeks to understand and account for what distinguishes outstanding individuals in a domain from less outstanding individuals in that domain, as well as from people in general" (p. 2). Since it's initiation expertise has been explored in a variety of fields including, but not limited to: sports (Hodges, Kerr, Starkes, Weird, & Nananidou, 2004), music (Sloboda, 2000), literary skills (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991;Wagner & Stanovich, 1996), chess (Charness, Tuffiash, Krampe, Reingold, & Vasyukova, 2005), physics conceptual understanding (VanLehn & van de Sande, 2009), problem solving in physics (Larkin, McDermott, & Simon, 1980), and medicine (Patel, Groen, & Arocha, 1990;Boshuizen, 2009). In the following sections, we will discuss the results of research in expertise that are relevant to the current study.…”

“…Using a three-section questionnaire, Hodges et al (2004) obtained information on athletes biographical information, their current practice habits, and their training histories.…”