Successful talent development in popular game sports in Switzerland: The case of ice hockey

Abstract

There is continuing discussion in talent research on the best approach to developing sporting expertise through learning activities during early sport participation. Among other concepts, the specialized sampling model describes a pathway between early specialization and early sampling and yields promising results in Swiss football. As successful constellations of early sport participation might be affected by sport-specific constraints (e.g., age of peak performance, selection pressure, and physiological/psychological requirements), other popular game sports may show similar promising pathways. This study investigates whether ice hockey, another popular game sport in Switzerland, shows similar successful constellations of early sport participation. A sample of 98 former Swiss junior national team players born between 1984 and 1994 reported on early sport participation through a retrospective questionnaire. Using the person-oriented Linking of Clusters after removal of a Residue (LICUR) method, volumes of in-club practice, free play, and activities besides ice hockey until 12 years of age were analyzed, along with player’s age at initial club participation. The results indicate that ice hockey enthusiasts with the most free play and above-average in-club practice had a greater chance of reaching professional level compared to other groups. This implies that high domain specificity with varied sampling experiences is the most promising approach to developing sporting expertise in ice hockey. As similar results were previously found in Swiss football, comparable sport-specific constraints might indeed require similar constellations of learning activities during early sport participation. Therefore, in popular game sports in Switzerland, the specialized sampling model seems to be most promising.

Talent development in childhood: Early specialization or sampling? From an either… or… question to a 2 × 2 × 3 question cuboid

“…Since performing well in the short-term is crucial for selection, the fewer places offered within a system and the higher the number of applicants-from sport popularity or selection pressure-the more required the task-specificity and exercise mode. 35,87 The transfer principle. Motor learning is always based on previous experiences and thus, to some extent, on transfer effects.…”

“…Second, they illustrate that the most popular and scientific contributions to the debate often only address the two extreme poles—low versus high degree of expression in both axes—DMSP 2 versus DP framework. 3 And third, they link a third path to success in adulthood in football 51 and ice hockey 35 : the path of specialized sampling . As depicted in Figure 1, this third path gathers within-sport experiences across the whole spectrum of the performance orientation continuum—play and practice.…”

“…Since performing well in the short-term is crucial for selection, the fewer places offered within a system and the higher the number of applicants—from sport popularity or selection pressure—the more required the task-specificity and exercise mode. 35,87…”

“…30 However, an increasing number of dissenting researchers doubt we can reach consensus (see e.g. for swimming, 31 gymnastics, 32 ice hockey, [33][34][35] basketball, 36 and soccer [37][38][39] ). In response, the present conceptual paper questions the dichotomous-either-or-nature of the proposed choices and introduces an analytical framework.…”

Sosialisasi dan Implementasi Pemanduan Bakat Olahraga di Kota Surakarta

“…Bakat dapat menentukan karakteristik pada tiap cabang olahraga (Teunissen et al, 2021). Aktivitas olahraga yang dilakukan dapat mepengaruhi bakat seseorang (Stegmann et al, 2021). Untuk mendapatkan bibit atlet berbakat yang berpotensi dan memberikan peluang besar menjadi atlet berprestasi di masa depan memerlukan strategi dalam pemanduan dan pengembangan bakat.…”