Abstract
A comprehensive understanding of skill acquisition is important for different performance domains, and has practical implications for both sport sciences and public health. The study compared important constraints for expertise development in a physically demanding sport (cross-country skiing) versus a technically demanding sport (freeskiing). Eighteen world-class athletes reported the importance of different constraints for their developmental history subdivided into two age spans: (1) 7–15 years and (2) 16 years until present. The total amount of training did not differ between the groups, but from the age of 16, the cross-country skiers spend approximately 98% of their training specific to their main sport, compared to 75% for freeskiers. No differences were found between the distribution of organized versus non-organized training in main sport, but freeskiers reported a higher amount of unorganized training in other sports after the age of 16. No differences were found in perceived importance of facilities, enjoyment of performing their sport, or the need for early specialization of training. After the age of 16, the cross-country skiers reported a higher need for coach involvement compared to freeskiers. The two sports mainly share common paths to expertise but differ in the need for specific training and coach involvement.
Highlights
A comprehensive understanding of the complexity of skill acquisition is important for different performance domains of all ages and tasks and has practical implications for both sport sciences and public health
Expertise development in sport is a result of an arduous process that emerges as a result of interactions between multiple sportspecific constraints
The purpose of the present study is to examine potential similarities and differences in pathways to skill development and world-class expertise in complex technically versus physically demanding sports: (1) Freeski, which is regarded as a high demand of coordinative and technical skills, accompanied by courage [35], compared to (2) Cross-country skiing which is a very physically demanding sport that mainly requires high endurance capacity, high peak oxygen uptake (VO2PEAK ), movement-specific strength, and only a few repetitive skiing techniques [36,37,38]
Summary
A comprehensive understanding of the complexity of skill acquisition is important for different performance domains of all ages and tasks and has practical implications for both sport sciences and public health (e.g., lifespan skill development, physical education, rehabilitation, elite sport). Studies of paths to high performance in different domains have the potential to elucidate and rate knowledge about significant constraints for the development of specific expertise, and for the improvement in skills in general. There has been an increase in expert performance development, in general, and, in particular, within sports performance. Expertise development in sport is a result of an arduous process that emerges as a result of interactions between multiple sportspecific constraints. There seem to be different pathways concerning how this expertise is accomplished and how different athletes achieve gold medals in Olympic sports [1]. Researchers have mainly pointed out two different pathways to achieve expert performance in sports [2]. The pathways are usually described as either a coach-led and highly sportspecific way termed “deliberate practice” or as a non-organized (peer-led) activity termed “deliberate play” [1]
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