I was listening to a podcast (To the best of our knowledge, 12/14/2008 hour 1, Reconsidering crafts, the first part - link below from the website) the other day out riding and I thought it had some applicability to sports, including this sport.
The premise was it takes 10,000 hours of practice to be really good at anything. I am not sure it takes that long to “get superficially good” at riding a bike except part of their definition of “good” involved being able to understand yourself, your strngths and limitations, to be self-critical, and to be good day after day after day. Anyhow, food for thought to help those who are a little impatient to become more patient. Excellence requires both hard work and lots of time. 12/14/2008 Program # TITLE (click for program detail) Hour 1
08-12-14-A
The rule of thumb probably starts to break down when it comes to things like running and cycling which are almost 100% physical and 0% technique.
LOL
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wrt to sport, the 10,000 “Rule” has been part of LTAD for a few years (www.ltad.ca and elsewhere).
the underlying theory is known as “deliberative practice” - part of a body of research studying expertise. it’s a nice round number (10yrs/10K hours), but the theory is an awkward fit with sport, and not without it’s critics - I’ve read both sides, I’m not convinced.
agreed that excellence takes hard work and time, but that’s not all it takes.
How does he define “really good” at something?
In short, he defined it as “being as good as you can possibly be, day after day”. If you would listen to the show you would find out what he meant.
I think you are lumping technique together with strategy and/or tactics.
There is certainly more technique in running than in chess, unless how the player moves a piece has some effect on the outcome. Perhaps not as much as in soccer, perhaps more but it is certainly crucial to both sports.
Fine, go ahead and believe there is as much technique involved in “running” as there is in “soccer” or “chess”
=)
Those are different skill sets. Don't see many soccer players making the Finals of the 100m dash in the Olympics. The excellence they are talking about is excellence with regard to others doing the same activity.
This sounds about right for most endurance or technical sports…10 years > 1000 hours per year…how long did it take Phelps or Thorpe or Lance or Federer, or Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods to become number 1 in the world?
Fine, go ahead and believe there is as much technique involved in “running” as there is in “soccer” or “chess”
=)
Those are different skill sets. Don’t see many soccer players making the Finals of the 100m dash in the Olympics. The excellence they are talking about is excellence with regard to others doing the same activity.
Chess is different to running? Who knew? I guess I better cancel tonight’s Kings Indian defence tempo session.
Those are different skill sets. Don’t see many soccer players making the Finals of the 100m dash in the Olympics. The excellence they are talking about is excellence with regard to others doing the same activity.
Great counterexample, I suppose. T&F sprinters peak fairly young and don’t spend many hours training (they train hard alright but not long hours - in comparison to swimmers, road cyclists, and middle/long distance runners).
Those are different skill sets. Don’t see many soccer players making the Finals of the 100m dash in the Olympics. The excellence they are talking about is excellence with regard to others doing the same activity.
Great counterexample, I suppose. T&F sprinters peak fairly young and don’t spend many hours training (they train hard alright but not long hours - in comparison to swimmers, road cyclists, and middle/long distance runners).
Is that rule limited to endurance sports, then?
Alex
It probably does not hold for all activities, such as women’s gymnastics, ice skating, etc. where the rules are such that people tend to peak at 16-18 or so.If there is an advantage to being small, larger (older) people usually do not dominate (except, perhaps, for jockeys). Hard to get 10000 hours of anything in, except TV, by age 16. I suspect elite sprinters do not train more because the stresses on their bodies are so high that if they did they would all be injured all the time.
Listen!