What Makes an Elite Athlete?

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This blog considers the factors that underpin excellence in sport and their implications for developing expertise in other walks of life. In a series of posts, what makes people successful in sport is outlined and how the answers to this question can impact our chances of being successful in other professional domains and in life more generally are discussed.

The issues are explored from several angles. The role of serendipity and environment on the path to sporting excellence is considered. The chances of becoming an elite athlete are markedly influenced by where we are born and the opportunities provided for access to sport, a suitable level of competition, as well as training facilities and high-level coaching. Parents and significant others play a key role in introducing kids into sport, whereas having an older sibling provides earlier access to sport as well as presenting a shared learning environment and an opportunity for greater exposure and earlier progression. An athlete’s month of selection, relative to the start of the selection year, markedly influences the chances of being selected into an elite training environment. Children born in the first few months of the selection year—and those that are typically bigger and stronger for their age—are more likely to be selected for elite training programs at younger ages, whereas paradoxically, one’s chances of reaching the elite level, winning personal awards, and having the highest salary in professional sport is higher for children born late in the selection year, provided one makes the original selection cut.

The different trajectories taken by elite athletes to reach the top are explored. The age of initial engagement in the sport, the number, and type, of other sports in which athletes participate, and the extent to which they specialize, engage early, or diversify in various sports were discussed. The road to the top differs for each athlete with the nature of the sport, and the sport’s cultural popularity and size of the participation pool being important mediating factors. The challenges and pitfalls of talent identification are highlighted. While not dismissing the value and importance of talent identification, the best athletes are a product of their environment and in many sports, notably team ball sorts, these environments involve engagement in street sport, which become breeding grounds for technical and tactical creativity.

The blog identifies how practice leads to the key adaptations that underpin world-class performance. While these adaptations are multi-faceted, the focus here is largely on the psychological adaptations that arise through extended engagement in sport. How batters in fast-ball sports like cricket and baseball learn to pick up information from the opponent’s body shape ahead of ball release is discussed, including knowledge of the context of the game and how it impacts perceptions, leading to the ability to anticipate early in the action what will happen next. In a similar vein, the ability of the best athletes in team sports like football and basketball to identify patterns and structure in the opponents’ play is highlighted, as well as using vision to scan the display picking up key information that helps predict what opponents will do next in any given situation. These skills developed through extensive exposure to the sport allowing the very best athletes to ‘read the game’ and anticipate what opponents will do next, appearing as if they have all the time in the world to respond. While anticipation is crucial to high-level performance, its benefits can be outweighed by the ability of opponents to try and deceive and disguise their actions so as to fool them into perceiving incorrectly. The science of deception and disguise is explored.

The blog explores the psychological characteristics associated with the best athletes, such as passion, interest, resilience, grit, perfectionism, self-confidence, and mental toughness. The impact of genetics and environment on these characteristics are discussed as well as how training interventions can help develop these skills. Elite athletes deal with the high levels of stress evident during competition. While some cope, others can choke, and a few can elevate performance, as evidenced by elevating performance to a ‘clutch’ or ‘flow’ state. The reasons why some people choke and others do not are explored.

The importance of practice in developing elite athletes is discussed. While the ‘age-old’ saying that ‘practice makes perfect’ has an element of resonance to it, ultimately it presents too simplistic an argument. No hour of practice is the same and it remains a holy grail as to how we can quantify the effectiveness of various types of practice, particularly the extent to which the gains observed in practice transfer to competition. The value of deliberate and purposeful practice in promoting enhanced skill acquisition is discussed and some practical illustrations of how these may be applied with the best athletes presented. The blog explores how common perceptions of coaching and effective practice and instruction have changed. Coaches are now embracing more ‘hands-off’ and less prescriptive approaches to instruction, with athletes being viewed as active participants in this process. An emphasis on reduced provision of instruction and feedback and a focus on developing dynamic and more game-like practice sessions appear key in developing more creative and adaptive athletes that can perform successfully in the cauldron of competitive sport.

No prescriptive recipe exists for sporting success; what we have is a unique blend of serendipity and adaptations to practice, with some underlying genetic influences thrown in the mix. Each athlete’s journey is unique, influenced by individual differences in exposure and adaptations to practice. Yet, all elite athletes demonstrate a capacity to change and adapt; plasticity is a key component in becoming an elite athlete. The very best athletes adapt to the demands placed upon them during practice and competition. While not all adapt at the same rate, and there could be ceiling effects that may genetically determine the rate and extent of such adaptations, there is no doubt that environment, which includes exposure to high-level practice, presents the key stimulus for such adaptations to occur. Some athletes may be born with a better chance of becoming the best compared to others, but ultimately all athletes are made through prolonged engagement in sport that necessitates adaptations at each stage and level of development. The very best athletes, like those who reach the top in other domains of expertise, provide optimism and hope for the rest of us and highlight that life is both a journey and an opportunity for growth and development.