1. Running Head: Development of Athletes 1
Development of Athletes Title Page:
Mustapha Sanneh
Minnesota State University, Mankato

2. Development of Athletes 2
In this article, “Tracing the Development of Athletes Using Retrospective Interview
Methods”, researchers Jean Cote, Anders Ericson, & Madelyn Law use an interview process to
determine how athletes become excelled in their sport. Tennis players, swimmers and wrestlers
were interviewed for this project. The first part of the research compared past and current
performances, while the second part focused on domain-related activities. This is where the
researchers asked questions on the number of hours per week athletes trained, and enjoyment of
their training as well as the physical and mental concentration. The third part of the experiment
covered the limitations of the experiment. In this paper I will discuss the strengths and
weaknesses of the article, a reflect on practical applications, and think of future related research
on the topic.
A strength in this article is how the researchers compared athletes who practiced often to
athletes that did not practice often. The correlation between the two was clear. It also states that
the athletes who perform on an international level started sports at an early age. According to
(Cote, Anders, & Law), “They had access to high quality coaches and superior training
environments.” To me, this says that the earlier you start you athlete and the better training you
give them the better their chances on going into professional sports. I thought another strength
was how they compared musicians to athletes. “The music students who engaged in solitary
deliberate practice were thus able to control the structure, detail, and duration of the practice.”
(Cote, Anders, & Law). In this article they spoke of how musicians that performed at an
exceptional level practice alone. They compared this to athletes because they found that for
wrestlers they had a better practice when they practiced with the team.
A weakness for this article I would say is how they did not compare athletes of the same
elite status. Comparing athletes on an elite level to athletes on an amateur level will have some

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obvious differences. Whether it be from training, time playing, coaches, or resources you will see
a distinct difference. A more interesting comparison would be to find out the difference between
elite athlete A and elite athlete B. If A is winning more races than B, and they train the same
amount of time, or have the same coaches, what is it that A is doing that is better than B? That is
a question that they did not answer.
Applying this research to how athletes train now is easy. When you compare athletes
from years ago to athletes today you will see the difference in how many hours are spent a weak
on training. “Expert performers report spending, on average, just over five hours per week in
practice. A decade later, the overall duration of practice has increased to almost 25-30 hours per
week” (Starkes, 2000). Going back to my hometown I see the high school kids in the gym
working on their game all the time. These are the same kids that end up playing varsity for three
or four years. I can tell who will excel and who will not.
In the near future, I can see researchers going into more detail to distinguish the
difference between elite athletes at the same level. I would like to know what makes LeBron
James the dominant player on the basketball court when all of his opponents are professional
athletes. Researchers should go into the science of it and dig into the genes of athletes as well as
the training and diet. I am sure that most NBA players practice every day, but how many are still
practicing while others are not? I would like to see if height, weight, race, gender, and diet makes
a difference in performance.
From this article one should ask themselves, “What if I went to the gym 2 more days out
of the week, would I have gone to the NCAA?” I think that if there was a way to train yourself
better and more often you can be an elite athlete, but does everyone have the same access to
these resources?

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References
Cote, J., Ericsson, A.K., & Law, M.P. (2007). Tracing the Development of
Athletes Using Retrospective Interview Methods: A Proposed Interview and Validation
Procedure for Reported Information. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 1-16.
Starkes, J.l. (2000). The road to expertise: Is practice the only determinant? International
Journal of Sport Psychology, 31, 431-451.