From CrossOver Movement site:
Obviously, Michael Phelps is the biggest story of the 2008 Olympics and his record chase is the only thing I find compelling about swimming, though I marvel at their ability.
Before Phelps set the World Record in the 400IM tonight, NBC had one of their melodramatic specials on Phelps, his mom and his coach Bob Bowman. The story perfectly illustrated the ideas described in Chapter 4 of Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development (”The Pschology of Talent Development”) and the research of Benjamin Bloom, K. Anders Ericsson, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi.
First, Phelps described the effort of his mom. He said she was “everything” and that he could not “describe her in just one word.” According to research across many disciplines, expert (elite) performers often describe the effort and work ethic of their parent(s) and the research suggests that the pursuit of perfection common among top athletes derives from their early impressions of their parents.
Next, Phelps’ mom and coach worried that swimming had to be fun. Bowman said something about the need for Phelps to enjoy it if he wanted to be good. While many believe that a child must be pushhed early, in truth, children need to enjoy the activity before they are ready to make the effort to excel.
Next, Bowman made the recommendation to Phelps’ mom that he could be an Olympic swimmer when he was 11-years-old. He noticed the potential and believed Phelps needed a different type of training - one that would change from fun to more technical training. In Bloom’s book, this is the transition from the Ealry Years to the Middle Years or the Romance Phase to the Precision Phase. Sometimes, this transition involves a change in coaches, as some coaches are great creating a positive, fun atmosphere, but not teaching the technical skills, or vice versa. In Phelps’ case, Bowman handled the transition.
Finally, Bowman created a detailed plan for Phelps to follow. They set goals. Bowman supplied the feedback and Phelps concentrated on the tasks.
In today’s hyper-competitive youth sports environment, we neglect these transitions. We ignore the fun and developmental aspects of sports and concentrate on turning young athletes into professionals through regimnted training. We see Phelps working out or watch Dara Torres working out and believe every athlete must follow this type of training, and the earlier the better. However, we ignore the real story. Young athletes are not professionals. Some develop into elite performers, but the development does not occur overnight. It happens over a period of years through a sensible progression and development plan.
