OpinionTokyo 2020: China could be even more successful in sports if it swapped early specialisation for generalisation approach
- Elite athletes tend to come from a background of playing several sports before specialising in one
- Chinese model often sees children selected for sport-specific training at a young age
Success in any field, if you take the same approach as Malcolm Gladwell did in Outliers, comes down to practising 20 hours a week for 10 years.
Subtitled “The Story of Success”, the journalist turned author looks at success across many fields and his “10,000 hour rule” – the magic number for practice – is used by Gladwell to explain the success of the Beatles and Bill Gates.
It’s an idea that has taken root in popular culture and quickly become accepted as a truism. Like the old joke that goes, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practise”. Or the aphorism long attributed to champion golfer Gary Player that “the harder I practise, the luckier I get.”
One of the most famous examples of this is another golfer. Tiger Woods was a child prodigy when it came to the golf course and was introduced to the game while still a toddler. He appeared on TV to putt against Bob Hope before he turned three and his meteoric rise continued thereon to the point where there is a strong argument that Woods is the finest player to have picked up a club.
What’s certain is that Woods is the poster boy for those who believe that sporting success starts early. His father Earl Woods, a former member of the US Navy, has spoken at length about his son’s hours spent on the course – and the money that a preteen Tiger had taken off those foolish enough to doubt his prowess.