David Epstein’s outstanding new book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, details how a wide variety of experiences and training is more important to developing excellence at a skill than narrow specialization.
This is in direct contrast to the popular 10,000 hours rule that has been popularized. The idea behind this rule was that 10,000 hours of deliberate practice was the amount needed to master the subject (the original study was done on violin players but has recently been updated and largely debunked).
As Epstein argues through a comprehensive look at research, elite performers tend to have a diverse background of experiences. This is applicable to many areas of life but there is a focus on athletes in the book. Athletes that specialize too early limit their ultimate development. For many elite athletes, the sport they play professionally is a second or third choice.
It’s not always clear why a breadth of experience helps you excel in a sport, but there’s a compelling idea that by playing in multiple sports your body and brain learn new skills and approaches that they may not have developed with a more limited focus. An example, is a football player that learned his footwork from basketball or gymnastics. Likewise, a baseball player that played tennis could become better at tracking a ball with his eyes.
Epstein introduces the book with the competing narratives of Tiger Woods versus Roger Federer. Woods famously specialized in his sport at a young age and became the best in the world. Federer played a variety of sports at a young age and was behind his peers in tennis as a teenager before dominating the sport. The difference between their training is due to the differences in the sports. Golf is a fixed sport where you mostly compete against yourself and rewards deliberate practice. While tennis is a dynamic activity where you’re responding to an opponent and a constantly changing set of circumstances. Unfortunately for the early specializers, most sports and activities in life are in a more dynamic environment.
It is somewhat similar to how you learn a new task or become more skilled at a sport. If you try to improve at golf you can spend a lot of time just hitting balls and maximizing your ability to repeat a swing and you will get somewhat better. But, if your swing is flawed to begin with you will make even greater gains by retraining your swing. That is a lot more difficult and what usually happens is you get worse before you get better.
The same idea applies to other tasks and is a commonly used idea in Physical Therapy. To really master a skill you need to practice it in a variety of ways. A variable practice schedule increases learning more than a fixed one.
The ideas behind Range are especially powerful to a PT. Because while the upside is plentiful the downside of the way we are doing things now is readily apparent. The rise of specialization is correlated with an increasing amount of youth injuries. Most often young athletes are getting overuse injuries—like tendinitis, little league arm, bursitis or patellofemoral pain. The first step in how I treat these injuries is to take out a calendar and write down the game and practice schedule for a year and then start crossing things off. There is also a significant number of ligament tears and muscle tears requiring surgery because kids are playing too much on a fatigued body that can’t catch up to the demands being placed on it.
Another consequence of early specialization is young athletes getting burned out on their sport—quitting at a young age because they no longer enjoy it. When that happens you really have to ask what is the goal of what we are doing in the first place. The pressures of adult financial interests (like club teams) as well as peer pressure and fears of falling behind is something many parents have experienced. Also, kids often love their sport and want to do it as much as possible. Some leagues have artificial age barriers that encourage early specializers as well. All this is to say that the system can be set up against parents and it is difficult to balance those pressures.
Ultimately, that is why a book like Range is so useful. It is a win win idea from health and performance and scheduling to reduce specialization. Less can be more with some activities and variety is useful fo elite performance and skill acquisition.
If you are worried about preventing injuries from youth athletics scheduling a movement screen to make sure kids are moving well before they move often is a good place to start. Treating injuries that do come up early helps limit the damage as well.