Here’s something uncomfortable – elite athletes are specializing much…much earlier in life. Oh, and they are much, much better. There are stories everywhere…I combed through NCAA data, NBA data, MLB data, and much more to look further.

Chapters

00:00 Two Paths
04:00 New Numbers – An Analysis
05:40 A Specialized World
10:51 A Wicked World
17:39 My Specialization Experience & Thoughts

Thank you to David Epstein for joining me…his books are wonderful. I highly recommend “Range”, and “The Sports Gene”, both are great reads.

Also, a quick thank you to the NCAA for the data, and Dr. Arne Güllich.

30 Comments

  1. Accommodating mental conditions of some parents and their child athletes along with someone making money from it.

  2. Have a couple toddlers. Our 3 yo just started his first season of little league baseball. I am hoping they can do well and have a college scholarship. But I do just want them to be happy 💯

  3. Surely there is basic "correlation not causation" error here? Those who put in 10,000 hours are those that get rewarded early on for being naturally better than others. The others give up.

  4. The US doesn't produce the best basketball players anymore tho. The best players are all from somewhere else. Why?
    Because they play against adults and people wayyy older than themselves. You can only get better when playing against people who are better than you. If you're the best 15 year old in the US and only play against other 15year olds, you won't significantly improve. But had you played against older people your game would probably skyrocket. I see this myself, as i coach a youth Handball team. The best players have barely improved this season. But the middle of the line players have drastically improved (only if they wanted to ofc.; lack of motivation plays a huge role as well)g

  5. You should look into the way Judit Polgár and Paco de Lucía were brought up. Arguably a call for social service's intervention, and nonetheless they left an indelible mark in human forever history.

  6. I am a cricket coach in South Africa specialising in coaching 6 to 14 year old children. I am a strong believer in range and was prettty down hearted in the first part of your video. Unfortunately specialisation has hit with a vengeance. A huge thank you for your video which explains both sides better than i ever could. Appreciate your hard work 🙏

  7. Great Video!

    I ran track for all of middle and high school and what I always loved about it was specialization didn’t really work for it. If you were fast and joined the team, you would probably be good. So much easier to get into than other sports

  8. — Important editing error about the video.— Mike, you just put two huge adds for minor "shorts" on top of your face while concluding beautifully "… too much exploitation and we might be sacrificing deeper development, we might be sacrificing just being a kid, just having fun. True prodigies announce themseves, we shouldn't highlight reels overshadow the benefits of a little wonder and curiosity". As of the video itself, should be seen by all Tiger moms and obsessed parents that torture their kids with unreal expectations to reach random success. TX.

  9. Anyone that thinks genes does not play a HUGE factor in athletics is dead wrong, and frankly stupid. There's a reason they do medical and measurement checks at combines.

  10. I know a couple of friends of mine who specialised when they were younger. Some guys actually got through all the player programs and also made some of the regional teams with promise of going national. You know what most of them quit. In fact they found the sport they specialised in reprehensible.

  11. I am old enough to pre-date AAU. Mostly everyone played multiple sports through high school. "Travel" was to neighboring cities and towns. I still got to play in college. It was a much better world.

  12. I just wanted to point out that as a 16 year old who played probably every other sport i started my basketball journeu a year ago knowing that i might not get recruited but its purely because of my love for the game , for me its the journey that matters, aslong as i stay consistent,determined, and disciplined im happy 😅

  13. It shouldn't be overlooked how often the #1 player in a given sport has a palpable love for the game, and a singular interest in developing their skill. Forcing a pre-teen into a development pipeline for a sport that isn't the right fit practically guarantees they won't have what it takes to stand out in a field of people who are in exactly the right situation, and know it

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