Toering Tynke
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
Prog Brain Res. 2017;232:181-185. doi: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2017.02.004. Epub 2017 Mar 28.
The target article describes an interesting study, which provides some challenging findings regarding athletes' pathway to excellence. The suggested links between critical life events, need for success, personal characteristics, and eventual performance level make sense from a psychodynamic perspective. This commentary will discuss some critical points related to the application of the findings in talent identification and -development programs. These are (1) the possible effect of the selection of participants on the results (including the impact of dependence on others for team sport athletes and the opportunity for multiple medal attainment), (2) a lack of detail in the description of how the athletes approached the critical life events (the perception of an event may contribute more to development than the event itself), and (3) a lack of detail in the description of the practice process throughout development. Some interesting differences were found in the motivation for and approach to practice, but little detail was given about what the athletes exactly were doing at the time. The concept of self-regulated learning may be useful in explaining how super-elite athletes action their goals through quality practice.
目标文章描述了一项有趣的研究，该研究提供了一些关于运动员通往卓越之路的具有挑战性的发现。从心理动力学角度来看，关键生活事件、对成功的需求、个人特质与最终表现水平之间的假定联系是合理的。本评论将讨论与这些发现在人才识别和发展计划中的应用相关的一些关键点。这些关键点包括：（1）参与者的选择对结果可能产生的影响（包括团队运动运动员对他人的依赖以及多次获得奖牌的机会所产生的影响）；（2）在描述运动员如何应对关键生活事件方面缺乏细节（对事件的认知可能比事件本身对发展的贡献更大）；（3）在整个发展过程中对训练过程的描述缺乏细节。在训练的动机和方式上发现了一些有趣的差异，但对于运动员当时具体在做什么却几乎没有给出细节。自我调节学习的概念可能有助于解释超级精英运动员如何通过高质量的训练实现他们的目标。
