Ericsson Reply - Sports Meta-analysis

What is it about?

Anders Ericsson comments on our meta-analysis on the relationship between deliberate practice and sports performance. In our meta-analysis we found that deliberate practice accounted for an average of 18% of individual differences in sports performance. This amount decreased to only 1% for elite athletes. Our findings counter the claim that deliberate practice largely accounts for individual differences in performance. Ericsson comments that we did not measure deliberate practice but any type of practice. We point out that we use definitions of deliberate practice that he has used. In cases where the measure of deliberate practice was combined with other non-deliberate practice sports activities, removing these effects actually (non-significantly) lowered the overall relationship. We had addressed this in the meta-analysis.

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