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Did You Know: That Becoming the Next Expert Swimmer May Only Require Four Simple

Factors?
By: Christopher Aiken

The battle of nature versus nurture is a war that has carried on for many years. In the
debate of expertise one may wonder if talent is innate or if it can be developed through practice
and the performer’s environmental surroundings. In recent research, Johnson, Tenenbaum, and
Edmunds, from various universities in the United States, may have found evidence to end the
heated debate between innate and learned talent. They believe that becoming an expert may only
require the interaction of four factors; “(1) hard, idiosyncratically appropriate workloads, (2) a
supportive environment, (3) one’s facilitative coping skills, and (4) an athlete’s predisposition to
achieve exceptional athletic performance” (Johnson, Tenenbaum, and Edmunds, p. 133, 2006).
The recent common model for developing expertise in a given domain has revolved
around the notion of deliberate practice by Anders Ericsson and collegues. “Deliberate practice
includes activities that have been specifically designed to improve the current level of
performance” (Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Romer, 1993, p. 368). Ericsson developed the idea
that to become an expert, innate talent is irrelevant. He claims that expertise is developed
through 10 years or 10,000 hours of deliberate practice and the body will make the necessary
physiological adjustments to support the increase in work load. However, Johnson claims that
“there is evidence that supports the existence of a salient factor in addition to nurture” (Johnson
et al., p. 118, 2006).
In the article “Adaptation to physically and emotionally demanding conditions: the role
of deliberate practice”, Johnson and colleagues attempted to clarify the debate of nature versus
nurture in expert performance by researching 19 competitive swimmers, eight of which were
considered elite (elite swimmers were those that had achieved at least one gold medal at the
Olympics or World Championships and were ranked in the top 5 in the world). Interviews were
conducted with all swimmers along with 17 of the parents and six of the coaches to better
understand the training regimens of the performers and the age at which they began activities
that may enhance swimming performance. Interviews with coaches and parents were done to
ensure that all information attained from the athletes was correct.
Through the interviews, it was found that sub-elite swimmers practiced on average 690
hours more than the elite swimmers. It was also found that the sub-elite didn’t just deliberately
practice swimming more, but all activities that they took part in. This finding alone raises
suspicion to the notion of deliberate practice breading expert performance. The research also
found three other dramatic differences between all the swimmers studied. The first difference
was that all swimmers spent a different number of hours in deliberate practice. The second
difference was that all swimmers varied in the time spent and number of activities involved in
during their developmental years, and the third difference was the age when beginning
swimming. These findings show that there was no difference between the elite and sub-elite
swimmers, in similar environments, and that there is not a single model that can answer the
question as to what is needed to reach the expert level in swimming.
Johnson and collogues proposed a 4-factor model to explain the necessary factors in
developing expertise in a desired domain. There model explains that there is a relationship
between “(1) hard, idiosyncratically appropriate workloads, (2) a supportive environment, (3)
one’s facilitative coping skills, and (4) an athlete’s predisposition to achieve exceptional athletic
performance” (Johnson, Tenenbaum, and Edmunds, p. 133, 2006). It is believed that physical
and psychological predispositions may guide the ability to put forth the effort required to reach
expert performance and interact with the supportive environment via coping strategies.
The research by Johnson and colleagues has demonstrated that athletes may perform at
different levels even if they were raised under the same circumstances and attained the desired
number of deliberate practice hours. The 4-factor model may not provide all the necessary
answers to definitively claim a victor of the battle between nature and nurture but does give some
insight into what is necessary for expert performance in swimming. So if you or your child
desires to become the next Olympic gold medal winner in swimming, it may only require hard
work, a supportive environment, coping skills, and innate ability to achieve expert performance.

References
Ericsson, K.A., Krampe, R.T., & Tesch-Romer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the
acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363-406.
Johnson, M.B., Tenenbaum, G., Edmonds, W.A. (2006). Adaption to physically and emotionally
demanding conditions: The role of deliberate practice. High Ability Studies, 17, 117-136.

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