Developing Sport Expertise

The development of an athlete from basic performance to elite level of accomplishment is a long and complicated process. Identifying and nurturing talent, developing and fine tuning sport skills, and maintaining high levels of performance over the course of a career requires many thousands of hours of training and, increasingly, the input and support of expert coaches and sport scientists.

In this fully revised and updated new edition of the leading student and researcher overview of the development of sports expertise, a team of world-class sport scientists and professional coaches examine the fundamental science of skill acquisition and explore the methods by which science can be applied in the real-world context of sport performance. This book surveys the very latest research in skill acquisition, provides a comprehensive and accessible review of core theory and key concepts and includes an innovative ‘Coaches Corner’ feature in each chapter, in which leading coaches offer insights from elite sport and critique contemporary practice in sport skill development.

With new chapters offering more material on key topics such as instruction and observation and expert visual perception, the second edition of Developing Sport Expertise is invaluable reading for all researchers and students in the areas of expertise in sport, skill acquisition, motor control and development, sport psychology, or coaching theory and practice.

Damian Farrow holds a joint appointment with Victoria University, Australia, and the Australian Institute of Sport as a Professor of Sports Science. His extensive research activity is designed to support Australian coaches seeking to understand factors critical to developing sport expertise, particularly perceptual-cognitive skill and practice methodology.

Joseph Baker is with the Lifespan Health and Performance Laboratory at York University, Canada. Joe is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and four previous books. His research considers the influences on optimal human development, ranging from issues affecting youth development to barriers and facilitators of successful aging.

Clare MacMahon is discipline leader of Sport Science and head of Motor Learning and Skilled Performance in Health Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on cognitive aspects of movement skills, including learning and retaining complex perceptual-cognitive skills such as sport decision making.