Retrospective Practice Histories of Expert and Novice Baseball Pitchers

Background/Purpose:

Two theories make predictions regarding early practice experiences of sport experts.  Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Rőmer (1993) suggest that experts benefit from early initiation of task specific practice and the accumulation of task specific practice.  Côté, Baker, and Abernethy (2003) suggest that expert team sport individuals benefit from a variety of sport participation and play activities during childhood prior to the specialization and investment in task specific practice activities in adolescence.  The purpose of this study was to compare the retrospective practice histories of expert and novice baseball pitchers with predictions from these two theoretical models.

Method:

Nine minor league pitchers (experts) and nine players who pitched in high school, but did not pitch in college (novices) served as participants.  Participants were interviewed to elicit information regarding their baseball practice activities during childhood and adolescence using procedures suggested by Cote, Ericcson, and Law (2005).  The interview collected participants’ recollection of the number of organized sports they played, the position played, and information needed to estimate the number of hours of practice of baseball each year, the age in which they began pitching, and the age that certain pitches were learned. 

Analysis/Results:

All participants began playing baseball at a young age and participated in an average of 3 sports from age 5 to age 16 prior to narrowing participation to baseball.  Novice pitchers began pitching between ages 7-12.  Five experts did not begin pitching until high school. The experts did play infield positions (third base, shortstop) prior to playing pitcher.  Experts accumulated more hours of baseball practice by age 18 (M=5,424, SD=3,839) than novices (M=3,022, SD=1,305).  Experts also accumulated more hours of practice of pitching (M=1,638, SD =3068) than novices (M=854, SD=856). 

Conclusions:

The findings support elements of both theories. As Ericcson and colleagues predicted, early engagement in organized baseball, playing a position that requires forceful throwing (pitcher, third base, short stop), and accumulation of practice across childhood and adolescence was characteristic of expert pitchers. As Cote and colleagues predicted, participation in other sports in childhood did not seem to hinder development of expert league pitchers.  Specialization in pitching occurred in late adolescence for half the expert pitchers. The largest difference in hours of practice per year between expert and novice pitchers occurred in adolescence after players had entered the specialization stage.