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stevemagness on Instagram: "Norway is dominating the Olympics. And per capita they do extremely well in the summer Olympics. And their youth sports program...…"
Norway is dominating the Olympics. And per capita they do extremely well in the summer Olympics. And their youth sports program...polar opposite of the US:No keeping score until 13. No national travel teams. No trophies unless everyone gets one.Motto: "Joy of Sport for All."We think pushing harder, earlier, creates champions. Norway did the opposite.A meta-analysis of over 6,000 athletes found that those who reached world-class had more multisport practice, started their main sport later, accumulated less practice, and initially progressed slower than their national-class peers.When you push outcomes on a child, you shift their motivation from internal to external. From "I love this" to "I have to do this." Research by Schmid and colleagues tracked young athletes over 2.5 years. The highly intrinsically motivated athletes were twice as likely to compete internationally. The fear-of-failure athletes? Almost three times less likely.You can NOT force success. It has to come from within. And if you are pushing your kid at age 8, you are destroying the very drive that fuels elite performance.There are two paths to performance. The fast path obsesses over outcomes. It works in the short term, but it shifts kids toward avoidance and fragility. The slow path focuses on mastery, enjoyment, and challenge-seeking. It's indirect, but it builds a foundation that lasts.Norway chose the slow path. Their athletes keep showing up at 25, 30, 35. Still competing. Still hungry. Because no one killed the joy when they were 10.-SteveResearch:Güllich, A., Macnamara, B. N., & Hambrick, D. Z. (2022). What makes a champion? Early multidisciplinary practice, not early specialization, predicts world-class performance.Mouratidis, A., Michou, A., Demircioğlu, A. N., & Sayil, M. (2018). Different goals, different pathways to success: Performance-approach goals as direct and mastery-approach goals as indirect predictors of grades in mathematics.View all 1,276 comments
