Abstract

ABSTRACT
Learning to become a champion-acquiring expertise in sport: A reading of the autobiographies

of Agassi and Sampras

David Zilberman

The popular belief about top performing athletes is that they were born with some "god given" natural ability. This becomes a part of the athletes’ and coaches’ mindset. If talent and natural ability are not what set the best athletes apart from their peers than what are some of the contributing factors that propel athletes into superstardom? What are the reasons that some athletes reach the pinnacle of their sport? How do they acquire such expertise as evidenced in their winning international titles in competitions?
An examination of the literature revealed that there are some important factors in achieving expert status: the 10 year or 10,000 hours of practice (to attain a level of automaticity); deliberate practice under the guidance of skilled teachers and well planned design as well as “goal orientedness”. The individual differences on the road to achieving expertise are also related to physiological, technical, cognitive and emotional elements and preparedness in the education and training of the expert athletes.
The thesis presents illustrations for this framework, culled from the literature review, by examining the autobiographies of two expert athletes: Andre Agassi and Peter Sampras.