The most talented adults have rarely been child prodigies

Haste and obstinacy are bad advisors to those who would like to see their children blossom into adults of recognized talent. Sportsmen or scientists who have achieved worldwide recognition as adults have rarely been champions or precocious geniuses even as children.

This was revealed by a study published in Sciencewhich sought to understand how a universally recognized talent – in sports, science, music or other disciplines – develops over time. The answer? Investing immediately in training or grueling exercises in a single discipline is counterproductive.

We usually think that adults who stand out in a certain field, such as Nobel Prize winning scientists or Olympic champions, were children with very precocious gifts, recognized and strengthened by years of effort, discipline and dedication. Well, according to the new study, this is only partially true: those who have reached the highest levels in their sector rarely found their path immediately.

Not understanding this means, on the one hand, risking not seeing future talents, because they are “looked for too soon”, and on the other, burning out the potential champions of tomorrow before their time, forcing them to undergo training that is too hard and intense as children.

A group of scientists coordinated by Arne Güllich, Professor of Sports Sciences at RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau, in Germany, and Brooke N. Macnamara, Professor of Psychology at Purdue University (United States), analyzed data on the studies and careers of almost 35,000 people who had achieved the most important recognitions in their field, such as Olympic champions, Nobel Prize winning scientists, chess champions and prestigious composers.

It immediately became apparent that, in the most diverse disciplines, the most talented children and award-winning adults were very often different people: only about 10% of those who had become champions in adulthood had been child prodigies in their field; and only about 10% of high-performing children had excelled in that same field growing up.

Children who had grown up to become undisputed champions or geniuses had developed their talents gradually, and usually had not distinguished themselves by their talent at an early age. Additionally, they typically did not immediately focus on a single discipline, but gave themselves the time and opportunity to explore across different academic disciplines, different sports, different musical genres, even different jobs.

Every apparent “digression” had contributed to their baggage and had proved invaluable.

But why does all this seem to work better than a single, early intensive training? Scientists have put forward three explanations. The first is that being able to experiment in different areas increases the chances of finding what you express yourself best in. The second is that being able to learn from a wider range of disciplines strengthens your overall ability to learn and then makes it easier to improve once you have chosen your field. The third is that distributing efforts across multiple disciplines reduces the risk of immediately “burning out” and, for example, experiencing burnout, loss of motivation, an unhealthy pace of work and training, or physical injuries due to too much exercise.

These guidelines offer some insights into how to best support children who show signs of budding talent in some discipline. Avoiding too early specialization, offering the possibility of cultivating different disciplines, even apparently unrelated ones, encouraging exploration (without haste!) of different areas of interest: these are some of the ingredients for cultivating a happy champion – and a child.