PROFICIENT YEARS AT SPORTS

 

 

 

TABLE I
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS WITH REFERENCE TO PROFICIENCY AT SpoRTs AND GAMES
is No. of Mean Standard Yrs. of Maximum
Types of Activity Cases Age Deviation _ Proficiency
Professional baseball (not inc. pitching) 3,126 29.07 4.04 28
Professional baseball (pitching) ...... 1,666 29.50 4.39 a7
Major league batting championships. . 96 29.16 3.46 26-29

Major league pitching championships. . 88 28.18 3.92 26-31
Major league stolen-base championships 63 27.96 3.46 25-29

Professional: bOX€Ys 3.6.46. s..cesc esas 3 4 448 26.98 3.98 25-26
Tennis champions (French, English and

PAIMEVICAT) os cu ere cue oro © « 317 27.63 §.25 25-27
Professional ice hockey players ....... 823 27.56 4.00 24-25
Professional football players ........ 485 25.72 2.33 24
Corn-husking champions ............ 87 30.39 6.20 26-30
Automobile ‘racers .4...64 oe coe 54 28.81 4.50 27-30
Bowling champions

(individual performance) ........ 58 32.78 7.56 30-34
Bowling champions (team performance) 238 33.38 7.83 27-37
Rifle and pistol shooters ............ 630 32.05 8.13 27
Duck pin bowlers (men) ............ QI 32.19 4.36 30-34
Duck pin bowlers (women) ......... go 28.13 247 25-29
Billiards (world record breakers) .... 42 35.67 5.83 30-34

Billiards (world championship winners) 136 34.35 8.75 25-29
Golf (professional championships—

English and American) .......... 48 32.32 6.49 30-34
Golf (open championships— :

English and American) .......... 88 31 .0r 6.37 25-24
Golf (amateur championships—

English and American) ........... 94 29.88 4.66 25-29

 

that many amateurs abandon amateur athletics before they have de-
veloped their greatest potential skill.* If this latter hypothesis is valid,
it follows that we can discover man’s potentially best years at sports and
games only by studying the records of professional athletes.

The present study suggests that man’s proficiency at such violent
and vigorous activities as professional football and professional ice
hockey wanes relatively early. These two activities require the players
to make frequent and rather reckless bodily contacts. Activities of a less
violent nature, such as professional golf, rifle and pistol shooting, corn
husking, billiards, and bowling, can be participated in successfully at
somewhat older age levels. These latter activities may be described as
non-combative since they do not necessitate the pitting of one’s strength
against that of an opponent.

The foregoing data suggest also that, for certain measurable be-
haviors, the shape of the performance age curve varies both with the
type of function that is measured and also with the excellence of the
performance. Thus, if age curves are constructed for baseball per-
formance of sand-lot quality, such curves would doubtless be flatter
and broader than are the curves that are set forth in Figures 1 and
2. Both small boys and middle-aged men can participate success-
fully in sand-lot baseball. But when data for only major league
performance are utilized, the baseball curves reveal relatively narrow