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. 2022 Jan 17;52(6):1399–1416. doi: 10.1007/s40279-021-01625-4

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

Practice amounts, performance and efficiency of practice across age of the senior WCl and NCl athletes—schematic illustration. The y-axis (center) marks the junior age limit (18–19 years in most sports). a Amounts of MSPr and OSPr. The triangles illustrate the Δ practice amount per time unit. b Performance; the triangles illustrate the Δ performance per time unit. Note that relative performance was measured as championship level and placing, not athletes’ absolute velocity run, distance jumped, etc. The championship level and placing reflects the differences between an athlete’s and opponents’ absolute performance. c Efficiency of practice (marginal productivity × value), i.e., Δ relative performance/Δ practice amount per time unit. Note that WCl athletes’ increasing efficiency of practice in adulthood includes the increasing marginal revenue product, i.e., the fact that, in adult high-performance sports, small differences in improvement of absolute performance lead to substantial differences in improvement of championship level and placing. NCl national class, WCl world class, MSPr main-sport practice, OSPr other-sports practice