Professional Documents
Culture Documents
expertise. Janet L. Starkes and K. Anders Ericsson, editors of our class text,
dimension can greatly affect capability in another (Janelle & Hillman, 2003).
these differences in defining expertise are never more apparent than during
the Olympic Games, given the multitude of nations and sports represented.
Walt Disney Pictures film, “Miracle”, the true story of the 1980 United States
renowned powerhouse from the Soviet Union in the medal round to advance
to the gold-medal game, a feat that was thought near impossible. One
course does not seem all too impressive on the surface, but looking into the
event has been dubbed “the miracle on ice”. The tremendous emotional
reaction elicited by the United States’ win over the Soviet Union was
these considerations are beyond the scope of this review. The film is filled
with historically accurate facts about the nature of both the U.S. and Soviet
find given the time of development of the dimensions relative to the 1980
Olympic Games.
definitions of expertise. The most prevalent fact outlined in the film deals
with the amount of time each team had to prepare for the Olympics, an area
that the Soviet squad consisted of individuals who had been playing together
for over ten years with access to world-class facilities prior to the Olympics.
Twelve players on the Soviet roster were age 25 or older. The U.S. team was
pieced together by head coach Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) 7 months prior to
the Olympic Games. Of the twenty-man roster, not one was older than
twenty-five and all held amateur status having only played collegiate hockey.
over the North American NHL All-stars in October of 1979. Using the
The fact that no player on the U.S. roster had any NHL experience also
Games is not an expert. It is the goal of all nations to send the best that
their population has to offer in a given sport domain to compete for a medal.
At the time, the rules of the Olympics stated that no team could use
domain. It is for this reason that all teams in the Olympic Games likely did
not possess absolute expertise. It is more likely that the players all exhibited
domain, in this case relative to available players in a given nation who are
the NHL in 1980 as a result of the ongoing conflict between the Soviet Union
and the U.S. Therefore, the best Russian players were available for the
relative expertise logically outweighed that of the United States given that
defeat the Soviets in 1980 remains. One possible explanation for this
preliminary roster for the 1980 team, Brooks emphasized a change in style
of play that he insisted would help his team defeat the Soviet Union. He
stated that the NHL refused to alter their style of play, which ultimately led
take the Russians style, modify it, and beat them at their own game. In
order to do this, he insisted that his team would be the best conditioned on
the ice, allowing them to “skate with anybody”. This need for extreme
in fact superior.
Above all, the criterion that was most important for success in Lake
Placid in 1980, according to Brooks, was team chemistry. In the film, this
during the tryout in June of 1979. His claim was, “I’m not looking for the best
(players), I’m looking for the right ones”. After establishing his roster,
him. In this way, they became a close-knit, cohesive unit. The short period
of time with which Brooks had relative to the playing experience of the
Soviet Union makes the distinction of level of expertise unclear still. Yet it is
possible that the Soviet Union never reached this level of team unity and
sport such as hockey, the 1980 Olympic Game between the United States
and the Soviet Union would have been a profound exception to the rules.
America. It is obvious that despite a solid base of research that has been
established in the area of sport expertise, vast gaps exist and subjects for
References
Advances in research and sport expertise. Starkes, J.L. & Ericsson, K.A.