At just 2 years old, Tiger Woods appeared on television, and was widely recognised as a golfing prodigy. At the same time, theories like the ‘10,000 hour rule’, made ‘specialisation’ common language in sporting circles across the world. As a result, many of today’s top athletes, particularly in golf and tennis, are told to specialise early, and focus on one sport at the exclusion of others. ⠀ ⠀

Over the past few years however, we have seen athletes like Patrick Mahomes pay testament to an opposite type of sports upbringing – that of a ‘generalist.’ The theory is that playing multiple sports at a young age allows generalist athletes to discover what they do best and provides perfect preparation for specialisation later. ⠀

To help strengthen the debate, we invited on Fred Owsley who, by refusing to specialise early on, has gone on to achieve vast sporting success. Having represented Great Britain Athletics as one the fastest boys in Europe at u20 age group level, as well as playing hockey, football and decathlon to a representative level, Fred is a true generalist in a modern world that is so focused on achieving marginal gains through specialisation. Rugby has always been Fred’s true passion though and when the opportunity to focus solely on rugby and join his hometown club, Bristol Bears, arrived, he was never going to turn it down. We do understand Fred’s talent is so unique that it often defies external application, but there are undoubtedly useful conclusions that can be drawn from his sporting upbringing, as we explore in our giveaway with him. ⠀ 

We also discuss how important the influence of a sibling can be to achieve high-level performance. Fred’s sister, Lily Owsley, is one of the most talented athletes in the world, having reached national representative level in Football, Athletics and Hockey by the age of 16. It was hockey that she eventually chose to specialise in and 159 caps, a commonwealth silver and an Olympic gold medal later, it is clear that she’s another athlete that has reached elite performance through generalising early and specialising later.