Abstract

CASADO ALDA, Arturo; RUIZ PEREZ, Luis Miguel  and  GRAUPERA SANZ, José Luis. The perception that kenian runners have of their training activities. CPD [online]. 2014, vol.14, n.2, pp.99-110. ISSN 1989-5879.

This study is related with the Theory of Expert Performance. This theory proposes that to become an expert in a domain, a subject must pass an extensive period of consistent acquisition in thousands of hours of practice intentionally designed to improve, ie deliberate. This study aimed to analyze the subjective perceptions of a group of Kenyan long distance runners about their training tasks. They completed a questionnaire based on a taxonomy of training activities rated on four dimensions: Relevance, Effort, Concentration and Fun. This study involved 27 Kenyan runners divided into groups by their level of performance. The age range of participants was 21 to 39 years (M = 25.39 , SD = 3.82). All these runners were specialists of half marathon and marathon. They were divided into three groups of performance level: Medium, High and Very High. The results showed as the dimensions of Concentration, Effort and Enjoy diferenciated runners by their level, likewise appeared the role of group activities for Kenyan runners, which raises the question whether the developmental models of excellence developed in the industrial countries serve to explain this phenomenon in developing countries.

Keywords : Deliberate practice; Self-perceptions; Excellence; Long distance runners.

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