COACHES CORNER: WHAT IT TAKES TO COMPETE AT THE TOP LEVEL: Coaching experts Jim Kiltyand Liam Hennessystress the phenomenal commitment required to reach the elite level

IT IS fact that participation in exercise and physical activity (including sport) decreases with age. This is a common trend throughout the western world and while encouraging for health in general, recent statistics from The National Health and Lifestyle surveys in Ireland tell us that approximately 53 per cent of our children under the age of 14 exercise at a moderate level of intensity four or more times in the week.

Even more encouraging is a more recent report that we top the league in terms of the percentage of our young teenagers who are active regularly in a typical week. However, the total population of under 14-year-olds in Ireland means that we will always fall short in terms of total participation numbers in sport from this age group compared to other European countries.

For example, there are between 22 and 23 times more underage 14-year-olds in the UK and in France. Now when we compete against these nations in any international sport it is well worth remembering they will have a talent pool to draw from that is probably at least 20 times that available to sport associations in Ireland.

When it comes to adult players and athletes the same multiple operates with our close rivals in sport, England and France, having serious numerical advantages. Frequently you may hear that we "box above our weight" as a nation in terms of sporting performance. This, it can be argued, is indeed very true as we can only draw from a pool that is typically much smaller in terms of numbers. We should therefore give great credit to any sports man, woman or youth who reaches anywhere near a top European level, not to mention an Olympic or world-class level.

Now let us look at what it takes to get to the top.

Experts tell us it takes 10,000 hours of sporting practice to rise to the elite level in most sports. This means that if a 25-year-old athlete or player is to become the best he or she can be at their sport then they must invest nearly one and a half hours every day of their lives for 21 years to become the best they can be!

Now this may sound a phenomenal amount of time but indeed when you ask the top athletes or players how much time they spend in practice, training and preparing to compete you would be amazed at the time it takes to get there. The experts have also rounded the weekly time up to approximately 10 hours of practice and training per week.

Now consider this amount of activity time per week (not actual competition time) and you now realise what it takes to fulfil the true athletic or competitive potential that may exist in an athlete or player. By the way, in the formative years (up to age 12 or so) the majority of this time, again according to the experts, should be spent in general movement and general physical preparation. Thus over five hours a week is recommended for developing movement skills in general. As the athlete or player matures into adolescent years then a greater proportion of this 10 hours per week can be spent in specific sport practice when the teenager opts to specialise in a particular sport.

A key point for us is to respect the great commitment that must be made, to support it and also to ensure that good qualified and knowledgeable coaches work with our future stars. We cannot afford not to as the odds are stacked very much against us when it comes to the numbers game.