Peak Performance
According to a University of Pittsburgh study, runners and baseball players peak at the age of 28 while tennis players will reach their highest level of performance at the age of 24. Given the low level of contact and physical wear and tear, chess players will peak at the ripe old age of 31. There are times that you run across information and you cock your head to the side and think, “well that doesn’t seem right.” The average ages listed just seem way too young. After all, Bernard Legat ran a 2:12 marathon earlier this year, which is fast in its own right, but for a 44-year-old “Masters” runner, it’s downright impressive. His time is comfortably under the US standard of 2:15 to qualify for the Olympic marathon trials.
When you look at the MLB, the youngest team in 2019, the Baltimore Orioles, average 25.7 years old and the league average is 28.97 years old. However, Fernando Rodney of the Washington Nationals has the honor of being the oldest player at 42. In fact, if you take the oldest person on each MLB team, their average age is 37, well above the 28 threshold presented in the study.
Someone should talk to Novak Djokovic because, at age 32, he is the number one ranked tennis player ahead of 33-year-old Rafael Nadal and 38-year-old Roger Federer. Only four of the top 10 men’s tennis players are 24 years of age or younger. On the women’s side, number one ranked Ashleigh Barty may be 23 years old, but again, only four of the top 10 women are 24 years old or younger. And 37 year old Serena Williams is at number 10.
Conversely, chess seems to be a young man’s sport. With the peak age 31, eight of the top 10 ranked chess players are under the average age. Thankfully two “older” members represented the over the hill gang with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 33, ranked number 7 and the spry looking Anand Viswanathan, 50, coming in at the ninth spot.
So what is the peak? Really? Are you as old as you feel or is there really a peak age for athletes, after which, we are struggling against a tide of declining performance? According to a 2016 article in Business Insider (https://amp.businessinsider.com/science-reveals-when-you-peak-at-everything-2016-7), science has revealed the peak age of almost everything. Brain processing power? That’s for 22-year-olds. It actually explains a lot for me. Learn a new language? That’s the providence of 7–8-year-olds. The age at which we feel best about our bodies? Try 70. Really?
Still not satisfied with understanding peak performance, I once again turned to my compatriots on the USATF Masters Facebook page and asked what they considered their peak age. In addition to getting back a quantitative age range, I received quite a bit of qualitative insights.
Of the twenty-six Masters athletes who responded, the average age of the respondent was 53.5 and those athletes believe that they peaked at 40.5. In addition, nine athletes believe that they are currently at their peak. In fact, it was the qualitative responses that gave the most insight.
There are Masters athletes that didn’t compete during their “prime”, so they don’t have a definitive baseline from which to compare. Their view is based on the progress that they have experienced since becoming a competitive athlete. Ken Stone observed, “Many Masters compete because we never knew our peak age.” Ivy Bell wrote that at 64, she is still hoping to peak. Gary Patton began running track at 62 and 3 years later set the American record for the M65–69, 1500 meter outdoor.
I turned to Gene Dykes the 2018 M70–74 National Outdoor champion in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m runs as well as the M70–74 world record holder in the marathon. (Gene’s record of 2:54:23 was not recognized because although he achieved this feat on a USATF certified course, it was not a USATF sanctioned race. Gene is the world record holder in my book) He ran in high school and college and then focused on other activities until he resumed running in his late 50s. “You may slow down on an absolute basis, but on a relative basis, you can peak several times. I’m far better now on a relative basis than when I started back (running) 13 years ago.” When comparing his running now to when he was younger, Gene observed, “I tried running 20 miles when I was younger and couldn’t finish it. But of course, I didn’t train properly for it. I’m not certain that I would have run a marathon much faster when I was younger.” While Gene is slower in the mile on an absolute basis, the degradation is not what one would expect. “Since my mile time is only 30 seconds slower than I ran in college, that’s not too bad for 50 years later.”
Because Gene was also an avid bowler, he had this to consider, “I bowled until I was 58. Because I would learn more and more each year, my game improved for 50 straight years. So for any sport, maybe that’s the difference between professionals and a hobbyist.”
That observation may explain the results gleaned from the Master group. Otherwise, how do you explain a group that believes their peak came 12.5 years after scientists believe they should have peaked? Many of the respondents indicated that they had taken up the sport within the past five years. So there is no “younger self” to compare the results to.
And therein lies the answer. For professional athletes, we can calculate the average age of their league and within that pundits can debate whether or not a star has passed his prime. But for the average person, we are not shackled by the ghosts of competitions past. Rather, our future as an aging athlete is a blank sheet of paper…it is an open road…the path less traveled. It is ours to define and ours to achieve.
