One of my favorite stories about all that's wrong with the #Pathway model... Tennis was doing a review into their national #talent development systems, pathways etc. They commissioned an independent company - one of the big four management consulting firms to lead the review. I got called in as an "expert contributor". I sat there chatting with the lead researchers when one of them said, "You know what's killing tennis?". I replied "No - what?" He answered, "The pathway model". I said, "I agree with you but you tell me why you think that's the case". He said, "Because every parent, every #coach and every player in this country believes that as soon as you pick up a racket, you're on the pathway to becoming Serena Williams or Roger Federer". "Same in all sports - and all over the world", I replied. He continued, "As an outsider, we think that what you (the sports industry) do with this pathway thing is insane. The assumption that every kid can be / should be / wants to be trained as an elite #athlete is ridiculous. It's the equivalent of telling every kindergarten child to hold their crayons in a specific way so that WHEN they become a brain surgeon they've been trained to hold their scalpel properly". Smartest observation I've ever heard about the pathway.