Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Pro athletes' kids go pro
Ethan Holliday, who signed the largest baseball signing bonus out of high school, is the son of legendary baseball player Matt Holliday. Madison and Avery Skinner are dominant for the US volleyball team, and they are daughters of former NBA players. At the highest level of American sports, there is a notable uptick in second-generation professionals.
These young athletes are all extremely deserving, driven, and capable. Their athletic advantages are matched by financial advantages: through their professional athlete parents they have had access to elite training and high-level coaching from the start, which is why second-generation stars are becoming more common.
Why are athletes' children so often elite?
Researchers who study expert performance, including Anders Ericsson, have found that years of focused practice under skilled coaching separate elite performers from the rest. In a 1993 study of violinists at a Berlin music academy, Ericsson and colleagues found the best students had accumulated far more solitary practice than their less accomplished peers by age 20. Children of professional athletes tend to have early access to expert coaches, facilities, and training schedules. Genetics also play a role, and researchers continue to debate how the two combine.
Does baseball cap draft signing bonuses?
Since the 2012 collective bargaining agreement, Major League Baseball has assigned a slot value to every pick in the first 10 rounds of the draft. Each team has a total bonus pool built from those values. A team that spends beyond its pool faces penalties, including taxes on the overage and, at higher amounts, the loss of future draft picks.
More from Wendover Productions
