Current Issue

Generative AI is putting pressure on human expertise. For now, the pressure falls less directly on the embodied skills of craftspeople than on the so-called cognitive knowledge work carried out with the assistance of computers. AI now enables novices to produce expert-level outputs while bypassing conventional skill development. In many cases, practitioners must supervise work they cannot themselves execute while maintaining responsibility for outcomes they did not directly produce. Drawing on the Dreyfus Skill Model and Winograd and Flores’s framework for human-computer interaction, we provide an interpretation of the metamorphosis that expertise is undergoing today. We sketch three stages through which practitioners develop a new form of orchestration expertise involved in responsible human-AI collaborations: awakening, calibration, and reimagination. Our central claim is that expertise is undergoing a fundamental, but unstable evolution, transforming into an ability to orchestrate machine capabilities while providing the human intuition and judgment needed to guide, assess, and take responsibility for work in ways no algorithm can automate. We conclude by arguing that this new expertise remains institutionally fragile, since the same AI systems that make orchestration necessary may also erode the entry-level roles and apprenticeships through which the judgment needed to orchestrate them is formed.

Athlete selection is a complex and difficult process that coaches and scouts are tasked with consistently. One area that has received little attention is how an athlete may ‘fit’ within the sport environment they perform in. Fit is considered the compatibility between the individual and their environment, which integrates traits, styles, and orientation. The aim of the current study was to explore if athlete personality dimensions formed distinct clusters as an indicator of athlete-environment fit, and whether the type of sport (team vs. individual) reflected the cluster into which athletes were grouped. Using K-means clustering technique, athletes were grouped based on their personality dimensions using the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1992) and their type of sport (team vs. individual). Results indicated there were no statistical relationships between personality dimensions and the type of sport, with minimal differences in scores across each personality dimension in team and individual sport athletes. These findings could suggest that fit is a multidimensional concept influenced by both sport-specific factors and psycho-social interactions between individuals in the environment.

While there has been significant exploration of perceptual-cognitive skills (e.g., pattern recall skills) in expertise and talent selection contexts, researchers have usually focused on single timepoints along the athlete development pathway. That is, differences between skill groups have rarely been investigated regarding their effects on long-term athlete development. The main aim of the four studies presented in this article was to investigate the separate steps of the Hohmann approach (2009) and, potentially, to draw direct conclusions from expertise differences to potential predictors of talent and future high-level performance. The first study involved confirming differences in pattern recall skills between expert, advanced, and novice players. Subsequently, differences between varying skill groups in two different youth age groups were analyzed (Study 2). After this, Study 3 investigated whether pattern recall skills could differentiate selected from non-selected youth players during a national try-out of the German Handball Federation. In Study 4, the highest league that the aforementioned try-out players have played within ten years was determined, and this information was used as a proxy for long-term success to check for differences in test results during the try-out ten years earlier. Collectively, these four studies reflect a dynamic and nuanced relationship between pattern recall skills and general athlete development in handball. Further, the clear differences between males and females on many relationships explored in this research emphasize the importance of differentiated data as the basis for specific athlete selection and development decisions.

How does Katrine Lunde describe and make sense of her journey to becoming the most decorated female handball player in history? How does she understand her ability to sustain world-class performances over more than two decades? These questions are explored in this qualitative single-case study of arguably the greatest female handball goalkeeper in the history of the sport. We utilized two distinct approaches when interviewing the athlete, namely the timeline approach and the photo elicitation approach. The interview was analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis and interpreted using the bioecological model as a theoretical framework. The analysis yielded three themes: (1) The player: I don’t have to win, I just don’t want to lose; (2) The family: Whatever you choose to do, be the best; and (3) The national team: A match made in heaven. Katrine’s story highlights the importance she places on adaptation, discipline, and support in making sense of her career. Her journey offers insights into how long-term success in elite sport may be understood, experienced, and sustained by an athlete competing at the highest level.

In 2024 Otte, Yearby, and Myszka published an article arguing for Skill Acquisition Specialists to be incorporated into high-performance sport, and they then responded further in 2026 (Myszka et al.) to Fransen who questioned their position. In this brief commentary we discuss the position presented by Otte et al., not so much to argue against it, but rather to extend their view and consider it from another perspective—practice theory. In this, we argue that what is needed is not ‘skill acquisition’ experts per se, but ‘skill acquisition’ expertise.