Assessing personal talent determinants in young racquet sport players: a systematic review

Abstract

Since junior performances have little predictive value for future success, other solutions are sought to assess a young player's potential. The objectives of this systematic review are (1) to provide an overview of instruments measuring personal talent determinants of young players in racquet sports, and (2) to evaluate these instruments regarding their validity for talent development. Electronic searches were conducted in PubMed, PsychINFO, Web of Knowledge, ScienceDirect and SPORTDiscus (1990 to 31 March 2014). Search terms represented tennis, table tennis, badminton and squash, the concept of talent, methods of testing and children. Thirty articles with information regarding over 100 instruments were included. Validity evaluation showed that instruments focusing on intellectual and perceptual abilities, and coordinative skills discriminate elite from non-elite players and/or are related to current performance, but their predictive validity is not confirmed. There is moderate evidence that the assessments of mental and goal management skills predict future performance. Data on instruments measuring physical characteristics prohibit a conclusion due to conflicting findings. This systematic review yielded an ambiguous end point. The lack of longitudinal studies precludes verification of the instrument's capacity to forecast future performance. Future research should focus on instruments assessing multidimensional talent determinants and their predictive value in longitudinal designs.

Higher-level cognitive functions in Dutch elite and sub-elite table tennis players

“…With the exception of the studies by Huijgen et al (2015) and Verburgh et al (2014), most studies on the relation between higher-level cognitive functions and sport performance focused on adolescent or adult players [ 9 , 10 ]. However, in terms of talent identification and talent development, it seems essential to acquire knowledge on youth players as well, preferably applying a multidimensional, longitudinal design [ 36 , 37 ]. Elementary forms of executive functions are present as early as the preschool period (3–5 years) and develop from early childhood through adolescence into young adulthood [ 28 , 38 , 39 ].…”

What Performance Analysts Need to Know About Research Trends in Association Football (2012–2016): A Systematic Review

“…The introduction of the option "not applicable" allowed an appropriate score for the article, eliminating the negative effect of assuming the value "0" on a binary scale, when in fact that specific item was not applicable to that study. As in previous research [11,12], to make a fair comparison between studies of different designs, the decision was taken to calculate a percentage score as a final measure of methodological quality. For this, the sum of the score of all items was divided by the number of relevant scored items for that specific research design.…”

Instruction-based selective action pattern (IBSAP): a novel method for talent identification in sports

“…Today, many national federations select young athletes via talent identification / development programs and follow up their progress [12][13][14]. Most of the skill tests used in these talent identification and development programs assess perceptive and motor skills [15][16][17]. However, due to the fact that mental and cognitive skills play a more significant part in athletic achievement, tests that assess cognitive skills in particular has attracted significant attention recently [18][19][20].…”

“…Most cognitive tests are applied either desk-bound or as simulation tests and are far from the ecologic nature of sports [21,22]. In addition, it is suggested that all skills (perceptive, motor and cognitive) must be evaluated by tests that mimic all components of performance in sports [23,24]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no method that evaluates cognitive skills along with perception and motor skills in a single test has been published yet in the literature.…”

“…In a recent manuscript reviewing the test methods used for talent identification among young racket athletes, Faber et al [24] reported that more than 100 tools which focused on intellectual and perceptive skills were used in these tests, and that coordinative skills were determinative in identifying the future elite athletes. In accordance, the hand-eye coordination test that the authors developed was 05 demonstrated to be a valid test for table tennis athletes [25].…”