“She's a Natural”: Identifying and Developing Athletic Talent

Abstract

Similarities between the identification and development of athletic talent and that of gifted children are rarely compared. Interestingly, however, they share analogous processes. The purpose of this review is to in estigate the progress of research regarding athletic talent identification and development, including current issues, and pro ide suggestions for future research. Key roadblocks to the identification of athletic talent include attempting to identify talent at an early age, use of flawed athletic talent identification models, and lack of education of coaches, parents, and teachers regarding how to properly identify athletic talent.

Physical education teachers’ perceptions of sport potential: development of the Scale for Identification of Sport Potential (SISP)

“…In order for PE to become better involved in the initial assessment of sport potential, they need to be provided with a reliable assessment tool (Gray & Plucker, 2010). To this end, we identified PE teachers' perceptions of SP, which resulted in a 27 -item questionnaire, the SISP.…”

“…In particular, the capacity of PE teachers to identify determinants of sport potential might significantly contribute to the improvement of talent identification processes since most competitive sport programs at this phase of development focus on determinants of performance rather than element of long -term athlete development (Abbott & Collins, 2004). Currently, the most common method to identify talent is to focus on physical ability, which does not reflect the multidimensionality and dynamics of talent (Gray & Plucker, 2010;Vaeyens, Lenoir, Williams, & Philippaerts, 2008). Due to this one--dimensional approach, a significant number of potentially talented children are overlooked and, as a result, never have the opportunity to realize their potential (Abbott & Collins, 2004).…”

“…Surprisingly, the existing literature on athlete development and talent identification has paid relatively little attention to those with SP from within curricular PE contexts (Bailey, Tan, & Morley, 2004). To use PE as a setting for the initial assessment of sport potential, PE teachers need to be provided with valid and reliable tools (Gray & Plucker, 2010). Bailey and Morley (2006) recognized the opportunities provided by PE settings for the identification and development of children with the capacities to excel in PE.…”

For Future Athletic Success Work Attitude Capacity and Sport Learning Capacity in Experts’ Perceptions Most Important in 6 - 8 Year Olds

“…In sports, a one-dimensional approach is most often used to assess children. It is expected that such an approach would result in many children being overlooked (Abbott & Collins, 2004;Gray & Plucker, 2010). This seems to be confirmed by the findings of Johnston et al (2018) review of the past 25 years of research on talent identification.…”

Are Physical Education Lessons Suitable for Sport Talent Identification? A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Cronbach's alpha (0.95) indicated high reliability among the experts [39]. The reviews included in the final sample [10,25,26] were excluded from this evaluation because they could not be assessed using the selection criteria following a qualitative evaluation according to Chu and Zhang [40]. Notes: JCR/SJR inclusion (was the study published in a journal indexed on the JCR or SJR?).…”