When identifying or discovering talents and later selecting young athletes, coaches often rely on assessing their performance on the field during matches or competitions. They may overlook the fact that a young athlete's dominance at a particular moment may be attributed to their accelerated development.
It is well-known that athletes of the same chronological age, between 12-16 years old, can differ by up to 4 years in biological development. A 12-year-old with the "body" of a 16-year-old will undoubtedly dominate in terms of speed and strength within their age group. However, in a few years, when his peers catch up in biological development, his dominance fades away.
Three young athletes aged 9, 14, and 13.
(photo from the book "Formula of Success in Sports 1")
And the coach remains astonished at how such a great talent suddenly started stagnating overnight or simply disappeared!
Unfortunately, the consequence of this is that young athletes who lag in maturation for all those years do not receive the necessary attention from coaches, which is most evident in the minutes spent on the field during matches. As a result, they lose motivation and often give up on further pursuing sports. The use of diagnostics of the training readiness of young athletes through tests of motor abilities, when used in isolation to predict someone's potential, is also not appropriate. Especially if the young athletes being tested have not participated in a developmental program focused on the development of motor abilities and movement structures.
In this case, naturally gifted athletes will mostly achieve good results, while others may be deemed unpromising.
What is the solution?
Avoid any early talent identification through player selection until they have passed the pubertal growth phase (usually around 14-16 years of age).
After that, it is possible to determine the talent of certain young athletes through psychological and physical testing conducted by top experts.
Based on these results, they can be directed into a more advanced program to further develop their sport-specific abilities.
This approach has been practiced in Australia for years.
Within their Talent Search Program (Hoare, 1996.), there are three phases of sports development:
- Identification Phase (Ages 14-16): Young individuals are tested within their schools through a series of 8 physical and psychological evaluations. The results are then compared with the national database. If the achieved results positively correlate with the national standards, they progress to the second phase. The primary purpose of the first phase is identification.
- Selection Phase: Testing continues in this phase, but it becomes more sports-specific. A specific testing protocol is used to refine the results from the first phase. If there is an increased potential for a specific sport, additional laboratory tests are conducted. This phase is considered the "selection" phase.
- Development Phase: Young athletes identified as having talent and selected for a particular sport through testing are invited to participate in the Talented Athlete Program. This phase is viewed as the "development" stage of this system.
The previously mentioned system was initiated in 1994, and its first results became highly evident at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The conclusion drawn from this is that it is crucial to have a systematic approach to talent identification among young athletes. However, even more critical is that such a system is not solely focused on selecting the best young athletes (those who, according to certain current indicators, should have a higher chance of becoming elite athletes) but also on the much more important process of their sports development. Before any selection process, young athletes should be provided with a progressive and optimal development of motor abilities and skills.
-Igor Macner
References: Hoare, D. (1996). The Australian national talent search programme. Coaching Focus,
31, 3-4.
If you would like to learn more about this and many other important young athletes development topics, order our books “Formula for Success in Sports 1&2“.
