Talent Development in Sport Requires Athlete Enrichment: Contemporary Insights from a Nonlinear Pedagogy and the Athletic Skills Model

Differences and relationships between talent detection, identification, development and selection in sport: A systematic review

Although there are numerous studies on talent, especially talent identification, development, and selection, both on influencing factors and model construction or talent prediction, they have relatively independently explored some of its stages. Undeniably, talent development is continuous and phased, with specific tasks to be completed at each step, and these steps have certain differences and relationships. The aim of this review is to provide a clear distinction between the entire talent cultivation process, with the purpose of having better methods and measures for each stage to minimize the turnover rate and ensure the integrity of the talent development process. Through searching the Web of Science ™ database, this review was performed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Selected were original articles in English containing data or models related to talent detection/identification/development/selection in sports. A total of 16 articles were included in the study by reviewing the literature. This overview presents the differences and relationships between the four stages of talent cultivation, where these different aspects are aim, purpose, approach, and emphasis. The relationship is characterized by continuity, progressive, complementary, and mutually. This finding shows that each stage is not developed independently, but is an integral part of the talent training process. Additionally, better differentiation and strengthening of the links between the various talent cultivation stages are considered to contribute to elite athlete development. This review highlights the differences and relationships that exist at each stage of talent cultivation. Meanwhile, some measures are also proposed to strengthen the connection of these phases and how to reduce the turnover rate of talent, which can provide theoretical references for coaches or stakeholders. Based on the results of the review, it is also recommended that future research on talent cultivation could take into account the intrinsic linkages between the various stages and develop talent training programs in a multidimensional way.

What Factors Discriminate Young Soccer Players Perceived as Promising and Less Promising by Their Coaches?

Purpose: This study aimed to verify whether there are differences in physical, technical, and tactical assessment outcomes derived from field-based tests and small-sided games (SSG) in addition to anthropometric and maturational characteristics between players classified as promising and less promising as per the coaches' perception. Method: A total of 53 male U-15 youth soccer players (age: 14.8 ± 0.2 years, weight: 61.7 ± 6.9 kg, height: 171.8 ± 6.7 cm) and three experienced coaches from three distinct sports clubs were enrolled in this study. Based on the coaches' perception, players were split into three group levels for both short- and long-term success ranking: (i) promising (PL; top 5 players; n = 15), (ii) intermediate (IL; n = 23) and (iii) less promising (LPL; 5 bottom players; n = 15). The following measures were determined: anthropometry, maturity offset, vertical jump, and aerobic-anaerobic running performance, soccer- specific skills tests, GPS-based running metrics, technical and tactical actions during SSG, and minutes played throughout the season. Results: There were no differences between groups for anthropometrical, maturational, and physical outcomes. PL players in both rankings covered more distances at sprinting and presented more offensive technical and tactical actions during SSG than their LPL peers. PL and IL presented more minutes played in competitive seasons than LPL of short-term ranking. Conclusion: The biggest differences between the players ranked by their coaches were apparent only during a representative game task, emphasizing the importance of SSG as a tool to assess the players' technical-tactical awareness. In addition to the SSG, the coach's eye plays a key role during the talent identification and selection process.

Enriching Athlete-Environment Interactions in Youth Sport: The Role of a Department of Methodology

The aim of this insights paper is to propose how the theory of ecological dynamics may invite re-consideration of how sport scientists could support performance, learning and development of children and youth in sports programmes. We seek to outline why learning should be individualised and contextualised, based on the specific needs of learners, such as children and youth, women and disabled athletes in sport. Case examples from individual and team sports are presented to illustrate how constraints can be designed to enrich interactions of children and youth with different performance environments, based on integrating principles of specificity and generality in learning and development. These case examples suggest how a collaborative effort by sport scientists and coaches in children and youth sport may be undertaken in a department of methodology to enrich learning and performance.

Technical skills in complex tennis situations: Dutch talented players U15 compared to players U17

Introduction

Technical skills in complex situations appear crucial for progress towards elite tennis performance. However, it is unknown how these skills develop in different age categories in a group of talented youth players. The aim of this study is to evaluate possible differences in technical skills among Dutch talented youth tennis players U15 compared to U17.

Methods

A total of 19 players (12 males, 7 females; age 14.6 ± 1.4 years) were tested on ball speed, accuracy, percentage errors and spin rate using the on-court Dutch Technical-Tactical Tennis Test. With a ball machine, four games were simulated which were either fixed (game 1 and game 2) or variable (game 3 and game 4), depending on the complexity of the task. Each game consisted of two offensive, two neutral and two defensive rallies, representing different tactical situations.

Results

A two-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant interaction between the effects of age category and sex for ball speed (F(1,15) = 5.472, p = 0.034, η ² = 0.267), indicating that males U17 produced higher ball speed compared to males U15, whereas no differences were found between females U15 and U17. A one-way ANCOVA showed that, regardless of sex, players U17 scored significantly higher on accuracy than players U15 (F(1,16) = 5.021, p = 0.040, η ² = 0.239). No differences were found between players U15 and U17 for spin rate and percentage errors (p > .05), although there was a medium to large effect size for males U17 to produce higher spin rates compared to males U15. A closer examination of accuracy revealed that players U17 scored significantly higher compared to players U15 in game 4 (F(1,17) = 6.358, p = .022, η ² = .272) and in defensive situations (F(1,17) = 9.602, p = .007, η ² = .361).

Discussion

In conclusion, the results of the current study suggest that technical skills, especially ball speed for males and accuracy in complex situations for both males and females, continue to develop in adolescence in talented tennis players. There is an increased understanding about underlying technical skills that contribute to progress towards elite tennis performance. To effectively develop technical skills, coaches are encouraged to design specific practices where these skills are performed in complex situations under high cognitive and temporal pressure.

Feasibility of Parkour-style training in team sport practice: A Delphi study

Research has suggested Parkour-style training could act as a donor sport for athlete development in team sports. This study aimed to interrogate expert consensus on the feasibility of integrating Parkour-style training into team sport practice, by employing a three-round, online Delphi method. Talent development and strength and conditioning coaches working in team sport settings were invited to participate. Twenty-four coaches completed Round One, 21 completed Round Two and 20 completed Round Three. In Round One, coaches answered 15 open-ended questions across four categories: (1) General Perceptions of Parkour-style training; (2) Potential Applications of Parkour-style training; (3) Designing and Implementing Parkour-style training Environments; and (4), Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment. Responses from Round One were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis with deductive and inductive coding resulting in 78 statements across three dimensions (Application of Parkour Style Training in Team Sports; Designing and Implementing Parkour-style training Environments; Overcoming Potential Barriers when Integrating Parkour-style training). In Rounds Two and Three, coaches rated these statements using a four-point Likert scale and measures of collective agreement or disagreement were calculated. This study established consensus around a set of design principles for integrating Parkour-style training into team sport practice routines.

Ongoing Bidirectional Feedback between Planning and Assessment in Educational Contexts: A Narrative Review

Quality in education is one of the 17 goals in the United Nations' sustainable agenda for 2030, presupposing careful planning and assessment of learning. Traditional planning in sports education (either in training or school settings) largely adopts pre-determined learning sequences and temporal milestones that, in theory, enhance the learning process. However, learning is a context-dependent, non-linear process with considerable intra- and interindividual variability, whereby planning and assessment should also be non-linear. In this narrative review, the main findings suggest that the specific teaching or training contents and their relative (i.e., ordering or sequencing) and absolute timing (i.e., the specific time point where certain learning or adaptations are expected) should vary depending on the learners and the context. In a process-oriented perspective, this requires flexible planning and the establishment of ongoing bidirectional links between planning and assessment. In this framework, assessment should be a flexible, evolving, and daily pedagogical tool instead of a set of formal checkpoints. We further explored how planning and assessment could be linked to provide an ongoing feedback loop that respects the individuality of each learner and its context, and therefore hope this review helps bring about a change in current planning and assessment paradigms in sports education.

Joining with the Conversation: Research as a Sustainable Practice in the Sport Sciences

What would it mean to consider research in the sport sciences as a sustainable practice? Taking a step back, in such a context, what would sustainability even mean? The time is ripe to address such questions, and what we lay out here are our initial thoughts on this most contemporary of issues. We start by exploring what is meant by the term ‘sustainability’. Rather than following mainstream thinking—the harnessing of earthly resources commodified and exploited as ‘renewables’—we situate it in the sport sciences as a continuing response-ability to the experiences of others. This view is rooted in ‘commoning’—an intransitive verb in which people conjoin varied experiences through correspondence. What makes this sustainable, is its ongoing open-endedness; meaning, it carries on as people (co)respond to one another. Central to this idea is a perceptual system attuned to the ebbs and flows of what or who one is corresponding with. Though, the current modus operandi of research in the sport sciences is located, not on the skilled perception of the scientist corresponding with the coming-into-being of phenomena, but on an unsustainable model of recognition that views phenomena as ‘objects of analysis’, fixed and final in form, waiting to be known about by means of reduction, fragmentation and classification. For research in the sport sciences to become a sustainable practice, we propose a scholarship that prioritises direct observation and participation with what holds our attention, corresponding within its natural ecology of relations, embedding the phenomenon itself. This re-conceptualisation of science views research as a response-able scholarship grounded in conversation. Like inquiring about the well-being of loved ones, what sustains such a scholarship is curiosity, care and hope—a curiosity about which captivates us, a care that sees us respond to what we observe, and a hope of carrying the correspondence on, together.

An Ecological Dynamics Approach to Understanding Human-Environment Interactions in the Adventure Sport Context—Implications for Research and Practice

The last few decades have witnessed a surge of interest in adventure sports, and has led to an emerging research focus on these activities. However, recent conceptual analyses and scientific reviews have highlighted a major, fundamental question that remains unresolved: what constitutes an adventure sport. Despite several proposals for definitions, the field still seems to lack a shared conceptualization. This deficit may be a serious limitation for research and practice, restricting the development of a more nuanced theoretical explanation of participation and practical implications within and across adventure sports. In this article, we address another crucial question, how can adventure sports be better understood for research and practice? We briefly summarize previous definitions to address evident confusion and a lack of conceptual clarity in the discourse. Alternatively, we propose how an ecological perspective of human behaviors, such as interactions with the environment, may provide an appropriate conceptualization to guide and enhance future research and practice, using examples from activities such as freeride skiing/snowboarding, white-water kayaking, climbing, mountaineering and the fields of sport science, psychology and avalanche research and education. We draw on ecological dynamics as a transdisciplinary approach to discuss how this holistic framework presents a more detailed, nuanced, and precise understanding of adventure sports.

Talent detection—importance of the will and the ability when starting a sport activity

The early identification of sports talents includes finding the right sport and is of great importance for both scientists and practitioners. In this article, special attention will be paid to the entry into sports in general as a basis of a talent development process. Sport-specific evidence from a variety of talent development models will be listed and research gaps will be identified. For this purpose, this article refers to a model that can be classified as both process and structure oriented and tries to find domain-specific application. A framework is presented as a research approach in which the different scientific disciplines can bring together their subject areas. This enables so-called ability–personality profiles consisting individual constellations of motivation variables, interests, skills, and experience to be studied together and incorporated into the talent development process. The arrangement of movement offers should be oriented to the individual profiles. At the same time, movement experiences can offer the basis for the formation of interests, motivation, and sport-motor skills, i.e., of the will and the ability. Taking the will into account as well as the ability could lead people to detect their own talent (based on contents of the presented framework) and the sport that is suitable for them, and thus be ready for the entry to the path of talent development.

Parkour-Based Activities in the Athletic Development of Youth Basketball Players

While ideas from long-term athlete development (LTAD) models have been adopted and integrated across different sports, issues related to early specialization, such as increased risk of injury and burnout, are still common. Although some benefits may be associated with early sport specialization, sports sampling is purported to be a more effective approach to the long-term health and wellbeing of children. Furthermore, the concept of developing what are commonly referred to as "fundamental movement skills" (FMS) is central to the rationale for delaying single sports specialization. However, in place of sports sampling, it appears that the practice of strength and conditioning (S&C) has become a driving force behind developmental models for youth athletes, highlighted by the growing body of literature regarding youth athletic development training. In this perspective piece, we explore how conventional S&C practice may insufficiently develop FMS because typically, it only emphasizes a narrow range of foundational exercises that serve a limited role toward the development of action capabilities in youth athletic populations. We further discuss how this approach may limit the transferability of physical qualities, such as muscular strength, to sports-specific tasks. Through an ecological dynamics lens, and using basketball as an example, we explore the potential for parkour-based activity within the LTAD of youth basketball players. We propose parkour as a training modality to not only encourage movement diversity and adaptability, but also as part of an advanced strength training strategy for the transfer of conventional S&C training.

Contrasting Learning Psychology Theories Applied to the Teaching-Learning-Training Process of Tactics in Soccer

Research in sport pedagogy and its applied recommendations are still characterized by a contrast between the different learning theories from psychology. Traditional theories and their corresponding approaches to the specific case of teaching and learning “how to play [team sports like soccer]” are subject to compatibilities and incompatibilities. We discuss how behaviorism as an approach to teaching the game shows more incompatibilities with the nature of tactical actions when compared to constructivism. As coaches strive to teach the game and make their players and team perform, we argue that teaching the game requires teaching approaches that will help develop their way to play (i.e., tactical behavior) without taking away their autonomy and adaptiveness. The teaching-learning-training process for playing the game should then be conducted to harmonize the characteristics of the contents, the context, and the individual(s) at hand. We provide two illustrated examples and portray how the recommended approaches fit key contents of the game that are observed in the tactical behavior. We finally argue that the coherent design of games provides minimal conditions to teaching approaches, and that such a design should be a priority when elaborating the learning activities along the player development process. As a conclusion, the interactionist theory is the one that best serves the teaching of the game and the development of tactical behavior. We therefore defend that its principles can help coaches tailor their own strategy to teach the game with the many tools.