ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a rationale and exemplification on how statistics can be utilized in talent identification with the aim to substantiate practitioners' and researchers' decision making. With the aim to promote adoption of statistical approaches as part of evidence-based practice in talent identification and development, the chapter highlights how statistics can potentially support talent identification and development decision-making. Proficiency levels in sport-specific movement or performance parameters represent key common criteria from which practitioners and researchers decide whether youth athletes are classified as talents. To accurately determine identification and selection decisions, qualitative and/or quantitative criteria are often utilized. The approach to use confidence intervals (CIs) for the evaluation of between-group differences can be translated to two equally and often reported questions in talent research. The first refers to performance changes over time in the group of talent and/or performance potential. The second implies individual and not group-based performance changes.
