ABSTRACT
Although attempts to formalize talent identification and development processes have become more popular across the world, the efficacy of such programmes has been scrutinized (Abbott et al., 2005; Gullich, 2007; Vaeyens et al., 2009). This chapter proposes that sports performance evolves as an emergent dynamic system where the performance landscape is constantly shifting. The implication of this view is that predicting athletes who may be defined as ‘talented’ or ‘expert’ in the future is inordinately challenging. Rigid, over-structured talent identification and development programmes that fail to consider interacting individual, environmental and task constraints underpinning sports performance (see Renshaw, Davids & Savelsbergh, 2010), are unlikely to succeed. Traditional approaches tend to overemphasize anthropometric and physiological measures so that potentially talented individuals are initially excluded or de-selected from programmes, due to limited assessments of talent potential based on current performance (Abbott et al., 2005; Phillips, Davids, Renshaw & Portus, 2010). In this chapter we argue that the focus in sport needs to eschew early identification of expert athletes towards the development of skilled, highly adaptive performers. We start by considering why sports adopt early talent identification processes despite it being a flawed approach. We next highlight theoretical ideas on how modeling talent development as a nonlinear, emergent process can provide a more effective and efficient system. Such an approach can create a productive ‘talent’ population with a greater chance of matching individuals and sports, reducing wastage.
