ABSTRACT
The ability of sporting organisations to identify and develop athletic talent into the sporting superstars of tomorrow has significantly grown and intensified in recent years. This chapter focuses on the talent identification step of this process. Talent identification is defined as ‘recognising participants with the potential at an earlier age to become elite performers in the future’ with multiple talent identification systems employed across the world. Talent identification processes can be informed by coach recommendations, training/competition observations and fitness assessments, although a collaborative approach is recommended. Although coaches believe they can identify talent, a multitude of research examining talent has emerged over the last two decades exploring the phenomenon of talent. This chapter reviews some of this research, with a focus on the physical qualities and methods that may be used as talent identification tools. The chapter then presents numerous problems related to talent identification within young athletes including the performance vs potential debate, early identification = early specialisation, annual age grouping and maturity variability, and unidimensional and cross-sectional approaches to talent identification. Numerous potential solutions to help practitioners optimise their talent identification programmes in young athletes are then discussed.
