De universiteit van Edingburgh heeft een studie gedaan naar talentidentificatie en -talentontwikkelingsprogramma’s en -onderzoeken. Zeer interessant. Hieronder een aantal bevindingen uit deze studie die u hier in zijn geheel kan lezen: talent_identification_and_development
- Coaching staff within a sport typically have carried out talent detection and identification, but although the ability of coaches to identify talented individuals should never be underestimated, it is a very subjective process. Work with preadolescent athletes (Bloomfield et al., 1985; Blanksby, Bloomfield, Ponchard and Ackland, 1990; Regnier & Salmela, 1987) has demonstrated clearly that the identification of talented performers is not possible by anthropometrical and physical measures before the adolescent growth period due to their instability.
- A youth’s talent potential is not a stable innate trait but rather is
constantly transforming during the maturation process. Not only may talent be lost, or
never recognised due to lack of opportunities, but also one talent may metamorphose
into another talent (Simonton, 1999). - Pablo Sarasate (violin virtuoso) stated “A genius! for 37
years I’ve practiced 14 hours a day, and now they call me a genius” (cited in
Simonton, 1999). - Talent appears to depend on genetics, environment,
opportunity, encouragement, and the effect of these variables on physical and
psychological traits. The question is no longer whether genetic or environmental
factors determine behaviour, but how they interact. - The identification of some positive characteristic in a pre-adolescent child … does not
guarantee that the characteristic will remain through-out the process of maturation
toward the adult form” (Ackland and Bloomfield, 1996, p.57) - Not one physical and anthropometrical variable was among the five best determinants of performance across all age groups.
- Those few late maturers who do persevere until they obtain mature physical levels are likely
eventually to surpass the performance of the early maturers who have not been
required to develop optimum technical skills, nor even perhaps develop and exhibit
similarly high levels of work rate and determination! Additionally, once ‘caught up’
by these late developers, the early maturers often drop out, frustrated perhaps by their
sudden inability to compete with the technically superior athletes and the lack of
experience in working through difficulties. - Broad base of fundamental motor abilities characterized children with high potential
- Recent investigations from different parts of the world suggest that
most young children do not receive appropriate movement opportunities. - early specialisation in sports (e.g., mini-sport) with the result that children are
exposed to sport specific basic skills rather than generic motor abilities. - Since successful athletes often excel in a sport other than the one they are involved in initially (Moore et al., 1998), individuals need to develop a broad base of motor abilities to transfer successfully from one sport to another.
- Generic motor patterns underpin all sports and it is important that
children develop these skills if they are going to excel, or indeed participate. Any
talent detection and identification programme needs to be preceded by movement
opportunities to develop these key attributes. - Motorcapacity is considered the most important – factor for performance, psychological
factors were considered most important for talent detection and identification. - Fundamental motor abilities should be developed prior to any sport i
specialisation so that individuals are able to transfer confidently among sports. m
Interestingly, those individuals who excel within sport often do so within a sport ‘ ]
different from the one in which initially they were involved (Moore et al., 1998). - Whilst motor abilities underpin skill acquisition, psychological factors appear to be
the main determinants of individuals’ potential within sport. Not only will the _
psychological characteristics and behaviours of individuals determine if they are able
to develop the required skills, but they also will influence whether an individual is
able to stay committed to the necessary training so as to develop successfully within a ;
sport and perform at the world class level. - Psychological factors appear to be key to the ability of an individual to perform consistently once they have achieved world-class status. Unfortunately however, current talent detection and identification models place minimal emphasis on these key psychological and behavioural determinants.
- It has clearly been established that adult levels of physiological and
morphological factors (the main emphasis of his model) cannot be predicted during
early childhood. - It is extremely likely that the environmental factors, including
deliberate practice, account for far more variance in performance than
does innate capacity in every salient talent domain. (Simonton, 1999,p.454). - If a child does not display a component, this is maybe because the component is absent or because it will not develop until later.Due to the late emergence of components, as age increases, the number (and accuracy) of identified ‘potentially talented’ individuals will increase. Clearly therefore, the earlier a talent detection and identification procedure is employed, the more potentially talented individuals will be eliminated.
- Simonton’s epigenetic model (1999) highlights the difficulty of predicting
talent. Due to its dynamic nature, “not only may the composition of a given talent
change as a person ages, but the optimal talent domain may change as well”
(Simonton, 1999, p.445). Consequently, it would appear to be of greater value to
identify the determinants of skill acquisition and development, and help those
individuals “equipped to progress” within sport to develop the necessary attributes for
success. - 85% of football coaches, 67% of tennis coaches, 77% of swimming
coaches and 48% of gymnastic coaches reported not employing any screening devices
when identifying talent.(DOTS, Moore et al., 1998). - The routine inclusion of all children into a fundamental
movement skills programme prior to any identification of talent would appear to be
even more beneficial, both to balance opportunity and to facilitate subsequent
participation in physical activity (cf. Jess, 1999). - The best players are encouraged to participate in club sports, while the less skilled are eliminated quickly. This pressure is no less at age group level, and has been seen to extend to lower levels of youth sport as a means by which coaches
acquire status (Borms, 1994). NGB (sportbonden) have become oriented towards talent
selection, with major initiatives focused on performance measures as the means to identify those to be nurtured. Such procedures run the risk of eliminating potentially talented individuals - development of generic skills is crucial before the process of identifying potential, and the occurrence of early and late bloomers, both emphasise the importance of combining the process of TI and development. It is important to recognise that the key determinants of potential and the key determinants of performance are different, with the key determinants of potential being largely psychological.
- Several studies show that early specialisation does not favour the development of elite athletes and, before adolescence, diverse sports participation is more important (Carlson, 1988; Hill, 1993).
- Early specialisation can mean that a child is ‘locked’ into a sport for which they have talent but ‘locked out’ of a sport where their talents and chances of success are greater (Moore et al, 1998).
- In general, effective coaches frequently provide feedback and
incorporate numerous prompts and hustles, provide high levels of correction and reinstruction, use high levels of questioning and clarifying, predominantly engage in instruction and manage the training environment to achieve considerable order (e.g., Claxton, 1988;Douge & Hastie, 1993). - At young level, it is very important to develop a learning
atmosphere that encourages fun and intrinsic motivation (Bloom, 1985; Balyi, 1998). - At a very early age the parents provided opportunities for the children to enjoy a varied participation in a broad range of activities and the talented child is recognised as ‘gifted’. Other research also has highlighted the importance of these environmental factors to the development process (Bloom, 1985; Carlson, 1988; Hill, 1993).
- Currently, TI processes within sport are empirically unsound, since resources are being
targeted towards determinants of performance as opposed to the true determinants of
potential; this may be an unfortunate result of the pressures faced by NGBs. Earlier sections emphasise that the key determinants of talent, initially at least, are psycho-behavioural. - The German model of TD is another model that incorporates the early
development of basic skills (co-ordination, movement variability and general physical
condition), and delays specialisation for as long as possible.
Lees deze studie: talent_identification_and_development_20070119
