Adaptation of Barrow Ball Dribbling Test According to the Variable of Ball Touch Frequency

Bidaurrazaga-Letona, I, Lekue, JA, Amado, M, and Gil, SM. Progression in youth soccer: Selection and identification in youth soccer players aged 13-15 years. J Strength Cond Res 33(9): 2548-2558, 2019-The aim of this study was to identify the factors that are important for the identification and selection of young soccer players. Ninety-four adolescent soccer players from the under-13 (U13; age = 12.3 ± 0.3 years; n = 50) and under-15 (U15; age = 14.0 ± 0.2 years; n = 44) categories belonging to a professional club participated in the study. Anthropometric measurements, physical tests (sprint, agility, endurance and jump), and maturity status (age at peak height velocity) were recorded over 4 seasons. Comparisons were performed among new players joining the club (Enter players, n = 15), players progressing to the next age category (Club players, n = 54), and players leaving the club (Deselected players, n = 25). A 2-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine if significant differences existed between groups and testing time. Better physical performance and improvements observed during the season in performance were found to be one of the main factors for U13 players to continue in the club (p < 0.05-0.001). In the U15 group, although body size, maturation and physical performance appeared to be the most important characteristics for being identified to play in the club (p < 0.05), Club players demonstrated better improvements during the season (p < 0.05). Overall, these results indicate that the identification or promotion of players by coaches depends on indicators which are age-dependent. Therefore, this study has shown that the talent identification program was more a selection process than a promotion process, selecting and identifying a posteriori rather than a priori.

This study examined the influence of both anthropometric and physical performance determinants on the likelihood to be selected to progress through a talent identification and development programme in young tennis. Data were collected in 538 young tennis players (323 males and 215 females) from 6 age categories (U8–U13). A principal component analysis was used to generate one anthropometric determinant (based on body height, body weight and maturity offset) and four physical performance determinants: speed and agility (based on 5 m sprint, 20 m sprint and 505 change of direction test); jumping power (based on standing broad jump and standing broad jump in series); motor coordination (based on balancing backwards and jumping sideways) and tennis ball control (based on a throw and catch test and hold tennis ball up test). For all determinants, tertiles were generated for every age category and both sexes separately. Univariate binary logistic regressions were performed to examine the influence of each determinant on the chances to be selected to progress in the talent identification and development programme. Significant odds ratios were found for all included anthropometric and physical performance determinants ( p &lt; 0.05), ranging from 0.26 to 7.50 in the male young tennis players and from 0.18 to 6.87 in the female young tennis players. The included determinants influenced selection chances mostly in the early age categories (U8–U10) as opposed to the later age categories (U11–U13). Future research should examine the influence of additional determinants (such as tennis (match-play) performance) on the selection chances to progress through a talent identification and development programme.

ObjectiveCompetitive rugby is increasingly becoming popular among adolescent players even in countries hardly known for rugby such as Zimbabwe. Given the increased participation rates, burgeoning talent identification (TID) programs and the reportedly high injury-risk associated with competitive youth rugby, the minimal qualities or skills needed for effective performance by all young players need further clarification. Therefore, this qualitative study was conducted to explore the perceptions of high-school based rugby coaches on the key qualities or skills defining good adolescent rugby players and should be considered for player recruitment in TID programs. Currently, there is no consensus in literature from the coaches’ perspective on these qualities.ResultsThe final sample had 22 coaches (median age = 45.5 years) with years of coaching high-school rugby ranging from 6 to 17 years. Using the conventional approach to inductive content analysis four broad themes emerged suggesting the multifaceted nature of the requirements imperative for effective and optimal rugby performance among adolescent rugby players as perceived by the coaches. Themes identified included: physiological characteristics, anthropometric attributes, psychological qualities and game-specific skills. Possibly, training approaches or design of rugby-specific test-batteries should consider all these important qualities and be multi-dimensional in composition.

The utilisation of motor performance tests for talent identification in youth sports is discussed intensively in talent research. This article examines the reliability, differential stability and validity of the motor diagnostics conducted nationwide by the German football talent identification and development programme and provides reference values for a standardised interpretation of the diagnostics results. Highly selected players (the top 4% of their age groups, U12–U15) took part in the diagnostics at 17 measurement points between spring 2004 and spring 2012 (N = 68,158). The heterogeneous test battery measured speed abilities and football-specific technical skills (sprint, agility, dribbling, ball control, shooting, juggling). For all measurement points, the overall score and the speed tests showed high internal consistency, high test–retest reliability and satisfying differential stability. The diagnostics demonstrated satisfying factorial-related validity with plausible and stable loadings on the two empirical factors “speed” and “technical skills”. The score, and the technical skills dribbling and juggling, differentiated the most among players of different performance levels and thus showed the highest criterion-related validity. Satisfactory psychometric properties for the diagnostics are an important prerequisite for a scientifically sound rating of players’ actual motor performance and for the future examination of the prognostic validity for success in adulthood.

HRM activities include resourcing and development, compensation and incentives, and involvement and job design. In modern football, players influence the value of a team. In this regard, the benefits of club collaboration with talent identification and talent development programmes are the expansion of football, savings in player values, monetization, and transferring value to the teams. This study examined the role of German clubs in the country’s talent identification programme using a qualitative meta-synthesis approach that followed Sandelowski and Barroso’s method. From the 70 documents selected, 923 open codes and 186 concepts were obtained. The results demonstrated that legal developments and their implications in the centralized and global management of German football leagues have been significant in optimally managing clubs and establishing appropriate cooperation with other football institutions, including the German Football Association (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL) with DFB regional bases, performance centres, amateur clubs, and regional/state associations.

Many children strive to attain excellence in sport. However, although talent identification and development programmes have gained popularity in recent decades, there remains a lack of consensus in relation to how talent should be defined or identified and there is no uniformly accepted theoretical framework to guide current practice. The success rates of talent identification and development programmes have rarely been assessed and the validity of the models applied remains highly debated. This article provides an overview of current knowledge in this area with special focus on problems associated with the identification of gifted adolescents. There is a growing agreement that traditional cross-sectional talent identification models are likely to exclude many, especially late maturing, 'promising' children from development programmes due to the dynamic and multidimensional nature of sport talent. A conceptual framework that acknowledges both genetic and environmental influences and considers the dynamic and multidimensional nature of sport talent is presented. The relevance of this model is highlighted and recommendations for future work provided. It is advocated that talent identification and development programmes should be dynamic and interconnected taking into consideration maturity status and the potential to develop rather than to exclude children at an early age. Finally, more representative real-world tasks should be developed and employed in a multidimensional design to increase the efficacy of talent identification and development programmes.

Introduction: Cycling is of increasing popularity among the world. World Cycling Centre (UCI-WCC) offers training and development for around 100 talented athletes every year, with three permanent groups in the Olympic disciplines of road, track and BMX, in order to leverage their sporting careers. Human, material and financial resources could become limiting factors when performing talent identification (TID) programs. Consequently, designing a test, which can provide coaches with relevant information about the physical potential of their cyclists and an initial benchmark thanks to a simple but reliable protocol, might become an asset for the cycling industry.  A Power Profile Test (PPT) is a laboratory test that assesses a cyclist’s maximum capacity to produce power over durations that are strongly related to physiological capacities required to perform in specific cycling events (Quod et al. 2010). Designing a PPT to evaluate power producing capacity on physiological key efforts using a cycle ergometer such as Wattbike, with a mean error of <2% compared to the SRM, would be acceptable for talent identification purposes (Hopker et al. 2010), and accessible to every UCI-WCC Satellite-Centre or Federation due to cost-effectiveness ratio and easy to use.  Purpose: The aim of this study was to design a new World Cycling Centre - Power Profile Test (WCC-PPT) to generate benchmarks in order to help coaches identifying potential talented endurance cyclists around the world. Methods: A total of 126 (91 males and 35 females) international level endurance cyclists from 41 countries completed the WCC-PPT. The data used for analysis were collected over a 2-year period, at the WCC and its Satellite-Centers. All cyclists completed the WCC-PPT as part of a TID program in similar conditions. WCC-PPT was performed on an air-braked cycle ergometer (WattBike Ltd, Nottingham, UK). The WCC-PPT involved a total of 4 efforts, 2 x 6s (234s recovery in between and after last 6s effort), 1 x 30s (330s recovery) and 1 x 4min. A controlled 17-min warm-up was performed before the test. Continuous variables are summarized by mean, 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles.  Results: Anthropometrical characteristics and WCC-PPT results for male and female are presented in Table 1.  Conclusion: The proposed test methodology and its descriptive results indicate that designing an easy and cost-effective laboratory test such as the WCC-PPT may allow the cycling community to generate a powerful database in order to create power outputs benchmarks to identify talented endurance cyclists over the world. Further research is needed to evaluate the reliability and validity of this test for TID purposes. In addition, it is important to increase the number of cyclists tested in order to create relevant references per continent, gender, age and Olympic cycling disciplines.

ABSTRACTPurpose: The effectiveness of early talent identification and development programs in soccer is questionable due to the dynamic nature of these processes in young and adolescent players. To date, only a few studies have longitudinally modelled developmental trajectories of functional characteristics in youth soccer players, yet none have captured the entire typical age range of soccer development programs (5–20 years). Furthermore, these studies have often failed to take into account the multidimensional nature of talent identification and development processes. Methods: This study used segmented linear models to map the periods of accelerated and decelerated development of motor competence and physical fitness in a large sample (2228 players with 6120 observations) of high level Belgian youth soccer players between 5–20 years. Results: The segmented models revealed that motor competence showed faster development well before the average estimated Age at Peak Height Velocity. Agility, lower body explosive power, intermittent endurance, and straight line running speed showed continuous development that does not slow down until players are between 15–17 years old. Conclusion: This study highlights the dynamic nature of talent development and provides practical considerations for those involved in talent identification and development programs in youth soccer.

This review is focused on anthropometric and physiological characteristics of soccer players with a view to establishing their roles within talent detection, identification and development programmes. Top-class soccer playershave to adapt to the physical demandsof the game, which are multifactorial. Players may not need to have an extraordinary capacity within any of the areas of physical performance but must possess a reasonably high level within all areas. This explains why there are marked individual differences in anthropometric and physiological characteristics among top players. Various measurements have been used to evaluate specific aspects of the physical performance of both youth and adult soccer players.The positional role of a player is related to his or her physiological capacity. Thus, midfield players and full-backs have the highest maximal oxygen intakes (> 60 ml·kg -1 ·min -1 ) and perform best in intermittent exercise tests. On the other hand, midfield players tend to have the lowest muscle strength. Although these distinctions are evident in adult and elite youth players, their existence must be interpreted circumspectly in talent identification and development programmes. A range of relevant anthropometric and physiological factors can be considered which are subject to strong genetic influences (e.g. stature and maximal oxygen intake) or are largely environmentally determined and susceptible to training effects. Consequently, fitness profiling can generate a useful database against which talented groups may be compared. No single method allows for a representative assessment of a player's physical capabilities for soccer. Weconclude that anthropometric and physiological criteria do have a role as part of a holistic monitoring of talented young players.

Several talent identification and development (TID) programs in soccer have implemented diagnostics to measure players’ motor performance. Yet, there is a lack of research investigating the relationship between motor development in adolescence and future, adult performance. This longitudinal study analyzed the three-year development of highly talented young soccer players’ speed abilities and technical skills and examined the relevance of this development to their adult success. The current research sample consisted of N = 1,134 players born between 1993 and 1995 who were selected for the German Soccer Association’s TID program and participated in nationwide motor diagnostics (sprinting, agility, dribbling, ball control, shooting) four times between the Under 12 (U12) and Under 15 (U15) age class. Relative age (RA) was assessed for all players, and a total motor score was calculated based on performances in the individual tests. In order to investigate players’ future success, participants were divided into two groups according to their adult performance level (APL) in the 2014/2015 season: Elite (1st-5th German division; N = 145, 12.8%) and non-elite players (lower divisions; N = 989, 87.2%). Using multilevel regression analyses each motor performance was predicted by Time, Time2 (level-1 predictors), APL, and RA (level-2 covariates) with simultaneous consideration for interaction effects between the respective variables. Time and Time2 were significant predictors for each test performance. A predictive value for RA was confirmed for sprinting and the total motor score. A significant relationship between APL and the motor score as well as between APL and agility, dribbling, ball control, and shooting emerged. Interaction effects distinctly failed to reach significance. The study found a non-linear improvement in players’ performance for all considered motor performance factors over a three-year period from early to middle adolescence. While their predictive value for future success was confirmed by a significant relationship between APL and most of the considered factors, there was no significant interaction between APL and Time. These findings indicate that future elite players had already been better at the beginning of the TID program and maintained this high level throughout their promotion from U12 to U15.

Introduction World Cycling Centre (UCI-WCC) offers training and development, with three permanent groups in the Olympic disciplines of road, track and BMX, in order to leverage their sporting careers. Human, material, and financial resources could become limiting factors when performing talent identification (TID) programs. Consequently, we have designed a test, World Cycling Centre – Power Profile Test (WCC-PPT), which can provide coaches around the world with relevant information about the physical potential of their cyclists and an initial benchmark thanks to a simple but reliable protocol, might become an asset for the cycling industry (Gonzalez-Tablas et al., 2016). Power Profile Test (PPT) assesses a cyclist’s maximum capacity to produce power over durations that are strongly related to physiological capacities required to perform in specific cycling events (Quod et al. 2010; Novak et al. 2017).  Purpose: The aim of this study was to generate new references to help coaches identifying potential talented male-endurance cyclists around the world, creating groups per continent.  Methods A total of 469, international level endurance male cyclists from 89 countries of Africa, America, Asia, and Europe completed the WCC-PPT. The data used for analysis were collected over a 3-year period (2013-2016), at the UCI-WCC, its Satellite-Centers and its collaborators. WCC-PPT was performed on an air-braked cycle ergometer (WattBike Ltd, Nottingham, UK), that is consider to be reliable and validity for talent identification purposes (Bellinger & Minahan, 2014; Hopker et al., 2010), with the UCI-WCC standardized protocol (Gonzalez-Tablas et al., 2016).  Continuous variables are summarized by mean, 75th and 90th percentiles.  Results Anthropometrical characteristics and WCC-PPT results for male-endurance cyclists are presented in Table 1. Conclusion The WCC-PPT has been successful to create a large and reliable database, that will allow the cycling community to generate power outputs benchmarks to identify talented male-endurance cyclist all over the world.  It is important to continue working and increase the number of cyclists tested around the world to create relevant references per gender and age groups. Further research will be done to evaluate the reliability and validity of this test for TID purposes as well as to create new databases with more number of cyclists tested.

Considering the scarce empirical evidence regarding talent predictors in female youth soccer, the present study aimed to investigate the long-term prognostic validity of elite female soccer players’ adolescent motor performance for future success in adulthood. Additionally, the three-year development of highly talented girls’ motor performance and the predictive value of this motor development for reaching a professional adult performance level (APL) was analysed. Overall, N = 737 female players participated in nationwide motor diagnostics (sprinting, agility, dribbling, ball control, shooting) within the German Soccer Association’s talent identification and development programme at least twice between the age groups Under-12 (U12) and U15. Based on their APL at least four years later, participants were assigned to a professional (first German division, 6.2%) or non-professional group (lower divisions, 93.8%). Multilevel regression analyses revealed a general prognostic relevance for the investigated parameters with respect to players’ APL. In addition, there was a non-linear improvement in participants’ motor performance across all variables from U12 to U15. However, non-significant interactions between APL and these improvements indicate motor performance development itself cannot adequately predict players’ future success in adulthood. Findings provide insightful information that can help coaches foster optimal support for young female soccer players’ development.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether anthropometric, physical, psychological, and skill test results could be used to discriminate between male junior volleyball players of varying ability. A total of 66 elite and nonelite male Estonian volleyball players aged 16–17 years were measured for anthropometric and physical variables and sport-specific skills. In addition, the players’ provided self-reports of dispositional achievement goals, perceived sport competence and enjoyment and their game intelligence was measured. Selected youth players scored better than nonselected youth players on physical (explosive strength), technical (passing and spiking), and cognitive (game intelligence) characteristics and reported higher mastery-approach goals, perceived sport competence and enjoyment of sport. The most discriminating variables were game intelligence, mastery approach goals, perceived sport competence and passing technique. These results suggest the important role of multidimensional performance measures in selecting and developing young male volleyball players. Structured talent identification and development programs have been developed for several sports, in particular athletics, rowing, gymnastics, field hockey and soccer, where success has been related to anthropometric, physiological and motor skill attributes (3,25,34,46). According to Williams and Reilly (50), research should adopt a multidisciplinary approach to talent identification. Recently, Vaeyens et al. (46) suggested that when researchers will concentrate on a combination of anthropometric, physical, and physiological measures, their predictive value has proven problematic in the majority of team sports. For example, Gabbett and coworkers demonstrated that subjective coach evaluation of passing and serving technique, but not physiological and anthropometric data, discriminate between successful and unsuccessful talent-identified junior volleyball players (20). In addition, an increasing number of researchers have argued that potentially important psychological variables are often overlooked within talent identification models (1,34,46). Research suggests that successful elite athletes posses a range of psychological characteristics including the ability to cope with anxiety and obstacles, selfconfidence, competitiveness, intrinsic motivation, and the ability to set and achieve

Talent identification is a vital process of mapping out athletes with the potentiality to excel in the future sporting career. To ensure success in this process, appropriate skill test in tandem to the capability of the athlete level is required to avoid dropout and demotivation of the athletes. A variety of skateboarding tricks are available for testing and identification of potential skateboarders, however, many of such skills are hard to deliver properly particularly for amateurs. The present investigation is aimed at identifying the suitable skateboarding tricks that could be used for mapping out talent in amateur skateboarding. The most common skateboarding tricks that consisted of Ollie, Kickflip, Shove-it, Nollie and Frontside 180 were identified while an experienced amateur skateboarder executed each skill five times. A customized ORY skateboard integrated with IMU sensors were used to stream the data in real-time during the performance of the tricks. The average datasets from the acceleration and angular velocity of the x, y and z-axis were obtained and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to study the dimension of the related data tricks as well as to identify the important trick manoeuvres that could be suitable for the level of the athlete’s performance. The results revealed that the dataset contained two dimensions based on the Eigenvalue analysis of the PCA whilst Ollie and Nollie tricks were identified to be the most important tricks due to their higher factor loading (>0.80). It is therefore postulated that the Ollie and Nollie tricks could be used as a skill related test for the identification of talented amateur skateboarders. This may be invaluable to coaches and talent scouters in saving time, effort as well as manpower during the talent identification program in this sport.KeywordsSkateboardTalent identificationTrick manoeuvresSkill test

The management of football academies is a multifaceted process that involves different influential stakeholders. Coaches, as key stakeholders, contribute significantly to the overall success of a football academy. Recognizing coaches’ pivotal role in the developmental journey of young football players, the current study employed the systems approach to explore the management practices of football academies in Turkey, with a particular emphasis on the perspective of coaches. The primary objective was to comprehend the challenges and obstacles confronted by Turkish football academies in terms of management and their implications for the overall efficiency of the academies. Furthermore, the study aimed to delineate the fundamental requirements and necessary services encompassing the input, process, feedback, output, and environmental aspects of the football academy system. Fifteen head coaches of senior teams in the top two divisions in Turkey with previous coaching experience in football academies were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. The results were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings indicated that management should prioritise specialised coaching approaches tailored to football academies. Training young football players in academies requires coaches specifically trained for this purpose, as it is a distinct profession from those coaching senior teams. The study proposes a solid recommendation to improve coaching education programs, both in quantity and quality, addressing specific challenges in Turkish football academies. The article ultimately emphasises the importance of adopting a systems theory approach to achieve successful football academy management while accounting for environmental factors to achieve sustainable practices in Turkey's football academies.