Talented Players Research Articles

Talent Identification in Youth Basketball: Talent Scouts’ Perceptions of the Key Attributes for Athlete Development

The objective of this study is to understand the attributes youth coaches and talent scouts perceive as important when identifying skilled youth basketball players. Youth coaches and talent scouts (n = 40) from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and United States with an average of 14.09 (±9.77) years of experience completed an online questionnaire. The questionnaire asked participants to rank and justify attributes for identifying potentially talented youth basketball players according to their perceived importance. In addition, five youth coaches and talent scouts completed a semistructured interview that elaborated on how they identify these attributes in national-level youth players. Results from the questionnaire indicate a hierarchy of attributes coaches/scouts perceive as important for youth basketball performance, including tactical (i.e., decision-making ability), technical (i.e., layup, shooting in the paint, jump shot, rebounding), and psychological attributes (i.e., composure, concentration, adaptability). In addition, the results from the interviews provided more detailed justification for the importance of these attributes within the talent identification process. It is believed talent scouts apply a holistic multidisciplinary approach to talent identification, with the current findings potentially providing evidence to suggest coaches/scouts consider a wide range of tactical, technical, psychological, and physical attributes when identifying youth players.

Maturity-Related Variations in Morphology, Body Composition, and Somatotype Features among Young Male Football Players.

The study aimed to investigate differences in anthropometry, body composition (BC), and somatotype in young football players of the same chronological age according to the maturity stage. Overall, 64 elite players (age: 14.28 ± 0.46 years) were evaluated for standing and sitting body height, girth measures, and BC using the bioelectric impedance scale and skinfold thickness. In total, two-thirds (73.44%, n = 47) of football players were classified as on-time maturers, 12.50% (n = 8) were early maturing, and 14.06% (n = 9) were late maturing. Standing and sitting height, leg length, fat-free mass, and muscle mass were significantly different (p < 0.001) across maturity groups. A significant decrease (p < 0.05) with maturity progression was seen for subscapular and suprailiac skinfolds along with a girth increase at all sites (p < 0.05). Early maturers were balanced ectomorphs, while on-time and late maturers featured mesomorph-ectomorph characteristics. The obtained results suggested that mature players have better BC presented as a lower fat percentage along with higher muscle mass, advantages in circumferences, and longitudinal dimensions of the body with highlighted mesomorph features. Maturity can have a substantial influence on body measures, thereby affecting sport-specific performance. Early maturers can use their anthropometric advantages and compensate for a lack of talent, consequently preventing even participation of physically undeveloped players in training. A better understanding of maturity, BC, and somatotypes can help in the selection of young talented players.

Talent concentration and competitive imbalance in European soccer.

While most of the available literature on competitive balance analyses its impact on ticket sales and TV audiences, less empirical research is available that examines the observable variation in competitive balance across leagues and over time. This paper studies the concentration of player talent and end-of-season league points to empirically assess whether leagues with a more equal distribution of player talent produce a more balanced competition than leagues with less equal distribution. The longitudinal data we use to estimate our empirical model comes from professional soccer leagues in twelve Western European countries from 2005/06 thru 2020/21, yielding 5,299 club-season observations. Our empirical analysis indicates that talent concentration in a league significantly and positively impacts points concentration in that league. However, in specifications controlling for year, country, and division, this impact is only weakly significant or insignificant, suggesting that talent concentration does not significantly affect competitive balance in that league. Additionally, our findings demonstrate that the relationship between talent and points concentration does not vary considerably across the European leagues or over time. Our results suggest that repeated participation in the UEFA Champions League, with its considerable monetary returns by (more or less) the same subset of teams, does not increase competitive imbalance in the respective national league. Thus, with relatively few additional regulatory interventions, the promotion and relegation system in the open European soccer leagues seems effective in ensuring a balanced competition.

A Review of the Essential Visual Skills Required for Field Hockey: Beyond 20-20 Optometry

Context: Field hockey is a very technical and tactical sport, requiring immense levels of visual concentration on moving and stationary targets, which can improve visual and team performance. However, in literature, this area of specialty remains underutilized, with most studies seeking to improve physical and physiological performance. Essential visual skills cannot only be attributed to field hockey but to other ball-playing sports and activities of daily living, which allow humans to coexist. The essential visual skills reduce the propensity of making poor decisions, ill preparations, and the exclusion of potent and capable players. Objectives: This review novelly aims to not only compile a comprehensive list of essential visual skills for field hockey players but also to create a starting point for future studies to add to this list, to aid in player talent identification, and eventually create sport-specific visual exercise programs and testing batteries. Discussion: The skills identified in this review preface a platform for human performance professionals to include in their training regimens, with an intent to maximize performance and talent identification and to aid in the formulation of visuospatial test batteries. Even though this list is comprehensive, this is only a starting point for future research to find more visual skills that are essential to field hockey, as well as provide the opportunity to develop the performance of the visual skills of these athletes in ways that have not been done before.

Technical skills in complex tennis situations: Dutch talented players U15 compared to players U17.

Technical skills in complex situations appear crucial for progress towards elite tennis performance. However, it is unknown how these skills develop in different age categories in a group of talented youth players. The aim of this study is to evaluate possible differences in technical skills among Dutch talented youth tennis players U15 compared to U17. A total of 19 players (12 males, 7 females; age 14.6 ± 1.4 years) were tested on ball speed, accuracy, percentage errors and spin rate using the on-court Dutch Technical-Tactical Tennis Test. With a ball machine, four games were simulated which were either fixed (game 1 and game 2) or variable (game 3 and game 4), depending on the complexity of the task. Each game consisted of two offensive, two neutral and two defensive rallies, representing different tactical situations. A two-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant interaction between the effects of age category and sex for ball speed (F(1,15) = 5.472, p = 0.034, η 2 = 0.267), indicating that males U17 produced higher ball speed compared to males U15, whereas no differences were found between females U15 and U17. A one-way ANCOVA showed that, regardless of sex, players U17 scored significantly higher on accuracy than players U15 (F(1,16) = 5.021, p = 0.040, η 2 = 0.239). No differences were found between players U15 and U17 for spin rate and percentage errors (p > .05), although there was a medium to large effect size for males U17 to produce higher spin rates compared to males U15. A closer examination of accuracy revealed that players U17 scored significantly higher compared to players U15 in game 4 (F(1,17) = 6.358, p = .022, η 2 = .272) and in defensive situations (F(1,17) = 9.602, p = .007, η 2 = .361). In conclusion, the results of the current study suggest that technical skills, especially ball speed for males and accuracy in complex situations for both males and females, continue to develop in adolescence in talented tennis players. There is an increased understanding about underlying technical skills that contribute to progress towards elite tennis performance. To effectively develop technical skills, coaches are encouraged to design specific practices where these skills are performed in complex situations under high cognitive and temporal pressure.

Psychological characteristics of developing excellence in talented female field hockey players

ABSTRACT Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence (PCDEs) are a range of psychological factors that play a key role in the realisation of potential. We examined PCDE profiles across a female national talent development field hockey programme in North America. Two-hundred-and-sixty-seven players completed the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire version 2 (PCDEQ-2) prior to the competitive season. One-hundred-and-fourteen players were classified as juniors (under-18) and 153 as seniors (over-18). Eighty-five players were classified as non-selected (not-selected to their age-group national team), and 182 as selected (selected to their age-group national team). A MANOVA showed multivariate differences based on age, selection status and their interaction, within this already homogenous sample, suggesting that sub-groups within this sample vary depending on their overall PCDE profiles. ANOVA showed differences in imagery and active preparation, perfectionist tendencies and clinical indicators between juniors and seniors. Furthermore, differences in imagery and active preparation, and perfectionist tendencies, were observed between selected and non-selected players. Subsequently, four individual cases were identified for further analysis based on their multivariate distance to the average PCDE profile. The use of the PCDEQ-2 at group- and particularly at individual-levels seems an important tool to support athletes as they navigate their development journey.

Analysis on UTR system in China by Communication, Psychological, and Sociological Factors

Tennis had a long history and was introduced to China about 130 years ago. However, the development of Chinese tennis wasn’t as fast as other sports introduced at the same time. The dominant reason for this problem is the weakness of the current tennis system and the tennis environment. In order to speed up the development in the Chinese tennis environment, the introduction of the UTR system would be the efficient way. The article will focus on the comparison between US tennis development and China tennis development from communication, psychological, and sociological factors. Our finding indicates that the introduction of the UTR system would lead to the increasing trend of tennis development in China, and more talented players succeed internationally.

Position-based anthropometric characteristics and general physiological performance of national level, U18 ice hockey players

Identifying talented players requires subjective, as well as objective assessments of playing ability and performance. The assessment of anthropometric characteristics, as well as general physiological performance can be used for player selection. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether positional profiling is possible for national level ice hockey players by examining anthropometric characteristics and physiological performance. The study involved two ice-hockey teams, U18 and U23, in total of 49 athletes (32 forwards and 17 defensemen), members of the “Székelyföldi” Ice Hockey Academy (SZJA). Data collection was conducted in May 2020, at the SZJAs Medical and Methodological Center. Body height was determined including barefoot height (± 0.1 cm) using a wall mounted stadiometer. Body weight was measured with a standard scale. A standard incremental maximal oxygen uptake test was conducted in the laboratory by means of open-circuit spirometry and computerized instrumentation (CPET Cosmed, Italy) following the Bruce protocol. With the use of the descriptive statistics, we found no differences at the anthropometric characteristics between forwards and defensemen. Regarding the physiological characteristics, some possible differences were found for maximal- and absolute oxygen uptake rate. While our results from descriptive statistics show no significant differences between the two studied ice hockey position, based on the Mann-Whitney U test, considering all parameter values, we found that there were significant differences between the two groups within this sample number.

EFEITOS DO EXERCÍCIO DE FLEXIBILIDADE DOS MEMBROS INFERIORES SOBRE A APTIDÃO FÍSICA DOS JOGADORES DE TÊNIS DE MESA

ABSTRACT Introduction: the main fitness requirements of table tennis players are highly automated motor skills and a strong body control ability; this combination is believed to benefit from flexibility exercises. Objective: Study the effects of lower limb flexibility training on physical fitness in table tennis players. Methods: The controlled experiment randomly divided 20 volunteers into two groups with no statistical differences between them. The control group continued using the existing table tennis teaching program, while the experimental group adopted the optimized lower limb flexibility training program. The course design was organized according to the physical education teacher's table tennis player talent training plan. Results: In the experimental group, the number of right body turns for throwing and blocking increased to 60.41 ± 4.67 times after the experiment; the number of right body turns increased to 64.045 ± 5.22; in the control group, the number of right push and blocks increased to 56.78 ± 3.67 times after the experiment. After the experiment, the number of fixed point swing speed of the whole station increased to 64.66 ± 3.95 (P&lt;0.05). Conclusion: Adding lower limb flexibility exercises to table tennis flexibility training has been shown to improve athletes’ static and dynamic flexibility, positively optimizing players’ fitness. Level of evidence II; Therapeutic studies - investigation of treatment outcomes.

Comparison of perspective passing performance in football games for persipura u-16 players pro academy elite league

Technical performance studies in professional football players need to be carried out intensely. The performance data from junior elite football was very useful for talent identification and further development. However, typical research is still rarely carried out, while previous research has focused on identifying talented players based on anthropometric, physiological, psychological, sociological and technical skills data. In this study, the assessment was no longer carried out from isolated situations but shifts to special assessments in real match situations, so that the results may contribute to talent identification. The purpose of this study was to assess the passing performance of elite junior football players in actual matches by comparing the performance of the Persipura U16 team in 2018 and 2019. The average value of passing, successful passing, and accuracy of passing in the 2018 season was 157, 101, and 66%, while the average value in the 2019 season was 167, 111, and 67%, respectively. Although the value increased slightly, however based on the calculation results there were no significant differences in the passing performance of the Persipura U-16 team in 2018 and 2019 league sessions. The results provide a recommendation that the practice session of passing techniques for junior football players, particularly Persipura U-16, should be carried out more in game situations and not in isolated situations.

Financial Health and Self-Sustainability of a Small European Football League: The Realities of Top-Flight Croatian Football

This study aims to evaluate the financial health of Croatian top division clubs, locate their primary source of funding, and assess their capacity for self-sustainability. To conclude the current financial condition and long-term (un)sustainability of Croatian club football, selected financial categories and ratios for HNL clubs from 2018 to 2021 were compared with UEFA benchmarks. The horizontal financial analysis results were presented in aggregate league- and individual club-level form and compared to other leagues, averages, and UEFA recommendations. The research revealed significant operating losses covered by net transfer income, unacceptable high wage-to-revenue ratios, and inferior operating margins. Financial stability should not be upheld only as a means to an end for UEFA licensing but for the long-term viability of every football club and the community in which it is embedded. A focus on long-term internal, organic development (i.e., investing in academies, infrastructure, technology, and human capital, as well as actively supporting young players in the first eleven) can yield an edge against more prosperous competition. Without it, top Croatian clubs will eventually realize that the stream of talented players will thin out and, with it, the golden vein that keeps them financially alive.

The Brazilian Football Player's Supernatural Talent Development: A Qualitative Study

Brazil has had a very big influence in football for years, with numerous players and coaches having secured playing and coaching contracts in leagues worldwide. Ironically, how Brazil has become so successful in producing so many supernaturally talented players has scarcely received scholarly attention. Therefore, the current study aimed to reach a deeper understanding of how supernaturally talented players often emerge from Brazil. Six coaches and 18 players from São Paolo second division league clubs, and four sports science experts from Universidade de São Paolo, were involved in this study. A qualitative study design was conducted where data were collected using an open-ended semi-structured in-depth interview, observations, and field notes during a three-month attachment program in São Paolo. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. As a result, seven core themes emerged: football culture, appreciation culture, futebol de várzea, Futebol de Salao (Futsal), small-sided game, winning mentality, and competition structure. Exchange programs involving coaches, players, sports coaching students and sports science experts should be seriously carried out between Brazil and developing countries in football.

Proposal for a U.S. College Basketball Player Recommendation System for the B-League

In the B-League, Japan professional basketball league, foreign players account for a large percentage of the scoring and are the core. Therefore, the strategy of scouting talented foreign players is essential for the teams. However, team managers can not survey all players because there are many foreign leagues and a huge number of players. Therefore, most of the scouting is done through agents, so intermediary costs are significant. We propose an efficient system to find players from the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) where many of the foreign players in the B-League came from. We focus on the following topics: (1) Classify the playing styles of B-League players using k-means. (2) Estimate NCAA players’ playing styles using the B-League players’ playing style classification model. (3) Estimate efficient lineups using regression. (4) Estimate players available for scouting on a B-League budget based on scoring and age distribution. (5) Simulation for Chiba Jets Funabashi, which is a B-League team. We verified the accuracy of those using play-by-play and boxscore data of B-League from 2015-16 to 2021-22 and NCAA from 2005-06 to 2021-22 seasons. As a result, although some issues have to be resolved, we demonstrated its potential to contribute to the efficiency of player scouting.

Intelligent Strategy of Internet of Things Computing in Badminton Sports Activities

One of the most popular sports in Asia is badminton. Asia has the most talented players in badminton. The players in the conventional badminton teaching are totally reliant on the coach and the fitness instructor. But in today’s technologically advanced world, the educational system has caught up with technology in intelligence. By using the smart technology, the gamers may train on their own. These technologies range from mobile scheduling apps to fitness apps. In this study, a unique intelligent K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm is used, and the outcomes are assessed. Additionally, all conversation is recorded and made available in the database using the Deep K-Nearest Neighbor (DKNN) method. This DKNN model will perform the analysis of neighbor points about the badminton sports activities for training the players with the utilization of Internet of Things (IoT). Results indicate that the suggested DKNN algorithm performed 89% accurately, which is 6.5 percent better than the current sport motion segmentation technique. People may be able to accomplish enough while introducing this method as a real-time application to prepare for subsequent sports and its computing techniques.

“Together, We Can Do This”: The Best Sport Teams Are Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts

Once upon a time, it was believed that the sport team with the best individual star players would be most likely to win all the trophies. Then one day, athletes, coaches, and sport fans, together with scientists (including sport psychologists), noticed that this did not always happen—so people began to doubt the idea. This was a concern because, for coaches to create great sport teams that can reach their potentials, the key ingredients for team success must be understood. Over time, there has been a shift from looking at the talent of individual star players to looking at teamwork. In this article, you will discover how the feeling of connection and relationship between players—their sense of togetherness—is the key ingredient in sport-team success. You will also learn some ideas for how to develop togetherness.

Talent Identification and Development in Male Futsal: A Systematic Review.

This review aimed to identify and synthesize the most significant literature addressing talent identification and development in futsal. A systematic review of Web of Science™ (all databases), Scopus, PubMed and SPORTDiscus databases was performed according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. This study included original articles in English, Spanish or Portuguese containing relevant data on talent development/identification of male futsal players. The search yielded 238 articles. After screening, a total of 32 manuscripts were fully reviewed. The quality of the data reviewed was generally good. Results indicate that the most successful players exhibit technical, tactical, anthropometric, physiological and psychological advantages and are distinguished from lower-level players based on their earlier dedication to training. This review highlights the need for those involved in the process of identifying and developing talented futsal players to consider the technical and tactical skills of futsal players, along with their anthropometric and physiological characteristics, scaled to age. Finally, special attention should be paid to the supportive psychosocial environments created in sports academies for developing futsal players. Overall, talent identification and development programmes in futsal need to be dynamic and offer the possibility of changing assessment parameters in the long term.

Optimal and suboptimal video instructions change movement execution in young talented basketball players

Observational learning is considered powerful to promote (implicit) motor learning. While it is a common tool in practice, little is known about the effects of video instructions on movement execution. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of watching biomechanically optimal (OPT) and suboptimal (SUBOPT) sidestep cutting (SSC) video instructions on movement execution. Ten male basketball players (age 15.5 ± 1.2 years, height 189.9 ± 3.1 cm, mass 75.4 ± 7.1 kg) from a Regional Talent Center performed anticipated 45° SSC tasks in baseline (BASE) followed by two counterbalanced experimental conditions. Subjects watched expert videos (matched by sex and height) of OPT and SUBOPT movement executions and were asked to imitate this to the best of their ability. Kine(ma)tic data was captured with 21 reflective markers and 2 force plates. After watching the videos, subjects displayed smaller ankle dorsiflexion angles ( p &lt; 0.001) and greater vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) ( p = 0.012) in SUBOPT compared to OPT condition during initial contact (IC). Greater knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion angles in the expert compared to subjects in the OPT condition were found ( p &lt; 0.001). Contrarily, subjects were able to imitate SUBOPT executions shown by the expert. This means that athletes worsen their movement execution when modelling a SUBOPT model. Coaches are advised to mainly use (1) OPT video instructions and (2) expert modelling with a relatively small gap in movement execution between the athlete and model.

The effect of compound training on some morphological measurements and explosive power of working muscles, and the level of achievement by javelin throwing

The importance of the research lies in showing the impact of the application of complex training to develop morphological measurements and the explosive power of working muscles and thus raise the level of achievement and contribute to the promotion of scientific applications more effectively and bypassing traditional methods and adding progress in the right direction for the development of javelin throwing for young people and attention to this segment as they constitute an essential future sports base. The problem arose with the question: Does compound training affect the explosive power and level of achievement by javelin throwing? The search aims to recognize the effect of compound training exercises in developing some morphological measurements, explosive power, and achievement level for javelin throwers. The researcher adopted the experimental method as it is compatible with the solution of the problem to be investigated. The intentional process chose the research sample. They are a group of talented school players, the junior class, by javelin throwing, and their number 6 players yen applied the training program to them. The conclusions were that the training program using compound training led to an improvement in the morphological measurements (arm and legs) for the research sample.

Profile and Differences in Anthropometric Data and Jumping Ability Performance between Elite and Amateur U16 Volleyball Players

Research purpose. The purpose of this study is to verify if there are significant differences between different anthropometric and jumping ability variables by testing two groups of elite and amateur volleyball players (under 16) after having submitted the two groups to the same training protocol performed 4 times a week for 4 months.&#x0D; Materials and methods. The study was carried out on 24 volleyball players divided into two groups. The following anthropometric and jumping ability parameters were assessed in all subjects: height, weight, body mass index, height with a stretched arm and height with two extended arms. The jumping ability measurement was carried out with the Vertec jump test.&#x0D; Results. The results of the anthropometric parameters showed significant differences between the two groups on all the variables considered: in height (p = 0.00), in weight (p = 0.00), in Vertec attack with a stretched arm, AH1 (p = 0.00) and in Vertec wall with two outstretched arms, AH2 (p = 0.01). The results of the jumping ability parameters showed significant differences between the two groups (elite and amateur): in Vertec Wall, VW (p = 0.00) and Vertec Attack with run-up, VA (p = 0.00); and a high correlation was shown for both the groups.&#x0D; Conclusions. Above all, in high-level youth volleyball, the anthropometric and jumping ability profile is directly linked to the evaluation; training and continuous monitoring of physical qualities and jumping ability become an important aspect for the control of performance and the possibility of selecting talented players.

Performance and organizational stressors in the junior-to-senior transition in football

Both elite sport and the road to elite sport performance could be described as stressful. The junior-to-senior transition has proven to be difficult for many talented football players because of the often non-normative nature of the transition. The aim of the current study was to investigate junior football players perception of performance and organizational stressors in the junior-to-transition. Ten players (5 junior-elite, 5 junior non-elite) were inter-viewed, and the data were thematically content analysed. The highlighted performance stressors were pressure to perform, and preparations related to performance issues. Among organizational stressors were increased level of performance and uncertainty of outcome related to environmental issues. Difficulties related to dual career and prioritizing football before friends were related to personal issues, lack of coaching were leadership issues, and maladaptive communication were related to team issues. The overall findings in one of few studies on junior players in football indicate access to performance arenas, while lack a social affiliation to the senior team players and lack of feedback from the senior team coaches and lack a mastery arena including social support. The results from this would highlight the importance of adjusting stressors for players in the junior-to-senior transition in football.