Colleges Talent development in sport
College 1 - Introduction Maandag 31 augustus 2020
Objective minor sport science
Give students insight into the multidisciplinary study of sport science.
- A unique multidisciplinary minor
- Unites several faculties
- Unites students with a range of different backgrounds, but the same interest
- Small groups for interesting discussions and personal attention
- Different themes
Talent development in sport
Main question is: how do we get from young little athletes to adult athlete at athlete level?
Black box inbetween that we try to understand. We often see the people who make it. Not the
people who almost made it, but are not standing at the olympics. We have to look at both and
try to find differences.
We use this model. It concerns research that is longitudinal and multidimensional (different
characteristics are considered). If your task is to score with basketball, other aspects are also
important. The interaction between the task, individual and environment determine the
performance of an athlete.
Environment: It can be beneficial to train with peers like you, but if there is a harsh selection
it gives more stress.
Low succes rate
- Elite sport is exclusive -> therefore low succes rate.
Only a few will reach this level of performance.
- Talent development – a long term process
• Many intervening factors
▪ Primary influences -> direct influence
▪ Secondary influences -> buffer the effect on performance
Cultural sport. Soccer is more popular in NL. Not direct factor on development of sport.
,The story of Sanne Wevers
Dutch gymnastic.
- Definition of talented athlete?
‘A talented athlete is someone who performs better than peers during training and competition
AND has the potential to become an elite athlete in the future’ (Howe, 1998)
Especially the second part is important. It is not only being the best at your childhood team,
but also when you’re an adult. Sanne Wevers was never the best during her youth. But she
worked very hard.
“We have gone through a lot; I didn’t do this on my own, this gold is for the whole family”
Environment is important. Sanne’s situation is unique in this aspect, her whole family is
involved.
- Self regulation
A self-regulated athlete is someone who is metacognitive, motivationally, and behaviorally
active in his/her own learning process.
Self-regulation can distinguish athletes from sub-athletes.
Overall objective Talent development in sport
After the course the student is able to discuss different concepts, theories and approaches
related to talent identificatoin and talent development in sports from a scientific point of view
and translate this knowledge to a sports context.
Exam
- Literature
• Book ‘Talent identification and development in sport, international perspectives’,
Joseph Baker
• Lecture slides
• Additional papers from lectures
- Exam: 80% of total grade
- Probably online multiple choice exam – more info follows soon
- The grades on both the exam and the written assignment need to be at least 5,5 to
successfully complete this course.
,College 2 How to study talent? Woensdag 2 september 2020
Learning goal
After the 2nd lecture the student can argue how talent can be studied in terms of:
- The definition (how do we define talent)
- Different models
- Study designs
What is talent?
- A natural ability; skill; genes: ‘nature’
- Influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience
and learning on an individual: ‘nurture’
Nature vs. nurture; lecture 3
‘I don’t have a special talent, I’m just curious’ – Albert Einstein
‘Most important in the development of talent to world class level is passion’ – Pieter van den
Hoogenband
They’re talking about motivation
‘Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education
without natural ability’ – Cicero
Natural ability = nature part. Education = nurture part. He says that there is more glory and
virtue attained to nature part and not to the nurture part. If you can do something without
working hard this is more glorified .
‘You can’t say: this man has talent but he is lazy. No, he doesn’t have talent because he is
lazy’ – Harry Mulisch
He argues the opposite, if you’re talented, but don’t practice you can’t speak of talent.
Talent: (someone who has) a natural ability to be good at something, especially without being
taught – Dictionary
Is talent a natural gift? Do something without practice. Or is practice important to develop
talent?
Definition of talent
- Personal reference: comparison within a child (comparison of points within time)
- External reference: comparison between children
“A talented youth athlete is an athlete who performs better than peers during training and
competition
AND has the potential to become an elite athlete in the future.”
Be good right now and have potential to improve in the future.
Study Schwann et al. (2015)
What is an elite athlete? Best of their group.
8 broad categories. Debate on what talent is. They came up with classification of eliteness.
From child to expert performer
What happens in the black box?
, Model Vaeyens et al. 2008
Different stages/processes that play crucial role. Lot of factors influencing talent and lot of
time goes by.
Detection: discovery of potential performance when they are not in the sport. Once they are
detected they are involved in the sport. They go into the model with the other factors.
Identification: talent needs to be identified. Proces of recognizing the potential to achieve
excellent in this specific sport.
Development: talent needs to develop. Provide most appropriate environment to develop.
Selection: choosing the most appropriate athlete to complete the specific task.
Confirmation: if someone is picked and it goes wel, it reassures this person has talent.
Each process influences eachother. If you’re not picked, there is no way to confirm you’re a
talent.
Model Ericsson, 2003; Janelle en Hillman, 2003
It shows that only few of the athletes marked as talents, achieve the excellence performance.
On the left large number of participant staking part of club level. Further to the right less and
less people remain. As level of performance increases level of number decreases.
Ericcson: expert performance is generally because people practiced more to get to this level.
More a matter of correlation than of causation. Elite players put in a lot of hours of practice.
College 1 - Introduction Maandag 31 augustus 2020
Objective minor sport science
Give students insight into the multidisciplinary study of sport science.
- A unique multidisciplinary minor
- Unites several faculties
- Unites students with a range of different backgrounds, but the same interest
- Small groups for interesting discussions and personal attention
- Different themes
Talent development in sport
Main question is: how do we get from young little athletes to adult athlete at athlete level?
Black box inbetween that we try to understand. We often see the people who make it. Not the
people who almost made it, but are not standing at the olympics. We have to look at both and
try to find differences.
We use this model. It concerns research that is longitudinal and multidimensional (different
characteristics are considered). If your task is to score with basketball, other aspects are also
important. The interaction between the task, individual and environment determine the
performance of an athlete.
Environment: It can be beneficial to train with peers like you, but if there is a harsh selection
it gives more stress.
Low succes rate
- Elite sport is exclusive -> therefore low succes rate.
Only a few will reach this level of performance.
- Talent development – a long term process
• Many intervening factors
▪ Primary influences -> direct influence
▪ Secondary influences -> buffer the effect on performance
Cultural sport. Soccer is more popular in NL. Not direct factor on development of sport.
,The story of Sanne Wevers
Dutch gymnastic.
- Definition of talented athlete?
‘A talented athlete is someone who performs better than peers during training and competition
AND has the potential to become an elite athlete in the future’ (Howe, 1998)
Especially the second part is important. It is not only being the best at your childhood team,
but also when you’re an adult. Sanne Wevers was never the best during her youth. But she
worked very hard.
“We have gone through a lot; I didn’t do this on my own, this gold is for the whole family”
Environment is important. Sanne’s situation is unique in this aspect, her whole family is
involved.
- Self regulation
A self-regulated athlete is someone who is metacognitive, motivationally, and behaviorally
active in his/her own learning process.
Self-regulation can distinguish athletes from sub-athletes.
Overall objective Talent development in sport
After the course the student is able to discuss different concepts, theories and approaches
related to talent identificatoin and talent development in sports from a scientific point of view
and translate this knowledge to a sports context.
Exam
- Literature
• Book ‘Talent identification and development in sport, international perspectives’,
Joseph Baker
• Lecture slides
• Additional papers from lectures
- Exam: 80% of total grade
- Probably online multiple choice exam – more info follows soon
- The grades on both the exam and the written assignment need to be at least 5,5 to
successfully complete this course.
,College 2 How to study talent? Woensdag 2 september 2020
Learning goal
After the 2nd lecture the student can argue how talent can be studied in terms of:
- The definition (how do we define talent)
- Different models
- Study designs
What is talent?
- A natural ability; skill; genes: ‘nature’
- Influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience
and learning on an individual: ‘nurture’
Nature vs. nurture; lecture 3
‘I don’t have a special talent, I’m just curious’ – Albert Einstein
‘Most important in the development of talent to world class level is passion’ – Pieter van den
Hoogenband
They’re talking about motivation
‘Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education
without natural ability’ – Cicero
Natural ability = nature part. Education = nurture part. He says that there is more glory and
virtue attained to nature part and not to the nurture part. If you can do something without
working hard this is more glorified .
‘You can’t say: this man has talent but he is lazy. No, he doesn’t have talent because he is
lazy’ – Harry Mulisch
He argues the opposite, if you’re talented, but don’t practice you can’t speak of talent.
Talent: (someone who has) a natural ability to be good at something, especially without being
taught – Dictionary
Is talent a natural gift? Do something without practice. Or is practice important to develop
talent?
Definition of talent
- Personal reference: comparison within a child (comparison of points within time)
- External reference: comparison between children
“A talented youth athlete is an athlete who performs better than peers during training and
competition
AND has the potential to become an elite athlete in the future.”
Be good right now and have potential to improve in the future.
Study Schwann et al. (2015)
What is an elite athlete? Best of their group.
8 broad categories. Debate on what talent is. They came up with classification of eliteness.
From child to expert performer
What happens in the black box?
, Model Vaeyens et al. 2008
Different stages/processes that play crucial role. Lot of factors influencing talent and lot of
time goes by.
Detection: discovery of potential performance when they are not in the sport. Once they are
detected they are involved in the sport. They go into the model with the other factors.
Identification: talent needs to be identified. Proces of recognizing the potential to achieve
excellent in this specific sport.
Development: talent needs to develop. Provide most appropriate environment to develop.
Selection: choosing the most appropriate athlete to complete the specific task.
Confirmation: if someone is picked and it goes wel, it reassures this person has talent.
Each process influences eachother. If you’re not picked, there is no way to confirm you’re a
talent.
Model Ericsson, 2003; Janelle en Hillman, 2003
It shows that only few of the athletes marked as talents, achieve the excellence performance.
On the left large number of participant staking part of club level. Further to the right less and
less people remain. As level of performance increases level of number decreases.
Ericcson: expert performance is generally because people practiced more to get to this level.
More a matter of correlation than of causation. Elite players put in a lot of hours of practice.
