Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Chasing the sporting dream
The 2019 Rugby Union World Cup is underway in Japan, with 20 nations competing to lift the Webb Ellis trophy.
For those taking part, it’s the pinnacle of their career. And for youngsters looking on, it would be a dream to represent their country in the sport’s biggest competition.
Many fans will sit back and enjoy the scintillating action, the physical confrontations and the make and break decisions alongside the blood, sweat and tears.
And they may wonder how did each of the 31 squad players end up representing their country? When did their journey start? What opportunities and challenges did they face along the way?
These may be key questions asked by coaching and sport science researchers. They are certainly some that I have explored over the last decade within my own work.
Luckily enough, I’ll be providing some of the evidence in my upcoming professorial lecture at Leeds Beckett University on Wednesday 9 October, titled ‘Chasing the Sporting Dream’: Looking for Universal Solutions in Identifying and Developing Healthy and High Performing Athletes.
A key component of my lecture and the journey of these international rugby players is the idea of talent.
The financial and commercial rewards of winning competitions such as the Rugby World Cup means professional sporting organisations invest considerable resources into identifying and developing talent. This is now referred to as a Talent Identification and Development System.
Talent identification is defined as ‘the process of recognising participants with the potential to excel in a particular sport’.
And talent development is ‘providing the most suitable learning environment for athletes to realise their potential and accelerate their development’.
Therefore, the process involves providing higher quality opportunities including better coaching and enhanced training and competition to those identified as talented.
However, this is certainly not a straightforward process because this talent identification usually occurs during adolescence (or the teenage years). During this time, young athletes vary considerably in their physical, psychological and social development, which impacts upon whether they are identified as ‘talented’. This provides challenges for coaches, practitioners and researchers to solve.
Three key challenges within talent identification and development for everyone to be aware of are:
- What is talent? Talent is complex. It consists of a multitude of characteristics: Physical. Psychological. Technical. Tactical. Affected by the Environment. Affected by Training. There is no easy answer and although many have an opinion, the evidence is actually limited. The question is how do we distinguish between potential and current performance?
- Talent identification occurs within annual age groups (eg under 14s) during the key period of maturation. Research shows older, bigger and earlier maturing youth players are identified within sport, especially rugby. However, such advantages at early ages may not actually be markers of success in the long run.
- Are talent identification and development systems healthy? Being part of a talent system results in large time commitments to training. Ultimately, only a limited number of players make it. Therefore, talent systems have been questioned whether they are healthy with a range of positive (eg improved health) and negative (eg injury) health outcomes associated with such programmes.
Therefore, when watching the Rugby World Cup, admire the performance of these talented individuals playing at the top of their game. Achieving their dreams.
But also think about the millions of children around the world chasing their own dreams.
Do we have an appropriate and healthy system to provide each of them with an equal chance?
My belief is that we should now apply talent development principles to everyone for as long as possible to maximise participation in sport and increase the chances of success and health in the long-term.
You can watch Professor Kevin Till’s professorial inaugural presentation here: