Sport Talent Identification And Development: A Practical Step To Identifying And Nurturing Budding Athletes To Stardom In Nigeria

Abstract

Sport talent identification and development have become increasingly relevant in sports performance specially in the last 20 years. Discovering recruiting and retaining talent is a global challenge and it is especially relevant for sports clubs and national federations that often see potential assets escape due to self-system inefficiencies. Everyone has ability, but it is not distributed equally or predictably. Hence there are opportunities to develop physically, emotionally and socially an to discover hidden talents, learn about oneself and develop a new sense of competence and self-worth. Often times, ability is a gift from birth but that doesn’t guarantee success and from a more contemporary perspective, sport talent identification is seen as a process by with children are encouraged to participate in sports in which they are more likely to succeed, based on results of testing parameters. Going beyond the identification of talent, it is proposed that scientific perspective on the pursuit of excellence in sport be broken down into 4 key stages: Detection, selection, identification and development. However, this study suggested that for each sport that required a talent identification program, there need to be an ideal and acceptable model for both the factors that influence sporting performance and talent identification so that athletes and coaches can compare their own abilities with those athletes that resemble or are closer to the model being selected for elite junior programs. These ideal models can be formulated by taking measurement of elite athlete performances at events such as Olympic Gaince, world identification and development are germ are to athletes’ development and sustainability. The study therefore suggested amongst others that the government should formulate programmes for identifying sports persons with potential to become elite as this will help improve sport performance in both national and international sporting competitions.