Nurturing future talent

The growing prominence attached to professional sport has seen coaches and athletes searching for ways to keep ahead of the pack.

Advances in sports medicine and training techniques mean gifted athletes are nurtured earlier and this has led to the proliferation of talent-identification initiatives.

But what exactly is talent identification? Talent identification is defined as the process by which children are encouraged to participate in the sport in which they are most likely to succeed. This can either be children who are currently not involved in a certain sport, or recognising participants with the potential to become elite athletes.

This is obviously not an exact science, so the first step would be to get some sort of testing procedure to gauge the physical potential of the talented youngsters. The testing and evaluation criteria will differ according to the various sporting disciplines. For instance, gymnastics coaches will start searching for promising athletes at a younger age than would be the case with team sports such as cricket. The qualities they look for also vary.

Research has also found that talent identification in team sports is harder than in individual disciplines. This can be a result of a number of factors, including the ability of the team to act as a unit and the coaching methods used. Skills such as speed, balance, focus, agility and power are fundamental to all sporting codes, but the specific requirements will be different for each discipline.

While there are varied criteria for admission to these development programmes, one thing that most experts agree on is that the intensive training programmes should not be started too early.

Dr Yogo Coopoo of the Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at Wits University warns that starting intensive training at too young an age could be detrimental to the physical development of athletes.

“Ideally we look to start testing and identifying talent at about 12 or 13, depending on the sporting discipline involved,” he says. “Although you are able to test a child at the age of five, it’s nearly impossible to predict how that child will develop as he or she grows older.”

Once talent is identified, this needs to be followed by placing the athlete into a programme that will hone his skills and provide him with an environment conducive to realising his predicted potential.

The Sports Academy at the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre is one of the key players in this area and has even established a school for learners from grades 7 to 12.

TuksSport Combined School is an independent co-ed school and shares the High Performance Centre’s vision of offering a unique sporting and learning environment to its learners. This specialised school allows current and potential high-performance athletes to train and travel internationally, while still finding the time for their school work.

Rocco Meiring of the academy says that while the learners at the school might all be exceptionally gifted athletes, their academic progress is of equal importance.

“The learners have to be accepted into both the academic and sporting programmes if they want to attend the school,” he says.

“We want them to have access to the best facilities, but it’s important that they don’t neglect their academic progress.”

In the four years of its operation the academy has had enormous success. With specialist programmes in a number of sporting disciplines, the academy has produced several professional athletes in a relatively short time.

Meiring, who is also the director of coaching for SwimSA, is particularly proud of the successes of the academy’s swimming division. Several former learners have gone on to represent South Africa at the highest level, with one, Suzaan van Biljon, set to take part in the Beijing Olympics.

So where can teachers and athletes go for help?

While the UP Sports Academy seems to be at the forefront of talent identification and development in the country, there are several other similar programmes around the country. Most tertiary institutions, particularly universities, have extensive sporting programmes that cater for talent identification. Sporting federations around the country also have their own initiatives aimed at grooming promising sports stars.

The easiest option would be to contact one of the centres and arrange for a test.

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