Last week on this column, Ken Anigweje wrote on the determinants of performance in sports. Talent, technique, tactics, physical conditioning and psychological conditioning were mentioned as some of these determinants. This week, he goes on to look at the scientific basis of each of these factors; enjoy his piece.
Building a top performing adult athlete is similar to building a house. To build a house, a design is proposed, drawings are made for structures and all; and finally, the construction of the building is undertaken. For an athlete, the first step is Talent Identification which is followed by a long term strategic plan for the development of identified talent. Talent development, if properly handled, results in the acquisition of the skills necessary for the performance of the relevant sport. Talent identification and development require a multidisciplinary structure which involves parents, teachers, coaches, medical personnel and nutritionists; each working independently or sometimes collectively to achieve the desired goal. In addition, for this goal to be achieved, a conducive environment is very important, with the required facilities and equipment.
How is talent identified?
In the preceding article, we learnt that individuals are born with certain inherited abilities known as biomotor abilities. These abilities include strength, speed, endurance, balance and flexibility. The biomotor ability that is dominant in any individual is the one that determines which sport the individual is suitable for. For instance, if speed is the dominant ability, the individual is best suited for sprinting. If endurance is the dominant ability, then the individual is best suited for long distance running. At times, a combination of biomotor abilities is required for a given sport. For example, strength, speed and endurance are important for wrestling; and strength, speed and endurance, for football.
Ideally, talent is identified in the early years of life usually at primary school level. The process of identifying talent is carried out by physical education teachers. In the developed economies of the world, pupils are assessed annually as part of their school health programme. These assessments are combined into a battery of tests. With these tests, new, undeveloped talents can be identified even when that child has never been coached. Since almost all sports involve running, jumping, throwing and hitting, talent identification tests are developed to uncover these capabilities. Talent identification tests are best carried out on athletes who have never participated in sports. Assessments are made for strength, endurance, balance and flexibility among others. When the physical, mental and physiological attributes of these children are evaluated, potentials in such children can be identified. These potentials are then guided into sports that suit these attributes. Typically, a potential tennis player is a few months younger than the mean for his age group, slimmer and faster than the average for his mates and does not show early signs of stunted growth.
Cycling requires an excellent height: body weight ratio and lower body strength. High jumping requires a good height, appropriate height: weight ratio and an excellent vertical jumping ability. Vertical jumping ability is determined by lower leg strength.
A potential swimmer can be identified from an excellent height: body weight ratio, a large arm span length, and hands and feet that are larger than the average for the child’s age. In this country, there have been suggestions that persons of Niger Delta descent should be encouraged to take up swimming as a sport. However, this suggestion does not consider that the great swimmers of America, Australia and South Africa never swam in their shark-infested waters. The story of Ye Shiwen is very familiar. She was the 16 year old Chinese swimmer who won gold medals at the London Olympics in 2012. Her swimming career started at the age of 6 years when her teacher at kindergarten noticed her large hands and feet. The teacher quickly brought her to the notice of sports officials in her home city. Before then she had had no contact with a river or a swimming pool.
More invasive tests are available such as muscle fibre testing, which is used to determine how much fast- twitch or slow- twitch skeletal muscle fibres the individual possesses. The relative composition of these muscle fibres are then used to determine the sports that are appropriate for the child. Many other laboratory tests are available but are too expensive for a primary school setting. At present in Nigeria, children are not guided towards the sports in which they have the endowment for. Rather, children choose their sports based on identified heroes, role models or through peer influence, even when such children do not possess the natural abilities for those sports. I have seen chubby adolescents participating in Gymnastics at national level in this country.
Talent identification tests should be carried out on a large number of children because it has been established that 70% of children lose interest in physical activities after the age of 12years. The remaining 30% can then be developed from age 13 onwards in their selected sports. Although sociologists have questioned the participation of children in organized sports programmes, it is not out of place to develop innate attributes in identified children. This will enable them take advantage of the developmental milestones that accompany growth. Studies have shown that cognitive abilities such as the study of languages and motor activities such as dancing are more easily learned by children.
Talent identification is a very important process and should never be confused with talent selection. In talent selection, a child who has been exposed or coached in a particular sport will always perform better than one who has never been coached. Talent selection is a very simple task of identifying current ability by observing performance, whereas talent identification is a prediction of future performance based on the evaluation of biomotor abilities.
It is commonly heard in Nigeria that NwankwoKanu was discovered by Coach X. Y. or that Mary Onyali was discovered by Mr A. B. The question of how an athlete is ‘discovered’ has never fully been answered. A coach will rather tell you that he ‘discovered’ athlete X at one primary or secondary school inter-house sports competition or the other. This is athlete selection rather than identification because no identification tests were conducted on these athletes.
It is a worrying observation that in several age grade sports competitions, Nigerian athletes are always victorious. Our performance at adult elite levels however, has shown no correlation with the results at age grade levels. The reason is that teams are assembled based on talent selection at events such as YSFON, NSSF and other such youth competitions where the stronger, faster and more skillful athletes are selected. It is not unusual to observe that outstanding youth athletes in Nigeria hardly excel at senior levels. This state of affairs can be avoided in future if more attention is paid to identification of true talent.
. Professor Ken Anugweje, is a professor of Sports Science and Medicine, University of Port Harcourt
• Till Next week, keep attacking.