Search

This literature review provides an overview of the various modern approaches in talent programs for the context of schools and sports reported in scientific journals (2009-2019) and presents their similarities and differences and options for cross-pollination between contexts. This is a first attempt to overarch contexts regarding talent identification and development. Searches in 12 databases yielded 31 studies. Similarities and differences between contexts were distilled through a qualitative content analysis and described for the identification of talent and talent development. Based on these results, it is suggested that school contexts might benefit from including a talent transfer pathway, differentiating for maturity-level and sex, emphasizing on deliberate practice, monitoring load-ability, and applying acceleration, which are proposed approaches in the sport context. Furthermore, several approaches from the school context could enhance talent programs in sport, including universal screening, paying attention to underserved populations, focusing on creativity and enrichment as well as enhancing the accountability and education level of trainers/coaches. Future studies need to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of approaches in practice. Moreover, the search could be expanded to other countries to establish a more global view while examining national patterns regarding policy and funding contexts in which programs are located.

Although relative age effects in sports have been studied worldwide, the underlying mechanisms are still under debate. This study adds to the existing knowledge by providing a further exploration of the within-year and between-year effects and their possible interaction in an individual skill/technique based sport: table tennis. Data of male and female elite players across ages (U15, U18, U21, and senior) were collected from the ranking lists in international (world and Europe) and national contexts (France and the Netherlands). A multi-way frequency analysis per subsample revealed (1) no interaction effects; (2) significant within-year and between-year effects for the U15 players in the international context and male French players; (3) a significant within-year effect in the French U18 category; (4) a significant within-year effect in female European U21; and (5) no within-year effects in the senior category. Table tennis seems to be at risk for within-year and between-year effects specifically within the context of high competitive level for younger players (U15, males, and females), but not for interactions between these effects. Future research should reveal the development of the RAEs over time in a longitudinal study, evaluate influencing constraints, and innovative prevention solutions in a more comprehensive way.

The relative age effect (RAE) has been demonstrated in many youth and professional sports. In this study, we hypothesized that there would also be a RAE among youth chess players who are typically involved in a complex cognitive task without significant physical requirements. While typical RAEs have been observed in adult chess players, in this paper we wanted to focus primarily on youth chess players. In addition, we also examined RAEs in both participation rates and performance levels in a national chess championship. Therefore, the RAE was examined in a complex cognitive task that has no significant physical requirements, more specifically among youth chess players. Data were analyzed (1) for all registered Belgian youth chess players over a 5-year period (2009-2013) and (2) for participants of the Belgian youth championship 2013. Results indicated an overall RAE among all Belgian youth chess players over the last 5 years. The likelihood of participation was significantly greater for players born in the first birth-date quartile (?[superscript 2] = 10.21, p < 0.05; r = -0.77, p < 0.01; w = 0.07) and the likelihood of participation decreased when youth chess players were born in the last quartile of the year. These effects were most prominent in the under-8 and under-10 year olds. There also appeared to be a performance-related RAE. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests (p < 0.05) showed that players born in the first months of the selection year were significantly more often in the top 10 players for each age level of the "Belgian" Youth Championship 2013.

In an effort to understand the process of skill acquisition and decline, researchers have largely neglected a critical aspect of this development--maximizing time at the highest levels of achievement. This study examined length of career for professional athletes in basketball, football, ice hockey, and baseball and considers whether career length differed by position and player performance (standardized career performance). Results revealed career length differences among positions in baseball and football but not basketball and ice hockey. In all sports, longer careers were associated with superior performance, reinforcing the notion that performance is a critical indicator of career length and suggesting positional demands influence career length. Results highlight the need for further work on this important stage of development. (Contains 2 tables, 4 figures, and 1 note.)

Relative Age Effects (RAEs), describing attainment inequalities as a result of interactions between biological age and age-grouping procedures, have been demonstrated across many sports contexts. This study examined whether an additional individual characteristic (i.e., handedness) mediated RAEs in tennis. Relative age and handedness distributions of 1027 male professional tennis players ranked in the year-end ATP Top 500 for 2000-2006 were analyzed. Relatively older players, born in the first two quartiles, were over-represented for right-handed players (86.56%), whereas no RAEs were found for left-handers (13.44%). Findings seem to suggest that left-handers in tennis gain advantages that circumvent the RAE problem. (Contains 1 note and 1 table.)

Ziegler and Phillipson make a strong case for the need to reconsider traditional models of gifted education. Although their evidence and argument are compelling, the reviewers argue that several additional steps are needed to justify the theoretical foundation of the theory in order to facilitate its evaluation by researchers. First, Ziegler and Phillipson argue that most intervention studies in the field of gifted education show small effects, if any at all. Moreover, they criticize the field for its lack of control-groups and not following appropriate study designs. However, they then proceed to reject traditional approaches to gifted education even though its relevance or appropriateness has not been adequately evaluated. Although the reviewers are not arguing for the validity of traditional models over a new system-based approach, it is too early to reject traditional models without evidence of their inadequacies. A related-issue relates to measuring success in gifted education settings. For researchers, the concept of effect sizes and probability statistics provide appropriate benchmarks for determining the efficacy of specific relationships; however, these concepts may not have as much relevance to those working in the front lines of gifted education. For example, how does one determine the value of a program in gifted education? What benchmark provides a reasonable criterion for determining whether a program works? Moreover, determining the rate of success for an individual student is also problematic. The reviewers contend that there are many different facets of performance that can be evaluated during the learning process and it is clear that some effects only manifest later in development, making them hard to measure. Moreover, the criteria that determine proficiency during early development are often quite different from those determining long-term success in a given field of giftedness.