Identifying the sports talent in Basketball
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/jump.n12.9483Keywords:
talent, adaptability, trainability, acquired, detection, identification, gift, cognition, executive functionsAbstract
National federations and sports clubs invest many resources in trying to identify those athletes who are considered to have a special gift for achieving excellence in the future. This objective has been consolidated based on the belief that better development will accompany talent identification. Unfortunately, the identification systems have failed due to a misinterpretation of the actual concept of talent. Better performance of players in the early stages of the sports training process does not correlate with high performance in adulthood. This paper defends two postulates. On the one hand, there is a need to consider adaptability to training and situational factors as one of the elements that make up talent and executive functions as moderators of this ability to develop the maximum potential of the player and reach the highest levels of future performance. On the other hand, given the poor predictive value of the current systems and the harm generated for those who are not selected, we defend the need to modify the interest in identifying the privileged to focus on a talent development model that offers equal opportunities and access to the necessary training experiences and resources to all basketball players, regardless of their chronological age or degree of maturity.
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