Talent Identification consists of discovering young athletes whilst they are at an early age, with the aim of putting them into a performance pathway programme and developing their skills to the highest level. Many sports take part in talent ID with private teams spending millions of pounds on their academies and systems to ensure that they find and produce the top talent for their respective sport.
Talent ID is implemented from an early age in an athlete’s development, due to clubs aiming to maximise the full potential of these children from the earliest point. The clubs are willing to invest all of this money because they are aware that with these talented individuals, their coaches are able to develop their skills to the highest standard. This then gives them the option of either playing them (in the hope that they will bring the club success) or selling them on and generating huge amounts of money.
Whilst this sounds profitable and worthwhile, there are those who have their reservations regarding scouting such young children. There are question marks as to whether coaches are actually able to identify talented individuals at the age of five, due to the fact that at this age it is highly unlikely that they will see any legitimate skill, or whether they are just taking more on an educated guess and risk. Along with this and the environment that these children are brought up in there is the potential for them to become desensitised from reality and this could affect their mentality on the game and sport.
With it estimated that just 0.5% of the under 9’s academy players in English Football’s elite clubs make it to their club’s first team (BBC sport, 2015) it begs the question as to whether the identification system is really good enough to justify the money spent on Talent Identification?
Jack - Sport and Exercise Science 