Talent identification – are you doing this right?

Talent. We love this word. It sounds special. It means someone is superior. Parents love to hear that their kids are talented. Coach prefers to work with talented players. Is talent responsible for final success in the sport? Not exactly but it can definitely help the process.

When we look at different sports we can easily spot athletes who are at different level than the rest of the group. In tennis we can mention Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Serena Williams. In soccer we can’t forget about Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In basketball 2 players that immediately come to mind are Stephen Curry and LeBron James. All these guys have some hidden advantage that they use to win more often than other participants. We can call them talented for sure.

Before we jump to any conclusion, we have to understand what talent really is. This word means that one particular trait is at the level that is not accessible for others. For example someone who has talented physically can run faster than other runners even when they train in exactly the same way. Knowing that should we give up on tennis if we are not called „talented” by coaches and experts? Firstly definitely not. Secondly I can guarantee that you are talented for sure but maybe you don’t know where your strength is.

Body of a human being is a sophisticated machine. We have one individual brain that works only for our body. We have genes that make us really special. That is why armed with this knowledge we have to be sure that talent is somewhere there. Maybe we don’t know where it is or maybe we are not at the level yet to make it visible. Some players have talents that are visible from the first glance while others need time, proper amount of repetitions and specific environment to uncover own treasure. In my opinion it is impossible to not have a talent. Everyone has it!

Talented athletes can achieve great results but this trait can’t be the base. The base for good results in the future is always hard work. Without your best effort every day and motivation to get better even the most talented guy will never achieve the peak. Talent can help you at the end of the process – not at the beginning. That is why players should always place good effort and solid performance as a priority in daily activities. Saying that you lose because opponent was more talented is a good excuse for not giving your best effort day by day.

Associations around the world have own talent indentification programs focused on finding kids who can excel at given activity. Coaches also search for players who they can call „talented” to increase own chances for achieving great results. All these steps are good for both sides but unfortunately too many times we look at wrong factors. Let’s see what mistakes we mostly repeat:

Visible talent or no talent at all

Too many times we take a look at a player and expect immediate result. If player is not moving well, makes easy mistakes and doesn’t have good results on the tournaments we put him into the group that we don’t consider „talented”. That’s a big mistake. As I said before some talents need more time to be uncovered as also some talents can be visible only at a given time and in proper environment. Having this patient approach will allow you to constantly monitor players and look for this one factor that can be crucial in long-term development.

Talent vs More training hours

Another mistake is related to wrong perception. When we look at players who have better skills than others from the group we immediately associate talent with this picture. From time to time it can be a good judge but you have to be careful because it doesn’t have to be. Players can be superior because they have practised more or received more quality coaching.  Their better performance is not related to talent but to controllable factors that all players can include in own schedules. That is why getting more information than just observing atlhete is crucial to make proper decision according to talent’s identification.

Look for talent everywhere

Searching talents is not a simple process so coaches should be aware of that. Too many times coaches and other experts look at player’s movement and hitting skills and they make quick decision. Player is fast and have offensive groundstrokes – that’s pure talent. Player has weaker backhand and doesn’t run to every ball – no chance for any good results. This shortcut is not effective. Talent can be found in different areas. Let’s look at what is important in the whole athletic career. We can all agree that traits like dealing with losses, internal motivation, technical adaptation or ability to quickly correct mistakes and adjust own strategy are skills that we would love to see in our players. That is why to find talent that really matters we have to take a broader look and use more time to discover it.

Talent is important but it won’t win us a match. Talent has to be built on hard-work. If player doesn’t give best effort on all scheduled training sessions he will never achieve peak of own potential. On the other hand if player adds talent to gruelling practices he can be sure that he is on the right way to get to the top.

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