TESTING FOR ATHLETIC SKILL: BUYER BEWARE

In talking with some parents at a football (American variety) recently, I heard that friends of theirs had a young son who reportedly tested "very high" for soccer skills and was being "offered" a position on a Traveling Team. Of course it would mean "paying" for additional special skill coaching to "catch up" with the high level of other team members and monthly dues for the club in addition to travel expenses, etc.

So, I thought I would use this post to present some hard, cold facts concerning Testing, Specialization before the ages of 16-17 and the advantages of multi-sport involvement and movement education during the ages of 5-15. 

There are  TWO articles below to read critically that pretty much compare and contrast Australian and Eastern European methods of Long Term Athlete Development. In addition, I encourage you to access the site below and read "Developing Physical Literacy"which is a guide to physical education in Canada.

 http://canadiansportforlife.ca/resources/developing-physical-literacy-guide-parents-children-ages-0-12

There are some things we here in the USA can learn from those countries in terms of not wasting athletic potential instead of just taking advantage of young athletes as "source of revenue".

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Nature, Nurture, and Window of Opportunity

Testing Youth for Athletic Ability    by Mike Goss

The design and implementation of tests for athletic ability have simple and complex implications. Chronological and biological age are factors. Sports participation and physical activity are components affecting the development of motor abilities. Track and Field places athletes “center stage.” Individual skills are paramount; “Faster, Higher, Stronger” is the central theme. Although a simple idea, discovery and development of talent is important as with other team and individual sports.

Relative Age Effect (RAE) plays a major role in developing young athletes.
RAE refers to the month one is born. Athletes with early birth dates tend to have an advantage. This factor typically leads to a larger, stronger, and faster athlete as compared to those born later in the year. There are exceptions, but the RAE is a proven developmental factor in progressing young athletes.¹
Studies in youth soccer and age group (Canadian) ice hockey have been documented to demonstrate the advantages of older athletes. Among these athletes (though in the same age group classification) there is often the following:

1. Higher levels of physical maturity
2. Higher levels of competition
3. More opportunities to play (starters versus substitutes)
4. Privilege to work with advanced coaches
5. Greater training programs (intensity, duration, skill sets)
6.  

The above factors create a snow ball effect; the older athletes, who often tend to be more mature, have a natural advantage leading toward advanced training and competition. A study of the birth dates within the NHL is similar to the youth hockey and soccer study. Much fewer athletes born from April – December, compared to those born early in the year, progress to high level youth teams. Soccer has a similar situation in its most talented organizations. The early birth date theory has been challenged. Yet, the training of older athletes has advantages not afforded many of their younger counterparts.²

COMPARING THE US WITH EASTERN EUROPE
The Cold War was not only a political cauldron of unrest and conflicting ideology.
Athletics were also forefront considering “What’s the best system for athletic supremacy?”
This might be an amusing topic to many, but the sociology of sport is closely tied to cultural and social systems, East and West. Following are points of consideration comparing the USA, Eastern Europe, and Australian sports programs.
The USA places a major emphasis in specialization of prepubescent and pubescent athletes

1. Intensified sport specific training (personal trainers and position/event coaches)

• pitching coaches, batting coaches, specific conditioning trainers
• sport camps (all age groups)
• Sports Medicine (chiropractic, movement analysis, orthopedic modalities)

2. Early identification for specific positions/events

• stereotyping an athlete based on height, weight, and early success at specific skills
• limiting the development of other skills (sprinters sprint, jumpers only jump)

Repercussions with specialization at early stages of training/age:

• higher rates of overuse injuries; elbows, knees, shoulders
• years of growth from prepubescence to pubescence may include significant changes in height, weight, and biomotor abilities
• a rise in ACL and elbow ligament tears requiring surgery

According to Fransen participants in several sports perform better than those who specialize, this includes skill testing. ex. standing long jump ³
BIOMOTOR ABILITIES

The USATF coaches education program centers much of it’s curriculum on the 5 basic biomotor abilities:

1. Strength
2. Endurance
3. Speed
4. Coordination
5. Flexibility ⁴

Many of the USA’s fitness tests, Presidential Youth Fitness Test and Fitness Gram, are available for evaluation. http://exrx.net
*Ex.Rx is a website with a wide variety of tests and scores

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN EUROPE
East European countries incorporate a multifaceted system. Participation in a variety of sports and fitness activities is encouraged; only 5-10% of the training is specific sports development.
Below are the (East European) findings regarding sports specialization:

1. Best performances at 15-16 yrs.
2. Inconsistent competition
3. Age of burnout at 18 yrs.
4. High rate of overuse injury

The multilateral program produced consistent performance:

1. The best sports performance was after age 18
2. Athletes more comfortable with the sport
3. Lower injury rate ⁵

AUSTRALIA’S TESTING FOR ATHLETIC ABILITY
Testing for athletics (12-29yrs. old), team and individual sports, involve similar evaluations:

1. Vertical jump ( standing and from 1-2 steps)
2. Sprinting (10 – 40 meters); objective depending upon test goals
3. Endurance

Below is a basic test for Athletics (track and field) from Australia:

1. Endurance – standing height, body mass, 1.6 km run
2. Jumps – standing height, body mass, standing long jump, vertical jump
3. Sprints – standing height, body mass, vertical jump, 60M sprint
4. Throws – standing height, body mass, vertical jump, 4-6K shot throw-between legs fwd. and overhead backwards.

The above test is available to 12 – 29 year olds (Australia). An interactive website provides a scoring grid. If the scores are above average, the athlete is encouraged to visit a Talent Assessment Center (TAC). Individuals are then targeted to 

specific programs and coaches. ⁶
SAMPLE – VERTICAL JUMP TESTING – PERCENTILE RANKS
13-14 yr. old boys - (inches) – 10-20% 12.3-13.8 in.
30-40% 15-16 in – 50% 17in. – 60-70% 18-19 in. – 80-90% 20-21 in. ⁷
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF SPORT – FITNESS TEST

1. Multistage shuttle run
2. 40 meter sprint
3. Lateral jump
4. Vertical jump
5. 5 meter shuttle run
6. Small ball throw
7. Basketball throw
8. Sit ups
9. Push up

The above test can be viewed at http://www.ais.org.au/talent

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Talent ID- The Australian Myth: Paula Jardine

Posted On Monday, 01st March 2010 by James Marshall

Physiology tests don't identify talent.
The idea that physical abilities tests can predict talent is now so pervasive that I’m beginning to lose track of the number of times I’m asked by athletes who’ve completed physiology tests what sports the tests suggest they’d be good at.

When I explain that the tests are intended to help them assess their own fitness and identify areas they can work on to improve their performance they’re often a little disappointed. If only it were so easy to identify future stars this way but despite the spin, the reality is that it certainly isn’t.
The Australians were the first to try to identify athletes this way an initiative that began with their rowing programme in 1988.  More than 20 years later the much talked about Talent Search programme has produced results that are far more modest than the hype suggests -- just over a half dozen female Olympic athletes and 3 Olympic medals which represents about 1 percent of Australia’s medal haul.

Even these results were dependent on a bit of luck as the first two Talent ID athletes to compete in an Olympic Games for Australia (rower Megan Still and cyclist Alayna Burns) were in fact almost not selected for their respective programmes. 

Learning from the Eastern Bloc

This type of Talent ID testing is widely thought to be a Westernised adaptation of the methods used in the Eastern Bloc to select elite athletes.
The Eastern Bloc didn’t rely on one off tests at all – they tracked athletes physical development over many years and were more interested in the trajectory that their training and results were taking.       (Excelsior ADC athletes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes).

What the tests generally do is deselect individuals who don’t fit an idealised model of what an athlete in a particular sport looks like. Had the height criteria been rigorously applied in the case of British Olympic rowing medallist Annie Vernon she would never have been selected.  Promoted as a Talent ID find Vernon had been active in the sport for over 3 years by the time she was identified and fast tracked. 

Most sports already have problems with selection bias at junior age group level skewing the talent pool as is evidenced by the relative age effect and the over representation of early maturing athletes in selective junior programmes.

As physical abilities tests are being used with increasing frequency in our schools to identify “the gifted and talented” with the intention of providing additional resources to support their development it is highly likely to compound the problem of selection bias as those administering the tests look at the numbers without taking age or biological maturity into consideration when making supposedly scientific assessments of someone’s innate abilities. 
Talent ID testing has a limited use as a gimmicky way to recruit athletes for some sports but there’s a real danger that as it becomes more pervasive it could have the unintended consequence of eroding rather than expanding the talent pool when those labelled gifted at an early age turn out not to be.  
Paula Jardine: South West Talent Manager, University of Bath.