Talent identification: Pathway to success

Lazarus Sauti

Many children dream and strive to attain excellence in sports. Some of them are from disadvantaged families and societies; some lack training resources and most of them need exposure.

Therefore, for most of these children to attain superiority and fitness in sports, they need to be identified early and get exposure to showcase their God-given talents.

For this to happen, effective talent identification programmes are needed.

Although talent identification and development programmes have gained popularity in the world, in Africa there remains a lack of harmony in relation to how talent should be identified.

Consequently, it should be mandatory for sports clubs to have their own sports academies. Sports academies should be institutions that discover raw talent and exposes it to highly competitive sports.

Collins Dhuwa – a product of Aces Youth Soccer Academy says talent identification is critical to identifying children who have the potential to shine in their different sports and educational endeavours.  

He said: “Talent identification in sports is a course of action of recognising talented children who have the potential to become elite players if they are developed properly.

“It entails predicting performance by measuring physical, physiological, psychological, and sociological attributes as well as technical abilities of children from a tender age”

Dhuwa added, “I benefited from this talent identification programme. It helped me to escape from drugs and other illicit behaviours.”

The earlier talented players are recognised the more time they have to prepare in quality facilities.

Most, if not all of these quality facilities are manned by first-class coaches.

Former national team midfielder Gift Kamuriwo says talent identification is a noble idea but specialist coaches in talent identification are needed.

He said: “Identifying talent is a noble idea but not all coaches can identify talent. Therefore, specialist coaches are required to identify and nurture talent. Specialist coaches not only help in identifying talented children but they find the right place for them within the team. They also discover personal growth challenges and offer practical solutions.”   

Not only does talent identification increases players’ chances of becoming successful sports personalities in the future and great assets to their different clubs, but it also makes them more trainable in the future.

Kamuriwo said, “Talent identification helps sports clubs to reinforce a system that makes players more trainable in the future. It also provides talented children with ongoing opportunities and a dynamic growth path”

To make talent identification an effective programme, there are characteristics that are critical to the evaluation of individual techniques.

The distinctiveness that is crucial to the assessment of individual performances is decision making, anticipation, and perceptual skill.

Kamuriwo said: “In soccer, the first aspect of talent detection is decision making. This is the process of thinking about a certain action, such as dribbling, passing, or shooting and then executing.

“The second factor of talent identification is psychological profiling, which is utilised to recognise and analyse the personality characteristics that facilitate learning, training, and competition.”

Although talent identification is an integral component and the initial step in the production of an elite soccer player, the player's development - the opportunity for a player to be provided with a suitable learning environment in which they are able to realise their potential - plays an even more crucial part.

Sports academies should produce not only sports personalities but children who can excel in academics as well.

Caps United forward Dhuwa said: “Aces Youth Soccer Academy pays my fees and provided me with life opportunities.

“Aces also provided me with a room to expose my talent to the world. The exposure changed my life for good.”

Meanwhile, sports federations should protect sports academies from ‘vultures’ – unscrupulous player agents who come behind their backs trying to snatch players from academies without paying anything.

Academies identify and nurture talent from a tender age and those people who run them should benefit hugely from their sweat.

Kamuriwo said: “Many people want to reap where they did not sow; most player agents want instant profits not knowing that it is not easy and cheap to identify and nurture talent.”  

Most academies pay fees for their players with some up to higher education. In short, they invest a lot without any help of national associations.

The sad thing is that national associations demand money from each player transferred to a local or foreign club.

Corporate organisation should have faith in player identification programmes and they should be encouraged to support such noble activities.

Honestly, talent identification should be embraced since it is critical to sports development.