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A Systematic Review on Psychological and Physical Factors in Talent Identification

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Abstract

Prior studies mostly focused on physical factors such as physical fitness, motor abilities, and anthropometry as indicators for talent identification (TID). However, there are two critical issues that have been emerging recently among young athletes, which are burnout and early drop-out. Thus, this study suggests to include another factor as an indicator for TID, which are psychological factors. The aim of this paper was to identify the psychological factors that would be good indicators for the TID programme along with the physical factors. This systematic review uses the PRISMA method to logically summarise the identified psychological and physical factors that would be good indicators for TID. A comprehensive electronic literature search was conducted via Google Scholar and open access journals. 30 literature selections were selected based on a few criteria. This systematic review conclude that a set of physical fitness, anthropometry, motor abilities and several psychological factors such as personality traits, emotional intelligence and grit should be included as TID indicators to select a physically talented athlete that have the psychological ability to endure the development process. A selected athlete might be physically competent but psychologically incompetent. This is the explanation of the importance of psychological factors must be included as indicators for the talent identification process in sports to avoid the current critical issues which are burnout and early drop out among young talented athletes. However, a proper selection of psychological factors must be made to choose a good psychological indicator because an indicator for talent identification must be consistent throughout the time period. A longitudinal research method is required to provide more evidence for this theory.
Corresponding Author: Muhammad Noor Hizami Hamidi, Department of Physical Education & Health, Faculty of Education,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, MALAYSIA. Email: dakspotrek@gmail.com
7
Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 5 (1): 07-21, 2022
e-ISSN: 2600 - 9056
© RMP Publications, 2022
DOI: 10.26666/rmp.jssh.2022.2.2
A Systematic Review on Psychological and Physical Factors in Talent
Identification
Muhammad Noor Hizami Hamidi1 and Mohd Rozilee Wazir Norjali Wazir2
1Department of Physical Education & Health, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia
2Department of Sports Studies, Faculty of Education, Universiti Putra Malaysia Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: dakspotrek@gmail.com
Copyright©2022 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License
Abstract: Prior studies mostly focused on physical factors such as physical fitness, motor abilities, and anthropometry
as indicators for talent identification (TID). However, there are two critical issues that have been emerging recently
among young athletes, which are burn-out and early drop-out. Thus, this study suggests to include another factor as an
indicator for TID, which are psychological factors. The aim of this paper was to identify the psychological factors that
would be good indicators for the TID programme along with the physical factors. This systematic review uses the
PRISMA method to logically summarise the identified psychological and physical factors that would be good indicators
for TID. A comprehensive electronic literature search was conducted via Google Scholar and open access journals. 30
literature selections were selected based on a few criteria. This systematic review conclude that a set of physical fitness,
anthropometry, motor abilities and several psychological factors such as personality traits, emotional intelligence and
grit should be included as TID indicators to select a physically talented athlete that have the psychological ability to
endure the development process. A selected athlete might be physically competent but psychologically incompetent.
This is the explanation of the importance of psychological factors must be included as indicators for the talent
identification process in sports to avoid the current critical issues which are burn-out and early drop out among young
talented athletes. However, a proper selection of psychological factors must be made to choose a good psychological
indicator because an indicator for talent identification must be consistent throughout the time period. A longitudinal
research method is required to provide more evidence for this theory.
Keywords: Talent identification, Athlete selection, Sports development, Sports psychology
1. Introduction
Talent is defined as the successful outcome of
domain-specific performance. In order to attain the
highest standard within particular sports, athletes rely
on a combination of natural abilities (nature) and well-
developed performance determinants (nurture) [1].
Understanding the characteristics that might predict
future performance is crucial to gaining insight into
how talented individuals are detected or identified and
how talent might be transferred to different domains.
Talent identification is a complex study where it seems
it cannot be done by focusing on a single specific area
or a few similar areas because it will produce an
imbalanced result. Many studies have been done before
by focusing on a single specific area or a combination
of a few similar areas, and the result was positive where
it has the ability to discriminate between "talented"
athletes and "non-talented" athletes. That is still
debatable and questionable since that kind of study did
not cover all the elements that have a direct impact on
athlete performance. According to Reeves,
Littlewoods, McRobert and Robert [2], the biggest
problem with talent identification is detecting the most
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sophisticated ways in which talent is trying to be
detected, identified and developed. Many talent
identification systems focus on low predictive and
validity values.
Previously Mevaloo and Shahpar [3] define talent
identification as screening of youth using physical and
skills attribute to identify the potential in them to
success in certain sports without having pre-
engagement with that sports. However there is another
important element that has not included in that
definition is psychological. Many study has found that
psychological has massive impact on athlete
performance thus it is important to take into
consideration of that element during talent
identification process. Many potential athlete with
good score in physical fitness and motor ability facing
problem during training and competition due to
psychological factor. Some of the unable to manage
their anxiety during competition and some of them
unable to cope with the training program [4], [5]. Due
to that issue world are facing sustainability of the
athlete in specific area. The rates of high potential
youth athlete’s dropout were alarming. There were a
few factor that contribute to early athlete dropout such
as burnout due to focusing on early focusing on single
sport. Due to certain reason such as scholarship or
professional contract, most of the youth athlete start to
focusing on single sports training over 15 years ago [6].
This phenomenon result in lack of motor development
compared to the athlete who had early diversification
[7]. Besides the youth athlete who practice early single
sport training lost the opportunity to develop various
sports skills [6]. A study done on top 10 athletes’ age
14 to 19 years old for Royal Spanish Athletics
Federation (RFEA). There were 1,144 participants
consist of 594 males and 550 females athletes. There
was a significant reduction of athletes in the top 10
from 2004 to 2014. Among the 1,144 athletes taken
into consideration in 2004, 1,104 (96.50%) were
considered as dropouts from high performance in 2014:
543 (98.72%) were women, and 561 (94.45%) were
men [6]. This study found a few common answer
among the participants for the question of the athlete
dropout such as "my skills did not improve", "did not
like to compete" and "not able to be with my friends"
[6]. The single sport training phenomenon leads to
higher rates of injury, increased psychological stress
and early sport dropout [6].
According to Hassan et al. [8], Hong Kong found the
reason for dropout in sports among school athletes was
due to four factors. The greatest factor was the coach.
To build trust, a coach must first earn the athlete's
respect. Coaches must also have extensive knowledge
of the sport in question, as well as the ability to
establish and maintain a positive relationship between
athlete and coach. This factor was followed by
teammates, parents, and tough training [8]. Meanwhile,
Monteiro et al. [5] found almost the same factors of
dropout, which are: most of the athletes drop out
because of conflicts with their trainers, "other things to
do", "competence improvement failure", "parents,
couples, or trainers’ pressure", "lack of enjoyment" and
"getting bored". Besides, children or youth athletes also
drop out because of not having fun in that specific area
of sports, anxiety and nervousness due to excessive
criticism, pressure from coaches and not getting along
with coaches, parental pressure and loss of ownership,
and not having enough time to participate in other age-
appropriate activities [4]. Most of the dropout cases
among young athletes were due to intrapersonal and
interpersonal constraints [9]. In 2018, de Souza,
Osiecki, da Silva, Costa, and Stefanello [10] were
conducting a study through the athlete burnout
questionnaire and found that there are positive
correlations between burnout and competitive level,
training volume, years of training, perfectionism, and
overtraining in high-performance athletes.
Most of the problems seem to come from psychological
factors. Besides, a study found that there is a
discrepancy in the talent identification process among
established and emerging nations (football), where the
coach and sporting professional recruitment decisions
are based on their subjective opinion of a player's future
playing potential [11]. Therefore, this paper will
discuss the importance of combining physical fitness,
motor ability, and psychological assessment in the
talent identification process and its potential effect on
the athlete development process based on the previous
study, so that the coach and sporting professional no
longer need to rely on their subjective opinion alone.
2. Method
Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is a method that
has been used to collect and compile a set of previous
research to answer formulated research questions based
on a structured procedure such as identifying,
summarizing, analyzing, and interpreting the findings
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from the selected previous research. Researchers
determine a set of the criteria for the literature selection
to ensure the selected literature is relevant to the topic
discussed and inter-related. This study used PRISMA
(Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and
Meta-Analyses) as a guideline. The PRISMA method
was commonly used in systematic search and meta-
analysis due to its transparency, structure, and
comprehensiveness in synthesizing the literature.
Two electronic databases (Open Access Journal and
Google Scholar) were searched for publication from
2015-2020. The search area was focused on talent
identification in sports, including physical factors
(anthropometry, physical fitness, and motor abilities)
and psychological factors. There were 368 pieces of
literature discovered, of which 82 were removed
because they were duplicates.286 were left, but 56 were
excluded based on the title being not relevant to this
study. Based on the full-text articles assessed for
eligibility, 214 were removed due to the study's failure
to meet the inclusion criteria out of 230. Only 16 pieces
of literature met the inclusion criteria out of 368 and
were added together with another 14 from the selected
paper and review citation.
Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
Language: English only
Other than the English
language, written
Period of Publication:
2015-2020
Before 2015
Preferences: Empirical
research published
through international
conferences and
international journals
Book Chapter, short
report, non-empirical
study.
Area of Interest: Talent
Identification in Sports
All scientific disciplines
except in talent
identification
performance assessment
3. Result
Based on the searching method, this study was able
to retrieve 30 research articles related to talent
identification in sports. Those articles were divided into
two categories, which are physical factors and
psychological factors. Tables 2 and 3 present the
author's name and years of publication, the purpose of
the study, the sample and size of the study, and the
outcome according to each category.
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4. Discussion
TID in sports research has recently undergone a
revolution. As shown in table 2, researchers started to
combine a few areas of study, which resulted in better
findings in terms of data reliability and validity to be
used by the coach or professional sportsperson for sports
development. A good TID foundation to consider is a
combination of physical assessment, sporting
achievement, and coach opinion based on previous
experience [16]. Besides, the combination of a few
components, as the TID testing battery, is able to
discriminate between high and low levels of
performance in an athlete. A study combining the
components of power, aerobic capacity, and
anthropometry assessment as a TID testing battery on
elite junior swimming in Australia found that it was able
to differentiate between high-performance and low-
performance athletes [17]. In addition, Datson et al. [20]
stated that a combination of physical fitness and motor
abilities is able to predict elite youth female career
progression in soccer games. It also provides reference
value for coaches and professional sportspersons in the
talent development of elite youth soccer players. The
same goes for a study done in Belgium on taekwondo
athletes by Norjali [23]. The testing battery consists of
anthropometrical, physical performance, and motor
coordination tests able to discriminate between athletes
who reach the international top level and those who do
not. Many developments in sports have come from the
contribution of the TID process. Many studies have
found that in the Australian Football League, physical
assessment can differentiate between "talented" athletes
and "non-talented" athletes [12] [13]. Furthermore, a
study of the Junior Australian Football League
discovered that a combination of athletic movement
quality tests, physical fitness tests, and anthropometric
assessment could identify the difference in the rate of
performance development. In addition, a study
discovered that the physical, skill, and experience
gained by youth athletes during their early development
are important in producing future elite athletes [42].
The current TID programme was able to identify the
good potential of youth athletes at an early stage based
on their physical performance, but according to Boccia
et al. [18], early sports success is not a strong predictor
of top-level performance at the senior level. Besides,
there is still another issue yet to be solved, which is the
drop-out issue among the selected athletes. The use of
complex TID methods and the capabilities required to
identify new talent in order to achieve peak performance
in the future. Athlete performance indicators should be
based on sporting aptitude, physical health and abilities,
body coordination, and psychological aspects [19].
However, there are some issues that keep appearing
along with the athlete's development. Ford et al. [21]
stated that the percentage of drop-out among youth
soccer players from 29 professional soccer clubs around
the world is relatively high at 29%. Some potential
youth athletes have very good scores for physical fitness
and motor ability but have inconsistent performance
during competition, resulting in early drop-out due to
psychological incompetence. Most of them feel burned-
out, bored, not competitive enough and too dependent
[6]. Besides, global youth athlete early drop-out is
phenomenal due to youth athletes' not having fun in that
specific area of sport, being unable to control/manage
their anxiety, especially during competition, feeling
pressure during training, and not getting along with the
coach [4]. In addition, a study done by de Souza et al.
[10] found that there are positive correlations between
burn-out, competitive level, training volume, years of
training, perfectionism, and overtraining.
Another factor that has been identified as a burnout and
drop contributor is single-specific sports training
practise by a coach and professional sportsperson.
Previously, coaches and professional sportspeople
focused on single-specific sports training on potential
youth athletes, and it seems to be a contributor to early
drop-out and performance drop among youth athletes.
Single-sport training approaches result in psychological
breakdown and physical injury (overuse) in youth
athletes [6]. Using the TID process, coaches and
professional sportspeople are able to identify several
types of sports that are suitable for potential youth
athletes so that they do not have to focus and stress on
single specific sport training. As a result, a variety of
sports training has advantages for young athletes in
terms of motor ability development as well as
preventing psychological breakdown and early drop-out
[7].
As shown in table 3, many studies have been done on
athlete psychological aspects to find which
psychological factors affect the athlete's performance
the most, but there are still a few studies on the
psychological aspects of the TID process. Many studies
have found that physiological aspects have a positive
effect when being used as an indicator for TID, but due
to a lack of study on psychological aspects of TID, it is
difficult to conclude the effect of psychological aspects
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being taken as an indicator for TID. Due to the long
process, the component that will be used as an indicator
for TID must be stable and not easily change over time,
because if it is changeable, it will be very difficult for
researchers to determine which component is the right
one to be the indicator of the right athlete for designated
sports. Based on the previous literature, three
components in the psychological aspect have been
identified as having a positive effect on athlete
performance and stability over time. It was personality
traits, emotional intelligence, and grit.
According to the previous study, personality traits as a
sub-division of psychological variables were assumed to
be a good predictor of an athlete's sustainability and
performance in a specific area of sports.to be a good
indicator to predict the sustainability and performance
of an athlete because they have been proven stable for at
least 10 years by a study done by Terracciano, McCrae,
and Costa Jr [43]. According to Borghuis et al. [31],
personality traits are already stable at the age of 12 and
increase strongly with the increase in age. There are only
a few factors that contribute to personality changes, such
as extreme incidents or extreme environmental pressure
and they were able to predict the future performance of
an athlete [32]. However, there were differences in the
characteristics of personality traits between males and
females, individuals and team athletes [37].
Certain types of personality traits have a tendency to
overreact during stressful periods, anxiety, and
depression, which lead to unwanted decisions or actions.
Hence, they might affect a person's performance and
decision making (dropout) [44]. Furthermore, it was not
only the environment and psychological factors that
induced different levels of stress on different types of
personality traits; physical activity also has a different
psychological effect on different types of personality
traits [45] that has been successful or survived in an
environment has a tendency to develop a personality that
is suitable for that environment after a process of coping
and adaptation towards that environment. A cross-
cultural and longitudinal study was done by Chopik and
Kitayama [46] between midlife in Japan and midlife in
the U.S. The study found that midlife in Japan develops
a greater variety of personality traits than in the U.S.
because midlife in Japan responds to a variety of
environmental factors while midlife in the U.S. responds
to a factor that is powerful enough to influence nearly
everyone in society at large. Selecting a suitable
personality might sort those mentioned problems out,
because, based on the study done by Appaso and
Ramchandra [47], different types of personalities have
different abilities to cope with stressors.
The importance of identifying a potential athlete's
personality is to understand their preferences and
suitability in a specific area of sports. Every person
regulates their emotions in different ways. Assessing the
personality traits seems to be a reliable way to
understand a person's emotion regulation; either it is
negative-oriented or positive-oriented [48]. Besides, due
to the information provided by identifying a person's
personality, that person will be allocated to a suitable
position or place that makes them feel good and perform
better [49].
According to Kim, Gardant, Bosselut & Eys [33],
personality traits related to athletes' informal roles in
team sports. Various types of personality traits are
important in team sports for performance development
because the informal roles of an athlete in team sports
have an effect on the team sports environment and
development. Besides, Kumar [40] suggests that
personality traits should be one of the important factors
that will affect sportspeople's success. These statements
are supported by Li et al. [41], who found that
professional taekwondo athletes who have positive
personality and emotional traits tend to be successful in
performance.
Another component that has the potential to be a good
indicator for TID in sports is emotional intelligence (EI).
An athlete with a good score of EI is able to control their
reckless reaction during a pressure situation and not be
emotional [25]. Furthermore, it is trainable, and athletes
with higher EI frequently set goals, plan their actions,
and are self-aware of their own performance [29].Thus,
a high level of EI significantly increases positive mood
and reduces negative mood among female student
athletes [26]. A study was done on all India inter-
university sprinters to determine the relationship
between EI, social physique anxiety, and sprinter
performance. Besides, higher EI players have a lower
level of anxiety related to sports performance [37]. The
results for combat sports also seem to be the same as a
study done in West Java on Pencak Silat athletes. In
Pencak Silat, there is a positive relationship between EI
score and athlete achievement [36].
The last component that has been identified as a
potential indicator for TID in sports is grit. Grit is
defined as a strong desire to achieve something/goal, so
an athlete with a good score of grit tends to be strongly
opposed to the negative influence [50]. Cavanaugh [34]
stated that grit has a positive correlation with athlete
burnout. An athlete who has a good score of grit might
have a low possibility of dropping out due to burnout.
Besides, grit is also able to discriminate between low-
performance athletes and high-performance athletes. A
study was done on CrossFit athletes where both
advanced and novice CrossFit athletes completed the
grit assessment scale, and the result showed that
advanced CrossFit athletes score higher than novice
CrossFit athletes [39].
Combining these two factors as TID indicator will be
able to make TID process more objective oriented by
reducing the possibilities of survival versus attraction
advantages effect during the process. According to
Baker, Johnston and Wattie [51], usually coach will
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19
select the athletes that have greater performance
compared to their peers which known as survival
advantages but somehow in other situation where
coaches tend to give more opportunities to the athletes
that the coaches comfortable with not based on the
performance. By having a very specific guidelines,
coaches might tend to select the athletes that fulfil all the
criteria needed for certain sports while the personal
perception towards the athletes would be minimized.
Besides, in order to recruit a potential athlete that can
endure the development process, the athlete must
possess the required ability and willing to get involve
[52]. If the athletes have the required abilities but does
not willing to get involve, most likely that athletes will
not survive the development process. To get the
potential athletes to get involve willingly, first the
athletes must know their abilities physically and
psychologically. Sometimes the athletes get involve in
certain sports due to the culture of the population
without realizing their actual potential for certain sports.
They might shows a good performance for certain
period of time and struggling to keep improve. Due to
aging factors their physical might no longer able to cope
with the activities and start to decrease in performance
then later affecting their psychological state which lead
to drop out. By undergo a TID process that assess both
physically and psychologically, the athlete will know
their abilities physically and psychologically and which
sports are suitable for them. The information gathered
from that TID process will give them the opportunity to
choose several types of sports that suit their abilities.
This will avoid them from practicing single sports
specification at young age because it is not a good
practice [52].
5. Conclusion
All the above literature shows that psychological
factors and physical factors such as physical fitness,
motor abilities, and anthropometric assessment have a
positive correlation with athlete performance and could
be a set of indicators for TID in sports. However, for the
psychological aspect, there is a lack of evidence to
conclude that psychological is a good indicator for TID
in sports since the study on that area has never been
conducted massively yet. All the above literature
regarding psychological aspects shows that the study
that has been done only between the psychological
component and athlete performance or athlete status.
Early sports success is not a strong predictor of top-level
performance at a senior level. A study that combines the
physiological aspect and psychological aspect directly
has not yet been found. Based on this literature review,
a study combining physical fitness, motor abilities,
anthropometry, personality traits, emotional
intelligence, and grit must be done to create a TID
testing battery that gathers all the components in sports
that have a positive correlation with an athlete's
outstanding performance and future development.
Besides, repeated measurements were suggested for this
study instead of pre and post-test to monitor the stability
of the athlete data and identify the possible factors that
contributed to the data changes throughout the study
period based on those six components.
6. Acknowledgments
This paper is part of the author’s theses.
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... Participants perceive the use of digital media as an aid to learning, however, some consider it not very useful or use it to clarify controversial situations. 9 Holt et al. [37] To measure the effects of coach intervention on performance and peer learning during technical practice in groups. 5 children from 10 to 12 years old and 1 coach ...
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