One of the biggest travails of the youth sports journey is dealing with selection. Even the most successful athletes often recall disappointments at not being selected for teams during their early years competing at high school and junior level. Navigating selection and talent identification policies are thus part of youth sports. To help parents and young performers themselves deal with these trials we should try to understand the factors at play and perhaps find some strategies to overcome the challenges involved.

In some cases the selection policy and the reasons why one individual is favoured over another are opaque. Sports vary widely in the degree of subjectivity involved. For sports and events where performance is measures in centimetres, grams or seconds it is relatively straightforward to evaluate capabilities from competition results. However for the majority of sports physical attributes and what we are able to capture during testing are only part of the equation. Inevitably there is some judgement involved in selection decisions and sadly some factors can unconsciously bias selection as we will explore.

Limitations aside, most youth sports incorporate tests of physical performance as part of selection. Selection pathways and the standardised tests employed may differ according to the sport, but in general test scores are used to help identify potential in young performers. The criteria employed might be as simple as height, weight and wingspan, but particular tests of fitness and physical performance are typically also part of the basis for selecting athletes. National and provincial sport organisations similarly use test scores as part of the selection funnel for athlete development pathways.

AGE AND STAGE AS COMPLICATING FACTORS…

There is a great deal of variation and individuality in growth and development. Kids of the same chronological age can vary widely in terms of biological age and relative stage in their development. This has huge implications for talent identification and selection. Maturation factors have a major bearing on physical attributes and performance test scores during the teenage years. What is often overlooked is whether a disparity in scores is a true indication of potential or just reflects that one individual is relatively further along on their growth curve at that point in time.

In general, early maturing athletes have a clear, albeit temporary, advantage in junior competition, especially in sports where size in physicality are a major asset. This effect is particularly marked for boys given the dramatic changes in size and lean mass and free gains in strength and speed that coincide with reaching puberty in young males.

There is also a ‘relative age effect’ that biases selection for age-grade teams, simply due to where a young performer’s birth date happens to fall in relation the dates used to determine eligibility. Overall those with a birthday that is just after the start of the eligibility period typically have an advantage by being close to a year older than one of their peers who’s birthday falls just before the cut-off date. Despite being aware of this phenomenon, the relative age effect is still evident in selection for youth teams - those who have a birth date that falls early in the eligibility period for the sport are over-represented in age-group squads.

IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS?

So far we have painted a bit of a gloomy picture for late maturing kids and those who are not favoured in the birth date lottery. However, whilst there might be disadvantages in the short term, some good news is that early success in youth sports does not correlate with success later on. This has been illustrated in sports like track and field: performance times, heights and distances achieved in junior level competition do not correspond to performance once athletes reach under-20 and senior level.

Talent ID and selection across the board is notoriously bad at actually picking out those who will succeed. The issues we have described clearly complicate efforts to extrapolate future performance and predict success based on present scores for young performers. In other words, these approaches largely fail to identify real future potential.

Irrespective of early disappointments, if young performers can hang in there the chances that they will shine later in high school, in college and at senior level remain undiminished.

All of this might also serve as a wake up call for those young performers who do enjoy early success and natural advantages. Being marked out as ‘talented’ as a junior does not necessarily help kids to achieve success later on. This is all the more striking given the preferential access and additional support enjoyed by those who are part of a talent development pathway from an early stage.

Paradoxically the adversity experienced by late-maturing young performers can ultimately work to their advantage. Continually coming up against bigger and more physically developed opponents forces kids to develop technical and tactical skills in order to compete. These young performers also tend to be more resilient and mentally tough by virtue of coming through these trials. Late-maturers thus end up being over-represented in elite and professional sport at senior level.

COUNTERMEASURES…

Despite the flaws in these approaches, selection and talent ID processes remain a reality that young performers must deal with. Aside from accepting the unfairness and using adversity as fuel, there are some practical strategies that can help young performers in navigating these trials. For instance, investing in physical preparation - particularly strength training - can help to equalise things and offset the natural advantages that their peers might be enjoying at that time.

Where physical performance tests are used for selection, there is also the option of gaming the system a little by specifically seeking to get better at those tests. A good example is the ‘combine’ that is used for selection to the NFL and the equivalent test batteries employed in other professional sports in North America. A micro-industry has grown out of this, with a host of facilities and programmes delivering ‘combine preparation’ as a service. In other words, aspiring players go to receive coaching and training specifically for the purposes of improving their numbers on the physical tests employed.

Whilst I do not necessarily recommend these programmes, enlisting a coach to help develop a young performer’s athletic abilities and in turn their ability to jump high, run fast and go far is certainly beneficial when it comes to selection (and more generally their ability to perform in the sport). Parents should however choose wisely, as the expertise to successfully deliver this support remains rather uncommon.

Parents and young performers would also do well to better understand the factors that are linked to future success and adopt these lessons. Disregarding performance and physical tests for a moment, there are elements of character that do show an association with future success in sport and beyond. Adopting and maintaining a growth mindset is important, which means a commitment to continually striving to improve and remaining willing to fail and try again, irrespective of early success or lack thereof. Likewise, the journey is long and so tenacity and grit are likewise major assets to develop for aspiring young performers.

Readers who are interested can enquire to find out more about what support and coaching provision we can offer for those local to Vancouver, as well as remote coaching options for those further afield. For more, including how to arrange an initial assessment, see the ‘Enquire’ link at the top of the page or email us direct at PreparedATH@gmail.com.

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Nov 5, 2021

Free-Range Athletes

The parallels between coaching and parenting are striking and both of these elements naturally come together with youth sports. The concept of free-range kids popularised by author (and parent) Lenore Skenazy thus readily applies to how we coach young athletes (as well as sport parenting). In each case, free play and participating in unsupervised games are essential parts of how children and young athletes develop. Engaging in play is central to how we learn to navigate the world and engage with others. Voluntarily participating in games with others (without intervention from the grown ups) teaches kids how to conduct themselves and develops the capability to interact with peers in a competitive context and a cooperative manner. A less structured environment where the kids themselves decide the playing area and the rules of the game affords the opportunity to apply what they have learned, explore different tactics and engage in trial and error. As such, free play and unsupervised games are particularly rich in opportunities to acquire and adapt sport skills and develop game sense. Given the myriad benefits and the essential role that these opportunities play in developing adept athletes and capable humans, it seems baffling that they are systematically being eliminated with today’s youth. So here we will make the case for applying the free-range perspective to rethink youth sports participation and talent development in a way that fosters engagement and creates self-reliant athletes.

Sep 18, 2021

Teach an Athlete to Fish...

When we do something for a performer that they could do for themselves we deprive them of an opportunity to progress towards becoming self-sufficient. Whilst this might seem like a small thing, if we extrapolate this out, these small things compound over time into a major issue. All of which becomes apparent when the occasion arises that the performer is on their own and facing a situation that requires them to act independently, only to find themselves to be entirely unprepared to do so.

May 7, 2021

Helping Young Performers Find Their Aim

Having an end in mind is pretty important. Aspiring towards a future outcome provides the impetus and intent that helps us to act in the moment. Knowing where we want to get to also provides a sense of how we are progressing and in turn guides us along the way. Deciding upon an ultimate aim is thus a central theme of the youth sports journey. As we will explore to some extent the performer settles upon their ultimate aspiration through a process of elimination and will often try out a few before they find their true north star to guide the journey. These formative experiences and the lessons they contain are part of what makes participating in youth sports so valuable in developing crucial traits, tools and behaviours that serve the performer well not only in their chosen sport but also in their life outside sport.

Apr 9, 2021

What Performers Need to Hear

What we want to hear and what we need to hear do not always match up. Indeed in some instances they are distinctly different things! On the youth sports journey the performer will encounter numerous trials and situations that offer abundant lessons. The conversations with those around them are an integral part of how the performer makes sense of events, puzzle things through and elucidate what lessons to take. As the grown ups, it follows that coaches and parents alike have a duty to help performers be objective and uncover the insights to make the best use of these experiences. To that end, there is an onus on us to ensure that the performer maintains a healthy relationship with the truth and remains in touch with reality.

Mar 12, 2021

Feeling Privileged

The idea of privilege has taken on strange and somewhat dark connotations in recent times, as has the idea of feeling privileged. This strikes me as a little odd. As a coach I feel privileged to work with performers who are committed to their craft. I am quick to acknowledge that it is a privilege to coach these individuals and to have them place their faith in my expertise. I feel grateful for my good fortune. I also feel a profound sense of responsibility to hold such a privileged position and a duty to do great work in return. Perhaps we should foster a more healthy attitude towards privilege. By reframing how we think about privilege we can perhaps respond to it in ways that better serves the performer and those supporting them.

Feb 26, 2021

Dealing with Distraction

Distraction is a constant feature of modern life. Current generations are growing up as digital natives and the allure of technology is ever-present in most environments. Clearly the genie is not going back in the bottle so it follows we should take steps to equip young performers to manage their own mental traffic to take back control of their actions and better deal with distractions of technological and other origin. The ability to marshal one’s own attention and resist becoming sidetracked is arguably the new superpower. Developing these capabilities to harness and direct our attention amidst all the distraction represents not only a competitive advantage but also the key to unlocking the possibilities for long term achievement in sport and beyond.

Jan 11, 2021

Judging What to Prioritise and When for a Young Performer

Getting a handle on a young performer’s present status from a developmental perspective is crucial. After all, without this information we have no real frame of reference for making judgements or deciding on the best way forward. The reason that talent identification policy and development pathways at junior level frequently go awry in practice (as we noted in a previous post) is in large part due to a failure to account for maturation and relative age effects. Young performers at age-grade level are far from a homogenous group. Kids in the same age group may be at very different points in their trajectory. That growth and development curves for young performers can vary so widely inevitably thwarts any attempt to adopt a blanket approach. Whilst individual growth curves eventually converge, during their formative teenage years young performers can differ dramatically in how they present at any given time and this is manifested both physically and in the performance capabilities that they exhibit. Given that much of the variability we see at age-grade is simply due to the fact that kids are at very different stages in their relative stage of development, it follows we need some way to assess where a young performer is on their individual growth trajectory. Aside from the addressing the challenge of parsing genuine ‘talent’ versus maturation effects for sporting organisations, we equally need to be able to evaluate these factors on an individual level to inform decisions on how to best support the young performer. In this post we present a tool to estimate biological age and relative stage of maturation and describe how to use this information to inform the priority areas for development and guide training for the young performer.

Nov 27, 2020

Bringing a Performance Mindset to Dealing with Sports Injuries

Sports injuries pose arguably the biggest trials for aspiring performers, challenging not only the body but also the mind. How the performer and those around them approach and handle the process that follows more severe injuries in particular can prove to be pivotal. What mindset the performer and those around them bring to the task of dealing with injury is hugely influential in shaping the route this takes. A performance mindset goes a long way when contemplating the path forward following an injury. Indeed belief alone plays a role in shaping the eventual outcome. There is evidence that those who express high expectations of making a successful return as they enter the process (such as prior to surgery) are more likely to ultimately achieve that outcome in reality.

Nov 13, 2020

The Merits of Becoming an Athletic Virtuoso

Raw physical attributes and performance in junior competition are not good predictors of future success until late adolescence. Technical skills, tactical awareness and character traits are more reflective of future potential. Beyond the specialist skills of the sport, more evolved talent ID and development systems are also starting to recognise the value of general movement proficiency or athleticism. As with skills and character, these qualities are less biased by the transient influence of growth and maturation, making them a much more reliable indicator of future potential and a crucial asset regardless of the sport. From the performer’s perspective, developing athleticism is therefore a very good investment in the future.

Oct 29, 2020

Practicing Resilience

Grit and resilience are increasingly identified as crucial factors for the long-term success of young performers. Some people have even started to speak about practicing resilience. But what does this mean? How might we practically go about fostering resilience in aspiring young performers? If resilience is a practice or discipline then what does this look like in reality?

Oct 16, 2020

Navigating Talent ID and Selection in Youth Sports

One of the biggest travails of the youth sports journey is dealing with selection. Even the most successful athletes often recall instances of disappointment at not being selected for teams or being benched during their years competing at high school and junior level. Navigating selection and talent identification policies are thus part of youth sports. To help parents and young performers themselves deal with these trials we should try to understand the factors at play and perhaps find some strategies to overcome the challenges involved.

Oct 2, 2020

Realising the Full Benefits of Youth Sports

A notable casualty amid the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic has been organised sport below the elite and professional level. In recent weeks kids have cautiously returned to school, but youth sports and school sport in particular remain off limits for many. Competition schedules for the coming year are still in limbo. There is a question mark over whether there will even be a competitive season for some sports and this uncertainty extends to college sports, which is the end-goal that many high school aspire to. Against this backdrop, the numbers of kids who have returned to participating in training and practices are way down since the lockdown and returning to school. There is an understandable reluctance among parents and the kids themselves to reengage in sport, given the perceived risks. Some authors are already sounding the alarm that the present generation of high school kids may be lost from participating in organised sport.

Sep 17, 2020

Developing Grit in Young Performers

Over recent years talent identification in sport has started to acknowledge and account for the crucial character element in talent development. In particular, the importance of ‘grit’ is increasingly championed. Coaches and parents are accordingly becoming more aware of this concept in relation to youth sports. So what is grit, how does it relate to long-term success in sport and what can we do to create the conditions to help foster grittiness in young performers?