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The literature base regarding the development of sporting talent is extensive, and includes empirical articles, reviews, position papers, academic books, governing body documents, popular books, unpublished theses and anecdotal evidence, and contains numerous models of talent development. With such a varied body of work, the task for researchers, practitioners and policy makers of generating a clear understanding of what is known and what is thought to be true regarding the development of sporting talent is particularly challenging. Drawing on a wide array of expertise, we address this challenge by avoiding adherence to any specific model or area and by providing a reasoned review across three key overarching topics: (a) the performer; (b) the environment; and (c) practice and training. Within each topic sub-section, we review and calibrate evidence by performance level of the samples. We then conclude each sub-section with a brief summary, a rating of the quality of evidence, a recommendation for practice and suggestions for future research. These serve to highlight both our current level of understanding and our level of confidence in providing practice recommendations, but also point to a need for future studies that could offer evidence regarding the complex interactions that almost certainly exist across domains.

To overview a framework that provides a theoretically-grounded approach to predicting the types of modified perceptual training tasks that will stimulate transfer of improved perceptual skills to sport performance environments. Modified perceptual training (MPT) collectively describes on- or off-field sports training tasks that are specifically designed to develop visual and perceptual-cognitive skill. Traditional training approaches in sport include sports vision training and perceptual-cognitive training, while recently, new technologies have enabled a broad range of additional MPT tools to become available to coaches and athletes. Short literature review and opinion article. Literature in the fields of sports vision training and perceptual-cognitive training are summarised and contrasted. A selection of emerging MPT technologies are then overviewed. This leads to the identification of three interacting factors of MPT task design that may influence the task’s capacity to transfer improved training performance to actual competition: (i) the targeted perceptual function, (ii) stimulus correspondence, and (iii) response correspondence, which are assimilated with key tenets of representative learning design. These three theoretically-grounded differences are adopted to support and justify the structure of the Modified Perceptual Training Framework which sets out predictions for future research to test in order to clarify the transfer effect of MPT tools. The application of the Modified Perceptual Training Framework may assist in future testing, design and selection of beneficial training tools in sport and as such, is predicted to have significant impact in empirical and practical settings.

Hitters in fast ball-sports do not align their gaze with the ball throughout ball-flight; rather, they use predictive eye movement strategies that contribute towards their level of interceptive skill. Existing studies claim that (i) baseball and cricket batters cannot track the ball because it moves too quickly to be tracked by the eyes, and that consequently (ii) batters do not - and possibly cannot - watch the ball at the moment they hit it. However, to date no studies have examined the gaze of truly elite batters. We examined the eye and head movements of two of the world's best cricket batters and found both claims do not apply to these batters. Remarkably, the batters coupled the rotation of their head to the movement of the ball, ensuring the ball remained in a consistent direction relative to their head. To this end, the ball could be followed if the batters simply moved their head and kept their eyes still. Instead of doing so, we show the elite batters used distinctive eye movement strategies, usually relying on two predictive saccades to anticipate (i) the location of ball-bounce, and (ii) the location of bat-ball contact, ensuring they could direct their gaze towards the ball as they hit it. These specific head and eye movement strategies play important functional roles in contributing towards interceptive expertise.

To investigate the physical demands of professional rugby league match-play using microtechnology, and to compare these demands with typical training activities used to prepare players for competition. Prospective cohort study. Thirty elite rugby league players participated in this study. Seven hundred and eighty-six. training data sets and 104 data sets from National Rugby League matches were collected over one playing season. Movement was recorded using a commercially available microtechnology unit (minimaxX, Catapult Innovations), which provided information on speeds, distances, accelerations, physical collisions and repeated high-intensity efforts. Mean distances covered during match-play by the hit-up forwards, wide-running forwards, adjustables, and outside backs were 3,569 m, 5,561 m, 6,411 m, and 6,819 m, respectively. Hit-up forwards and wide-running forwards were engaged in a greater number of moderate and heavy collisions than the adjustables and outside backs, and more repeated high-intensity effort bouts per minute of play (1 bout every 4.8–6.3 min). The physical demands of traditional conditioning, repeated high-intensity effort exercise, and skill training activities were all lower than the physical demands of competition. These results demonstrate that absolute distances covered during professional rugby league matches are greater for outside backs, while the collision and repeated high-intensity effort demands are higher for hit-up forwards and wide-running forwards. The specific physical demands of competitive play, especially those demands associated with collisions and repeated high-intensity efforts, were not well matched by those observed in traditional conditioning, repeated high-intensity effort exercise, and skills training activities. Further research is required to investigate whether modifications need to be made to these training activities to better prepare players for the demands of National Rugby League competition.

In a series of 3 experiments, the authors examined the ability of badminton players of different skill levels (12 experts and 12 nonexperts) to anticipate the direction of badminton strokes. Participants viewed either film or point-light displays under a range of temporal or spatial occlusion conditions. World-class players were able to consistently pick up useful predictive information from the advance (precontact) kinematics of both the lower body and the racquet when the motion of those features was presented in isolation, whereas recreational players' use of the same information depended on the concurrent presence of linked segments. Participants' information pickup closely matched key biomechanical changes in the movement pattern being viewed, although, contrary to a common-coding view of perception and action (e.g., W. Prinz, 1997), some important differences were evident between the characteristics of the experts' movement prediction and those of expert movement production.

Purpose: The ability to anticipate the actions of opponents can be enhanced through perceptual-skill training, though there is doubt regarding the most effective form of doing so. We sought to evaluate whether perceptual-skill learning would be enhanced when supplemented with guiding visual information. Method: Twenty-eight participants without soccer-playing experience were assigned to a guided perceptual-training group (n = 9), an unguided perceptual-training group (n = 10), or a control group (n = 9). The guided perceptual-training group received half of their trials with color cueing that highlighted either the key kinematic changes in the kicker's action or the known visual search strategy of expert goalkeepers. The unguided perceptual-training group undertook an equal number of trials of practice, but all trials were without guidance. The control group undertook no training intervention. All participants completed an anticipation test immediately before and after the 7-day training intervention, as well as a 24-hr retention test. Results: The guided perceptual-training group significantly improved their response accuracy for anticipating the direction of soccer penalty kicks from preintervention to postintervention, whereas no change in performance was evident at posttest for either the unguided perceptual-training group or the control group. The superior performance of the guided perceptual-training group was preserved in the retention test and was confirmed when relative changes in response time were controlled using a covariate analysis. Conclusions: Perceptual training supplemented with guiding information provides a level of improvement in perceptual anticipatory skill that is not seen without guidance.

The aim of the present study was to examine the anticipatory nature of pattern perception in sport by using static and moving basketball patterns across three different display types. Participants of differing skill levels were included in order to determine whether the effects would be moderated by the knowledge and experience of the observer in the same manner reported previously for simple images. The results from a pattern recognition task showed that both expert and recreational participants were more likely to anticipate the next likely state of a pattern when it was presented as a moving video, but only the experts appeared to have the depth of understanding required to elicit the same anticipatory encoding for patterns presented as schematic images. The results extend those reported in previous research and provide further evidence of an anticipatory encoding in pattern perception for images containing complex, interrelated patterns.

Gabbett, TJ, Jenkins, DG, and Abernethy, B. Correlates of tackling ability in high-performance rugby league players. J Strength Cond Res 25(1)72-79, 2010-This study investigated the tackling ability of high-performance rugby league players and determined the relationship between physiological and anthropometric qualities and tackling ability in these athletes. Twenty professional (National Rugby League) and 17 semiprofessional (Queensland Cup) rugby league players underwent a standardized 1-on-1 tackling drill in a 10-m grid. Video footage was taken from the rear, side, and front of the defending player. Tackling proficiency was assessed using standardized technical criteria. In addition, all players underwent measurements of standard anthropometry (height, body mass, and sum of 7 skinfolds), acceleration (10-m sprint), change of direction speed (505 test), and lower body muscular power (vertical jump). Professional players had significantly greater (p ≤ 0.05) tackling proficiency than semiprofessional players (87.5 ± 2.0 vs. 75.0 ± 2.3%). Professional players were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) older, more experienced, leaner, and had greater acceleration than semiprofessional players. The strongest individual correlates of tackling ability were age (r = 0.41, p ≤ 0.05), playing experience (r = 0.70, p ≤ 0.01), skinfold thickness (r = −0.59, p ≤ 0.01), acceleration (r = 0.41, p ≤ 0.05), and lower body muscular power (r = 0.38, p ≤ 0.05). When hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to determine which of the variables predicted tackling ability, playing experience and lower body muscular power were the only variables that contributed significantly (r = 0.60, p ≤ 0.01) to the predictive model. From a practical perspective, strength and conditioning coaches should emphasize the development of acceleration, lower body muscular power, and lean muscle mass to improve tackling ability in high-performance rugby league players.

Baker, Cote, and Abernethy attempt to examine the role of different forms of training in developing component skills known to characterize expert performance in team decision-making sports and to investigate differences between the type and quantity of training undertaken by experts and nonexperts in these sports. Results of the study reveal that deliberate practice is the most effective form of training for developing expert performance.

Expert performers in striking sports can hit objects moving at high speed with incredible precision. Exceptionally well developed anticipation skills are necessary to cope with the severe constraints on interception. In this paper, we provide a review of the empirical evidence regarding expert interception in striking sports and propose a preliminary model of expert anticipation. Central to the review and the model is the notion that the visual information used to guide the sequential phases of the striking action is systematically different between experts and nonexperts. Knowing the factors that contribute to expert anticipation, and how anticipation may guide skilled performance in striking sports, has practical implications for assessment and training across skill levels.