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The aim of the study was to investigate test reliability of the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (YYIR1) in 36 high-level youth soccer players, aged between 13 and 18 years. Players were divided into three age groups (U15, U17 and U19) and completed three YYIR1 in three consecutive weeks. Pairwise comparisons were used to investigate test reliability (for distances and heart rate responses) using technical error (TE), coefficient of variation (CV), intra-class correlation (ICC) and limits of agreement (LOA) with Bland-Altman plots. The mean YYIR1 distances for the U15, U17 and U19 groups were 2024 ± 470 m, 2404 ± 347 m and 2547 ± 337 m, respectively. The results revealed that the TEs varied between 74 and 172 m, CVs between 3.0 and 7.5%, and ICCs between 0.87 and 0.95 across all age groups for the YYIR1 distance. For heart rate responses, the TEs varied between 1 and 6 bpm, CVs between 0.7 and 4.8%, and ICCs between 0.73 and 0.97. The small ratio LOA revealed that any two YYIR1 performances in one week will not differ by more than 9 to 28% due to measurement error. In summary, the YYIR1 performance and the physiological responses have proven to be highly reliable in a sample of Belgian high-level youth soccer players, aged between 13 and 18 years. The demonstrated high level of intermittent endurance capacity in all age groups may be used for comparison of other prospective young soccer players.

Introduction: Making efficient decisions is an important characteristic for athletes to achieve superior performance in soccer. Due to the highly demanding environment of soccer, different functions are necessary to enable superior collective performance. With respect to the assessment of decision making according to playing positions, no studies have yet been carried out to assess the contents of the core tactical principles, and thus further investigations are necessary to address this issue. Objective: The aim of this study is to verify the influence of positional role on the decision-making skills of U-13 soccer players. Methods: Thirty U-13 male soccer players (12.9 ± 0.7 y/o) from regional soccer schools participated in this study. Players were classified according to three positional roles: defenders (n = 9), midfielders (n = 11) and forwards (n = 10). The instrument used to assess players' decision-making skills and decision-making time was the TacticUP® online platform. This instrument assesses the quality and time of decision making based on the core offensive and defensive tactical principles of soccer, in situations near and distant from the ball. Descriptive analysis, as well as the Shapiro-Wilk, ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc tests were performed, and effect sizes were reported as eta-squared (p< 0.05). Results: Findings did not show differences in decision-making quality between the different positional roles. As for decision-making time, midfielders made quicker decisions, when compared to defenders and forwards, in situations near and distant from the ball (p < 0.05). Conclusions: It is concluded that positional role influenced the decision-making time of U-13 soccer players. In general, midfielders displayed greater ability to read the game and make quicker decisions when compared to defenders and forwards in offensive and defensive situations near and distant from the ball. Therefore, it implies that to fulfil the role/function of midfielder in the field, in addition to being assertive, players also have to be quick in making decisions.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of relative age effect (RAE) in youth football in Denmark. RAE is a well-established phenomenon in elite sports across the globe and has been heavily investigated in football, often across clubs and countries. Method: To investigate RAE in Denmark, samples were collected from recreational and all levels of youth elite level male football. Chi-squared tests were applied to determine if RAE was present. Results: Results indicate that RAE is present in Danish male recreational football (P = 0.018) and all levels of youth elite football (P ≤ 0.005). Tendencies towards RAE at elite adult level (national team) were found, but results were not significant (P = 0.227). Collectively, this study illustrates the varied impact of RAE on different levels of seniority and competition, highlighting necessity of looking at RAE on different levels to encompass the importance of the phenomenon. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicate that despite of the Scandinavian focus on both mass participation and elite, RAE is still a common phenomenon at all levels of participation.

[Purpose/Significance] Talent data have become the most important production factor and strategic resource. Building a scientific and technological (S&T) talent database has become an inevitable way to narrow the digital divide and accelerate the digital and intelligent transformation of talent work. Therefore, this study builds an S&T talent database to promote scientific decision-making for talent development, precision in attracting new quality technical talent, reform in evaluating S&T talents, and building talent system for new quality productive forces. [Method/Process] By analyzing the practical requirements and significance of building an S&T talent database, this study first explores and analyzes the intrinsic logic of promoting the development of new quality productive forces through an S&T talent database. It then summarizes the challenges facing the current construction of a S&T talent database, including the scattering and concealment of S&T talent data, the lack of policies and standardized systems for S&T talent data, the inadequate exploration of value-added S&T talent data, the need to expand the application of digital technology in talent work, and the security risks of S&T talent data. In response to these challenges, this paper finally proposes the idea of building an S&T talents database, and introduces the research exploration and application practice on it, including the construction of big data database for S&T talent aimed at the development of new quality productive forces, the development of AI-powered talent data computing engine, research into the system for profiling new quality technical talent, the analysis of talent growth paths for the training of new quality technical talent, the identification method of new quality talented professionals based on big data, the development of an efficient digital platform for talent management, and the development of a strategic analysis platform for technical talent. [Results/Conclusions] The construction of S&T talent database is an objective requirement for the development of the digital era and an inevitable requirement for the formation of new quality productive forces. Building big data for S&T talent, empowering talent workflow with big data and artificial intelligence technology can help empower talent workflow, release the enormous energy contained in digitalization, effectively activate the internal momentum of talented professionals, institutions, society, and government, and then continuously improve the efficiency of talent resource allocation, the operational efficiency of talent work, the overall effectiveness of talent development governance, and promote the development of new quality productive forces.

This research contributes to the development of talent identification in athletic athletes, especially those from students aged 15-18 years. We identified the potential and need for the development of athletes from students in Indonesia. The aim of this research is to conduct an analysis of talent identification of potential Indonesian athletic athletes at the national student athletic championships. The use of ex post facto descriptive methods in this research has benefits, one of which is to analyze the factors that occurred which could have caused this phenomenon. The number of participants involved was 142 athletes consisting of 16 men and 18 women in the 100-meter run, 18 men and 18 women in the 1000-meter run, 18 men and 18 women in the long jump, which are the results of selection in 6 provinces in Indonesia. There is a positive correlation between anthropometric measurements, especially in height, arm span, and leg length, on the results of the 100 and 1000-meter runs, in the long jump, the results of anthropometric measurements are also positively correlated with the final results of the competition, especially in height, arm span, and leg length. Meanwhile, in the shot put, the results of anthropometric measurements which include body weight, height, arm span and leg length are positively correlated with the shot put results, so that the ideal anthropometry average will show maximum results of the competition. Body weight does not correlate with the final results, especially in the 100-meter run, 1000-meter run and shot put competitions. Unlike the shot put, the results of anthropometry measurements influence the results of the competition. These measurement parameters are useful, but on the other hand, training and nutrition intake can also influence the results of competition performance.

Low-income and minority students are substantially underrepresented in gifted education programs. The disparities persist despite efforts by many states and school districts to broaden participation through changes in their eligibility criteria. One explanation for the persistent gap is that standard processes for identifying gifted students, which are based largely on the referrals of parents and teachers, tend to miss qualified students from underrepresented groups. We study this hypothesis using the experiences of a large urban school district following the introduction of a universal screening program for second graders. Without any changes in the standards for gifted eligibility, the screening program led to large increases in the fractions of economically disadvantaged and minority students placed in gifted programs. Comparisons of the newly identified gifted students with those who would have been placed in the absence of screening show that Blacks and Hispanics, free/reduced price lunch participants, English language learners, and girls were all systematically “underreferred” in the traditional parent/teacher referral system. Our findings suggest that parents and teachers often fail to recognize the potential of poor and minority students and those with limited English proficiency.

Almost 20 years after McKinsey introduced the idea of a war for talent, technology is disrupting the talent identification industry. From smartphone profiling apps to workplace big data, the digital revolution has produced a wide range of new tools for making quick and cheap inferences about human potential and predicting future work performance. However, academic industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists appear to be mostly spectators. Indeed, there is little scientific research on innovative assessment methods, leaving human resources (HR) practitioners with no credible evidence to evaluate the utility of such tools. To this end, this article provides an overview of new talent identification tools, using traditional workplace assessment methods as the organizing framework for classifying and evaluating new tools, which are largely technologically enhanced versions of traditional methods. We highlight some opportunities and challenges for I-O psychology practitioners interested in exploring and improving these innovations.

Talent identification (TID) and talent development (TD) continue to receive significant investment from team sports organisations, highlighting their importance in attempting to identify potential elite athletes. Accompanying this continual pursuit to unearth future talent is an ever-increasing body of research aiming to provide solutions and strategies to optimise TID and TD processes. Therefore, the aim of this review is to provide a summary and critical synthesis of the methodological approaches applied to TID in team sports and present considerations for future TID research. Specifically, this review highlights three key areas for consideration: (1) the timespan of the research design; (2) the use of monodisciplinary or multidisciplinary variables; and (3) the fidelity of the methodological approaches to the assessment of talent. The review highlights the benefits of longitudinal, multidisciplinary, and ecologically valid research designs for TID within team sports.

Decision-making science examines not only what choices people make but how and why they make them. This study investigated whether systematic geographical differences exist in athlete selection within a development program. With 4805 athletes from a state-wide talent search program across 16 sports (19 disciplines) in Australia, selection patterns were analyzed between ‘Regional’ and ‘Metropolitan’ (South East Queensland) athletes. Athletes completed anthropometric, physical, and physiological assessments. A Bayesian hierarchical model revealed Regional athletes face systematically stricter selection thresholds, requiring  1.009 standard deviations higher than Metropolitan athletes to be selected (95% CI [0.656, 1.355], P = 100%). This effect size indicates that Regional athletes must perform at approximately the 84th percentile to achieve the same offering probability as an Metropolitan athlete performing at the 50th percentile. This varied substantially by sport, from 0.899 SD (Archery) to − 0.386 SD (Athletics 400 m). Notably, 16 disciplines showed no clear disparities for Regional athletes (effects ranging from − 0.216 to 0.211 SD). These findings suggest geographical location creates systematic disadvantages in talent selection, likely driven by economic realities, as supporting Regional athletes costs several times more through travel, accommodation, and facilities. Consequently, Regional athletes may require superior performance across selection criteria to justify these additional costs.

Due to the tremendous popularity of youth football, practitioners in this domain face the ongoing question of the most effective solutions in early talent selection. Although the scientific community has suggested multidimensional models for some time, coach assessments and motor performance tests remain common. Earlier research has determined the strengths and weaknesses within these different approaches. The current investigation directly compared the effectiveness of each approach in talent selection (coach assessment vs. motor performance tests vs. multidimensional data). A sample of 117 youth football players, their parents, and coaches participated in multidimensional measurements in the U14 age category (coach assessments, motor performance tests, psychological characteristics, familial support, training history, and biological maturation). The area under the curve (AUC [95% CI]) from receiver operating characteristic indicated the prognostic validity of each approach in predicting U19 player status five years after the assessments (professional vs. non-professional). Motor performance tests (0.71 [0.58; 0.84]) showed a lower AUC than the multidimensional data (0.85 [0.76; 0.94], = 0.02), whilst coach assessments did not differ from the two others (.82 [.74; .90]). Further, combined talent selection approaches, especially the use of coach assessments and multidimensional data together, were significantly better at predicting U19 player status (0.93 [0.87; 0.98], = 0.02 vs. multidimensional data only). Although certain limitations may impede further insights (summation of data, skipped use of non-linear statistics), scientific claims for using multidimensionality within talent selection were confirmed to be fruitful. In particular, the combination of the subjective coaches' eye with scientific data may buffer the mutual weaknesses of these different approaches. Future research should focus on optimizing the output of promising multidimensional models. Knowledge of detailed values relating to specific dimensions within these models and the implementation of enhanced non-linear statistics may enable further improvements in the field of talent selection.