ABSTRACT
Children and adolescents are encouraged to participate in athletic competition for several reasons. For many, the participation is simply an opportunity to engage in activities that are fun, social, and healthy for mind and body. For others, whether internally or externally driven, their goals and aspirations reach a much higher level, namely that of becoming an elite athlete with the hope of securing a position on a professional or Olympic team. Behind these young athletes are numerous stakeholders, including family members, coaches, and sponsors, who can be intimately involved in the development of athletic potential, all with similar hopes of greatness for the athlete, though perhaps for more self-serving reasons. The culture and economy surrounding athletic excellence has produced a demand for early talent identification, the process of recognizing a propensity for athletic excellence, to streamline the process of talent development ensuring that resources are efficiently utilized and future stars have a chance to develop. But the efficacy of talent identification strategies is limited due to the complexity of physical and psychological development in children, as well as numerous other factors, including the sport, types of evaluations, and interpretation of data (3, 6). Because the financial and social consequences for helping to develop an elite athlete are so high, talent identification remains an area of great interest for many in the world of sports.
