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Talent orientation: the impact of motor abilities on future success in table tennis

Talentorientierung: Einfluss der sportmotorischen Fähigkeiten auf den zukünftigen Erfolg im Tischtennis

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Abstract

In talent screening campaigns of primary school children, the aim is to identify talents and assign the children to a sport suitable to their characteristics. Here, the question arises whether these tests can help find talents at the elementary school age. Therefore, this study on table tennis players examined whether second-grade children tested with a battery of nine motor tests (Fulda Movement Check) were able to reach the predicted performance level in later adolescence. For this prognostic validity study, N = 225 U9 table tennis players were tested with two anthropometric and nine general motor tests between 2010 and 2014. These characteristics were then related to the success that table tennis players achieved by 2017. The comparison of table tennis players with soccer players, athletes of other sports, and nonathletes by means of a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that table tennis players were clearly superior to other sports groups in the test tasks of sideward jumping and push-ups. Odds ratios for certain test performance thresholds were calculated to determine probabilities of later success. For a special table tennis recommendation score based on a selection of six of the nine tests, the identification and classification chances (sensitivity and specificity) were determined using a linear discriminant analysis and a neural network (multilayer perceptron). All in all, a medium to high prognostic validity could be proven with the complete motor test battery as well as with the table tennis recommendation score.

Zusammenfassung

In Talentscreeningkampagnen für Grundschulkinder sollen Talente erkannt und Kinder Sportarten zugeführt werden, die zu deren Eigenschaften passen. Hierbei stellt sich mitunter die Frage, ob diese Testungen überhaupt ihr Ziel erfüllen und tatsächlich Talente in dieser Altersgruppe aufspüren können. In der vorliegenden Studie zu Tischtennisspielern wurde daher geprüft, ob die in einem sportmotorischen Test (Fuldaer Bewegungscheck) getesteten Grundschulkinder der zweiten Klasse im späteren Jugendalter das ihnen prognostizierte Leistungsniveau erreichen konnten. Für diese prognostische Validitätsstudie wurden in den Jahren 2010–2014 n = 225 Tischtennisspieler der U9 auf ihre sportmotorischen Fähigkeiten in zwei anthropometrischen und neun allgemeinen Motoriktests getestet. Die erhobenen Merkmalsausprägungen wurden anschließend mit den im Jahr 2017 erreichten Erfolgen in Bezug gesetzt. In einem zusätzlichen Vergleich von Tischtennisspielern mit Fußballspielern, anderen Sportlern und Nichtsportlern zeigte sich, dass Tischtennisspieler vor allem in der Testaufgabe des seitlichen Hin- und Herspringens und im Liegestütztest den anderen Sportgruppen deutlich überlegen waren. Dies konnte auch durch eine univariate Varianzanalyse (ANOVA) bestätigt werden. Für bestimmte Testleistungsschwellenwerte wurden Odds Ratios berechnet, um die Wahrscheinlichkeiten des späteren Erfolgs zu bestimmen. Für einen eigens entwickelten Tischtennisempfehlungswert, basierend auf einer Auswahl von sechs der neun Tests, wurden zudem anhand einer linearen Diskriminanzanalyse und eines neuronalen Netzes (mehrlagiges Perzeptron) die Identifikations- und Klassifikationschancen (Sensitivität und Spezifität) bestimmt. Insgesamt konnte sowohl mit den sportmotorischen Tests als auch mit dem speziell berechneten Tischtennisempfehlungswert eine mittlere bis hohe prognostische Validität nachgewiesen werden.

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Notes

  1. Time for a 20 m linear running sprint; measurement by means of light gates (Brower Timing Systems; Draper, USA); error correction of timing was 0.26 s; starting position was 0.3 m behind the start line.

  2. 15 s of sideward jumping.

  3. 3 × 2 trials stepping backward on a 3.0, 4.5, and 6.0 cm wide beam.

  4. Bend forward.

  5. Timed push-ups and sit-ups with number of reps within 40 s.

  6. Standing long jump.

  7. 6-min run around a volleyball pitch.

  8. Ball weight: 80 gr; both feet on ground behind a line; no step or run-up; measurement perpendicular to measuring tape; accuracy: 0.1 m.

  9. F(3;221) = 2.86; p = 0.038.

  10. F(3;221) = 2.83; p = 0.021.

  11. F(3;221) = 5.20; p = 0.006.

  12. F(3;220) = 5.71; p = 0.001.

  13. F(3; 221) = 2.51; p = 0.058.

  14. F(3; 221) = 2.45; p = 0.065.

  15. Six children could not perform at least one test, so they were excluded from this analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would also like to thank the authorities of the city of Fulda, the Fulda district authorities, and the participating elementary schools for supporting the Fulda Movement campaign since 2010.

Funding

Funding

This study is part of the research project “talent identification,” which was supported by the German Institute of Sport Science (Bonn, Germany).

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  1. Institute of Sports Science, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany

    Maximilian Siener & Andreas Hohmann

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  1. Maximilian Siener
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Correspondence to Maximilian Siener.

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M. Siener and A. Hohmann declare that they have no competing interests.

For this article no studies with human participants or animals were performed by any of the authors. All studies performed were in accordance with the ethical standards indicated in each case.

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Siener, M., Hohmann, A. Talent orientation: the impact of motor abilities on future success in table tennis. Ger J Exerc Sport Res 49, 232–243 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-019-00594-1

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