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Talent Development in Sport Requires Athlete Enrichment: Contemporary Insights from a Nonlinear Pedagogy and the Athletic Skills Model

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Abstract

Traditional talent identification and development programs have sought to identify and select the most promising children as athletes of the future, to provide them with specialised training and preparation for expert performance in sport from an early age. Traditional models of talent identification and development tend to be linear, emphasising the numbers of hours spent in specialised training. However, major concerns have been raised by evidence emerging on psycho-emotional and physical issues with early specialisation programmes, and negative associations with wellbeing and mental health. More contemporary models of talent development emphasise a deep integration of specialised training with more general enrichment of athleticism. This integrative process enhances self-regulation processes of perception and action, as well as emotional control and social interactions, all of which underpin sports performance at elite and sub-elite levels. Here, we discuss insights and principles of contemporary models of pedagogy, such as Nonlinear Pedagogy (NLP) and the Athletic Skills Model (ASM), which offer valuable frameworks for talent development. We conclude by considering implications of adopting such principles for developing athlete functionality in specific performance environments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIFI2D, Centre of Research, Education, Innovation and Intervention in Sport, Faculdade de Desporto, Universidade Do Porto, Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, 91, 4200‑450, Porto, Portugal

    João Ribeiro, Pedro Silva, Patrícia Coutinho, Daniel Barreira & Júlio Garganta

  2. Sport & Human Performance Research Group, Sheffield Hallam University, Broomgrove Teaching Block, Broomgrove Road, Sheffield, S10 2LX, UK

    Keith Davids

Authors
  1. João Ribeiro
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  2. Keith Davids
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  3. Pedro Silva
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  4. Patrícia Coutinho
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  5. Daniel Barreira
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  6. Júlio Garganta
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Contributions

J.R.: conceived the idea of this paper and wrote the first draft; K.D., P.S., P.C., D.B., and J.G.: significantly contributed to further drafts and all read and edited the paper.

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Correspondence to João Ribeiro.

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João Ribeiro, Keith Davids, Pedro Silva, Patrícia Coutinho, Daniel Barreira, and Júlio Garganta declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of the article.

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Ribeiro, J., Davids, K., Silva, P. et al. Talent Development in Sport Requires Athlete Enrichment: Contemporary Insights from a Nonlinear Pedagogy and the Athletic Skills Model. Sports Med 51, 1115–1122 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01437-6

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