Reimagining Talent Development in Sport

This book examines the processes, systems and fundamental beliefs about talent. It brings together researchers, practitioners and former Olympic athletes to re-imagine the way talent development programmes work. This book imagines an environment that achieves sporting success and long-term athlete wellbeing.

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Reimagining Talent Development in Sport takes a fresh look at the processes, systems and fundamental beliefs about talent. It brings together researchers, practitioners and former Olympic athletes to re-imagine the way talent development programmes work and the foundational values they are built on. This book imagines an environment that is able to achieve both sporting success and long-term athlete wellbeing.

Talent development systems are now part and parcel of all effective high performance sport systems in Olympic and professional sports. Talented young athletes are being recruited into programmes at ever younger ages as sports are looking to identify and attract athletes who they perceive have potential to become senior elite performers. However, there are fundamental challenges for talent systems in the way that they treat the young athletes within them. Just the ‘mathematics’ of talent development means that there will always be higher numbers of young athletes who are rejected by a system than ever become elite adult performers. So, we need new ways of thinking that allow us to find ways of nurturing athletic potential at the same time as developing the person.

Reimagining Talent Development in Sport examines new ways of conceptualising talent programmes so that the young athlete is seen as a whole person first and an athlete second. The book touches upon a wide range of topics encompassing sociological perspectives, philosophical thinking and new ideas on re-defining ‘success’, as well as discussing programmes that are already being implemented in pursuit of creating more ethical and positive approaches to talent development. Accessible to both academics and practitioners, Reimaging Talent Development in Sport is key reading for practitioners and academics who have an interest in talent development, skill acquisition and coaching programmes.