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October, 2008
Talent Identification in the Western World - Over funded and Over rated.
The concept of Talent Identification - TID for short - makes sense.
Do some standardised testing and screening of lots of kids, find the ones who can run faster, run further, jump longer, stretch better than the rest and bingo- you found talent!
It all grew out of the now ”mythical” talent identification systems of the old Eastern Block (and more recently China) - and the countless stories we have all heard for the past 30 years about how the centralised government systems put every child in the nation through a series of TID testing protocols and then funnelled them in to the specific sports where their talent was most likely to be developed to its full potential.
But in the western world, in spite of the hundreds of millions of dollars thrown at TID in Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Western Europe, with the exception of a few minor and specialised sports - it has failed and failed badly.
Yet TID is the first thing on the “wish list” of nations, provinces, cities and sporting organisations when they are putting together a high performance sports program.
Why have so many got it wrong?
October 29, 2008 | 3 Comments
Tags: AFL, American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Coaching, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Rowing, Rugby, Rugby League, Soccer, Swimming, Track and Field, Triathlon
What’s the difference between Medicine and Sports Medicine?
I was recently asked to talk to a group of students about high performance sport. We discussed all the “usual” topics: talent identification, sports science, elite coach development and sports medicine.
One of the students asked me, “Is there a difference between Medicine (as in general practice medicine) and Sports Medicine as it exists in high performance sport”?
Here’s what I replied:
October 15, 2008 | 1 Comment
Tags: American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Olympic Games, Olympics, Performance Science, Rowing, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Triathlon
Not another Academy of Sport…..aaaaargh!
- Academy of Sport?
- Institute of Sport?
- Elite Sports Academy?
- Centre of Excellence?
- High Performance Centre?
Call it what you will - it’s the same thing.
Why this world wide obsession with Academies / Institutes and Centres?
And more importantly, do they actually make a difference to the performance of elite athletes?
October 13, 2008 | 4 Comments
Tags: American Football, Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Judo, Netball, Rowing, Soccer, Swimming, Track and Field, Triathlon
Coach driven, Athlete Focused, Administratively supported? Isn’t it time we did something different?
Thanks for visiting the Brain today while doing your daily web surfing.
While you are in the surfing mood, go and check out some other sporting web sites.
Specifically check out the web sites of the funding agenices, Institutes and Academies of the major Olympics sporting nations.
You will see something like this - on ALL sites:
“Our philosophy is to embrace an athlete centred, coach driven and administratively supported high performance environment”.
This is a fantastic philosophy……….for about 1993.
Isn’t it time we did something different?
October 1, 2008 | 1 Comment
Tags: Athletics, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Football, Gymnastics, Hockey, Netball, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Track and Field, Triathlon
