Sports talent profile of 7-12 years old: Preliminary study of talent identification in Indonesia

Abstract

Talent is a superior ability possessed by a person, it is genetic in nature and is largely determined by the environment in the development process until it reaches the optimal stage. To discover a child's talents, a valid and reliable instrument is needed that is able to detect these talents. This research is the first step in studying children's talents by using an instrument consisting of Anthropometric variables, physical performance (PP), and motor coordination (MC) to obtain profiles of these three performance features. Furthermore, through analysis we will also find out children's talents in sports and reveal the differences between students who have not practiced sports and students who have been trained in sports. This research involved 1001 children (boys= 518, girls= 483) in Pekanbaru City aged 7-12 years and consisted of 2 sample groups, namely students who had participate and had not participate a sports club. The results of this research provide information that there is no difference in anthropometry between students who have participate and those who have not participated a sports club. It turns out that student participation in a sports club has no effect on the anthropometric variables (p=0.278>0.05), as well as gender groups (boys, girls) which do not show any significant differences (p=0.997 >0.000). In terms of motor coordination ability and physical performance, significant differences were found between children who participate and those who did not participate a sports club (p=0.000<0.05). However, in the gender group (boys, girls) there was no significant difference in these two abilities (p=0.997>0.000). Furthermore, there was also no interaction found between children's participation groups in sports and gender on anthropometry, motor coordination and physical performance. Apart from that, using Sekora-SportKompas is also able to predict which sports are suitable for children based on the test results obtained, here are the 3 sports that appear the most; rhythmic gymnastics (total=263; boys=88, girls=175), golf (total=200; boys=104, girls=96) and horse riding (total=179; boys=99, girls=80). In the future, the results of this research will be used as a reference in recruiting athletes and developing long-term athletes.