Relationship between talent identification methods used by level one qualified track and field coaches' and 100 m sprinting male athletes' performance in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study focused on the talent identification (TI) methods that are used by coaches to identify the right talent at the real stage of the athletes. The current study focused on five TI methods which include physiological, anthropometrical, psychological, sociological, and biological and their components. Other countries had investigated the gap between the TI methods which are used by coaches to identify athletes' performance and athlete's performance based on TI methods. However, literature on TI research in the Sri Lankan context is scarce. The main objective of the study was to identify the relationship between talent identification methods which are used by level one qualified track and field coaches' and their 100 m sprinting male athletes' (in the age group 18 – 25) performance in Sri Lanka. Sixty coaches who qualified of level one course for coaches were used as the study population. A questionnaire and interviews were used to gather information from the coaches. The study considered two variables in the analysis that are athletes' best running timing and five TI methods The findings revealed that, physiological, anthropometrics and psychological methods were strongly but negatively correlated with the athletes' running time while sociological and biological TI methods were correlated moderately negative with the same. The results conclude that physiological, anthropometric, and psychological TI methods are successful in identifying talents of athletes compared to other two methods tested.