Talents in sport psychology: a look at the research

Abstract

Talent is characterized by a higher level of mastery that results of a systematic development of skills in one or more fields of human activity (Gagné, 2009). In sport context, to achieve this level of mastery athletes must reveal well-developed anthropometric, physiological, technical, tactical and psychological characteristics (Elferink-Gemser, Visscher, Lemmink, & Mulder, 2004). Given the diversity and complexity of factors involved, the process of developing talents in sport requires a holistic and dynamic monitoring, typical of interactionist approaches which consider the individual, his genetic inheritance and the influence of psycho-social variables (Baker & Davids, 2007). This work aims to make an analysis of relevant scientific literature in this area, in order to understand firstly, the main problems faced by experts who study this subject, and secondly, to identify new study variables and methodological research paths which may be exploited in the future.