PhD on Talent Development in Team Sports: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

Gagné’s Differentiated Model of Giftedness and Talent (2000) suggests that talent development is a process dependent on the interaction of multiple factors. However, research regarding talent development in team sports has tended to be cross-sectional and unidimensional in nature. That is, athletes of variant standards (e.g., elite vs. non-elite) are compared at one time point on the basis of their physical characteristics, for example. While some research has simultaneously considered physical and technical indicators of talent in team sports (Honer, Leyhr, & Kelava, 2017), there has been less focus on incorporating psychological factors within a multidisciplinary approach. This is despite scholars suggesting that the role of psychology is central to negotiating talent pathways (MacNamara, Button, Collins, 2010a, 2010b).

Thus, there is a need to adopt a multidisciplinary approach, whereby the interaction of psychological, physical, and technical aspects are considered in examining the development of talented team sport athletes. Furthermore, as talent development is considered a process, a longitudinal approach is required to examine age- and maturity-related changes in these factors as athletes progress toward elite senior status.

The overall aim of this PhD will be to investigate how the psychological, physical, and technical characteristics of talented sports team athletes develop, and how the interaction of these factors influence progression. As the project will be guided by psychological theories and models and the role of psychological characteristics will form a major part of the investigation, an appreciation of sport psychology alongside the other aspects of sport sciences will be important