Overview

Broadly speaking, the course is divided into three parts; 1. demographics, 2. psychosocial, and 3. practice and training’. Part 1 will address issues related to the athletes background and upbringing. Part 2 will shed light on the psychological 'make-up' of athletes in order to better understand 'talented' mind-sets. In part 3 we will look at optimising practice and training throughout development. Considerations regarding the level impact on the effective development of talent and identification of talent will be a central theme to all three sections; including gender nuances, talent pathway infrastructure and good education plus balancing talent development with well-being.

Broadly speaking, the course is divided into three parts; 1. demographics, 2. psychosocial, and 3. practice and training’. Part 1 will address issues related to the athletes background and upbringing. Part 2 will shed light on the psychological 'make-up' of athletes in order to better understand 'talented' mind-sets. In part 3 we will look at optimising practice and training throughout development. Considerations regarding the level impact on the effective development of talent and identification of talent will be a central theme to all three sections.

Assessment Strategy

-threshold -(D) To be awarded a pass mark, students must be able to demonstrate a basic level of competence when describing the demographic, psychosocial, and practice and training experiences that characterise talent and success in sport. Students should also be able to provide a basic understanding of how these understandings should be considered by sports when designing development pathways. The above is supported with minimal in-text citations, references are generally formatted to departmental guidelines, and the are some occasional formatting and grammatical errors.

-good -(B) To be awarded a good mark, students must be able to demonstrate a detailed and evidenced based level of competence when describing the demographic, psychosocial, and practice and training experiences that characterise talent and success in sport. Students should also be able to provide an empirically informed and good understanding of how these factors should be considered by sports when designing development pathways. The above is supported with in-text citations, references are formatted to departmental guidelines, and formatting or grammatical errors are occasionally evident.

-excellent -(A) To be awarded an excellent mark, students must be able to demonstrate an extremely detailed and evidenced based level of competence when describing the demographic, psychosocial, and practice and training experiences that characterise talent and success in sport. Students should also be able to provide an empirically informed and excellent understanding of how these factors should be considered by sports when designing development pathways. The above will be supported with in-text citations, references are formatted to departmental guidelines, and formatting or grammatical errors are not present.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe both the main psychosocial variables and practice and training variables that influence successful talent development and identification

• Describe the main demographic variables that influence successful talent development and identification

• Offer descriptions surrounding of how critical psychosocial, and practice activities can be implemented into practical talent development and identification programmes.