The Centre for Sports Science, Government of Karnataka, has come out with a study on talent identification in sports.
The objective of the study titled “Formulation of Framework for Sports Talent Identification” is to help sports scientists and coaches to not only identify talent, but also to groom them to fetch medals for India, said Mr Antony Chacko, Director of Centre.
A comparison of human performance attributes in prepubertal age and puberty was conducted as part of the study. “The subjects of this non-randomized, cross-sectional study with a sample size of 2,477 were divided based on location confined to Karnataka State in India of which males were 1,905 and females were 572”.
The study was conducted by the Research and Development Department of the Centre for Sports Science, Kanteerava Stadium, and the data was collected between December 2020 and September 2021.
The participants were recruited from different districts of Karnataka and they were aged between 8 years and 20 years, suffering from no injuries, pain or deformities. The participants were divided into two groups – prepuberty and puberty.
The protocol that was used in the assessment was the NAMSLA which is abbreviated as the following Non-fatiguing tests, Agility tests, Maximum muscle strength and maximum muscle power tests, Speed tests, Local muscular endurance tests and an Aerobic test, Mr Chacko explained.
“There was a statistically significant difference between both the groups in all attributes of NAMSLA framework at a significance level of <0.05. However, body mass index (BMI), visceral fat, bone mass, protein and speed were insignificant”, said Mr Swetank Kumar Pathak, who has co-authored the study along with Aditya Subramanyam and Blessy Philip.
The Sports Talent Identification and Ranking Framework would help the researcher and sports scientists to create a talent pool and groom them to attain podium place in national and international events.
The study has also been published in the International Journal of Recent Scientific Research, Mr Chacko said.
The Centre for Sports Science, which conducted a sports talent search programme using scientific methodology in different parts of the State including Mysuru as part of an initiative of the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) last year, is coming up with a Sports Science Centre in Mandya Indoor Stadium, which will have a mobile sports science lab vehicle to cover Mysuru, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Mangaluru and Udupi districts, he said.
