South Africa has a large reservoir of sporting talent. This includes athletes already participating in sport along with latent (undiscovered) talent. There is a need for these talented athletes to be identified and selected more effectively so as to assist National Federations (NFs) in their development projects. This will also facilitate the fast tracking of athletes from previously disadvantaged communities ultimately resulting in the selection of national teams being more representative of the composition of the South African population. With careful planning and optimal utilisation of limited resources, a program can be set in place that will accommodate the varying needs of sports at the present time. However, this program should be refined and improved over time in order to readily adapt to relevant social influences and the dynamic environment associated with high level sport. Talent Identification and Selection is a complex area of the sports sciences as it requires multi-disciplinary models to be developed. This may include consideration of kinanthropometry, physiology, psycho-social influences, biomechanics, perceptual-motor and decision making processes and sociology. This should be interfaced with an awareness of growth and maturational issues across the developmental cycle. There is no one correct model for talent identification and selection. It is dependant on the complexity of the sport (from a predictive perspective) and the infrastructure of the sport at a local, provincial and national level. Before describing the type of models that may be necessary, it is of benefit to provide some clarity with regard to terminology in the area of talent identification and selection. Following this, some of the key issues which need to be considered, are also described.
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