Sporting talent in volleyball is multidimensional and the identification process involves a battery of tests and the coach's subjective evaluation. However, there is a lack of studies that evaluated talent in volleyball in a multidimensional way, including the coach's evaluation. The aims was to compare multidimensional indicators of sporting talent in volleyball among athletes from youth categories and young adult elite males and investigate differences in relation to sporting potential, according to the subjective evaluation of the coach. The study involved 64 Brazilian male volleyball athletes and were divided by age groups: U-15, U-17, U-19 and young adults; and according to the sporting potential assessed by the coach: high and low potential. Anthropometric, physical-motor, psychological, environmental indicators, relative age effect, and sporting potential were evaluated. There was a significant difference between age groups for all anthropometric and physical-motor variables, except in the sum of skinfolds and flexibility. Differences were also observed in the motivational orientation, family support, age of beginning of practice and sporting potential variables. Regarding the evaluation of the coach, the high potential presented higher values for body size and strength of the upper limbs in relation to the low potential. Thus, according to the increasing age, male volleyball athletes become increasingly taller, with better physical-motor abilities, greater goal orientation and better evaluation of sporting potential performed by the coach. When discriminating the potential of athletes, coaches seem to attribute more weight to anthropometric and physical-motor aspects than other factors.
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