Mapping Sport Talent Profiles Among Female Elementary School Students Based on Standardized Identification Tests
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31851/hon.v9i1.21421Abstract
This study was motivated by the absence of scientific data concerning the sport talent profiles of female elementary school students in Clusters I, II, and III of the City of Payakumbuh. The lack of objective talent mapping has the potential to hinder the effectiveness of early-age sport development programs. Accordingly, this study aimed to describe the results of sport talent detection tests administered to children aged 7–12 years in the form of sport recommendations aligned with their physical characteristics. A descriptive research design was employed, involving 186 female students from several elementary schools grouped into three clusters. The instrument utilized was the SEKORA sport talent detection test, which comprises three principal components: anthropometry (height and body mass), motor coordination (eye–hand coordination, jumping sideways, moving sideways, balance beam/walking backward, and shuttle throw), and physical performance (10 × 5 m shuttle run, endurance shuttle run, sit-and-reach, shoulder rotation, standing broad jump, curl-up, and knee push-up). Field measurement data were entered into the web-based SEKORA system and automatically processed using machine learning algorithms to generate individualized sport recommendations. Data were analyzed descriptively using percentage distributions. The findings revealed that across the seven categories of sport recommendations, all were predominantly sports that emphasize flexibility as a primary physical component. The respective dominance percentages from the first to the seventh recommendation were (1) 50%; (2) 62.90%; (3) 48.39%; (4) 53.23%; (5) 55.38%; (6) 54.84%; and (7) 54.30%. These results indicate that flexibility constitutes a prominent biomotor component among female students aged 7–12 years in the study area. In conclusion, the Sport Search (SEKORA)-based talent identification system is effective in objectively mapping sport talent tendencies and can serve as a foundational framework for planning early-age sport development programs aligned with children’s developmental characteristics and the principles of long-term athlete development.
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