players as "not straightforward" due to the numerous variables that exist in the talent identification of prepubescent athletes in a team sport, such as soccer, versus those in an individual sport. Therefore, asone reviews the literature involved in talent identification of youth soccer players, one will not find aconcrete process used to select talented youth. Instead, one will find variant styles of identification thatutilize and emphasize a diverse combination of factors to test and analyze prospects. From thesehundreds of factors, there are eight that are consistently used by the coaches, scouts, sportspsychologists, and administrators: visual search strategies, decision making and anticipation,motivational orientation, shooting, dribbling, aerobic power, and anaerobic power. These eightcharacteristics can be grouped into three specific categories: physiological, psychological, and soccerspecific.Arguably the most important of these factors is soccer specific skill performance. According to RobStahl, Ohio South Director of Coaching and Soccer Education, both the French and the Dutch are mostinterested in sound technique and skill. The French system will not teach soccer team strategy andtechniques to the youth players until they have mastered their individual skills (Stahl, Session withFrench National Team).Reilly and Holmes have identified three components that are key to the assessment of skill play:shooting, ball control, and dribbling (qtd. Morris). Dribbling is the act of moving the ball using one'sfeet passed defenders and towards open space. Ball control is the act of controlling the ball'smovement, speed, and direction during dribbling, trapping and shooting, which is the act of striking theball towards the goal with one's foot. There are many methods of assessing ball control and dribbling,but one of the most popular is slalom dribbling. Morris describes slalom dribbling as dribbling a zigzagpath around cones with the ball from one point to an end line and then back. According to JeremySutton, a National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) specialist, the object of this drill isto complete the path quickly, as it is timed, and efficiently, since one is penalized for every cone that isknocked over. The evaluation for the shooting skill of a soccer player entails shooting a ball fromapproximately nine meters toward nine targets that are located in the goal (Morris). The player has nineballs to hit all nine targets and is awarded points for every target hit. The scores from these two testsare tallied together in order to give the coaches, scouts, and administrators an excellent profile for theindividual soccer-specific skills of each talent.The characteristics that are crucial to the assessment of individual technique are decision making,anticipation, and perceptual skill. In soccer, decision making is the process of thinking about a certainaction, such as dribbling, passing, or shooting, and then executing. A. M. Williams argues that at theyoung ages of seven to nine one can distinguish between high and low skilled soccer-specific decisionmakers. The test that analyzes the level of a player's soccer-decision making skill utilizes ten problems,which are commonly found in a soccer match. These problems are captured on photographic slides andprojected onto a monitor. In order to replicate a game situation where a player is under constant mentaland physical stress, the players are asked if they would either pass, run, shoot, or dribble while they arecycling on a cycle ergometer at seventy percent and one hundred percent of their maximal poweroutput (Mc Morris and Graydon). Anticipation involves having an instinct for where a teammate or
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