Talento esportivo no contexto escolar: dados normativos e validação de um índice de potencial esportivo

Abstract

The importance of Physical Education as the first step in the process of identifying and developing sports talents has been highlighted by several researchers. In practice, teachers need tools to estimate the sporting potential of their students validly and reliably. At school, this has been predominantly done through batteries of tests, but which only measure the students' motor performance. General Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to measure multidimensional indicators of sporting potential in schoolchildren, generating normative values (cutoff points), stratified by age and sex, with the aim of creating an index for assessing the sporting potential of students. Methods: 2.794 students of both sexes, aged 11 to 17 years old, from a military school, who were evaluated between 2015 and 2019, participated in this longitudinal-mixed study. Students took the Projeto Atletas de Ouro® battery of tests, containing anthropometric, physical-motor, psychological, environmental, and maturational indicators, in addition to intangible aspects and expectations of future success of students, according to the teachers' opinion. The Sports Potential Index was composed by the sum of the percentile values of the following indicators: strength, speed, endurance, perceived competence, intangible aspects, and potential evaluated by the teacher, with a range from 0 to 100%. Students with a score >75% were classified as sporting talents. The thesis was structured in the format of two articles. Results: Article 1 – Reference values were reported for boys and girls aged 11 to 17 years, considering the 10th, 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 75th, 90th, 98th percentiles for the following tests and measurements: body mass, height, sitting height, lower limb length, body mass index, body fat percentage, sit-and-reach test, 10m and 20m sprint, handgrip, countermovement jump, 2kg medicine ball throw, multi-stage-fitness-test, motivational orientation, coping skills, family support and intangible aspects of sporting potential. Differences between boys and girls were reported. Article 2 - 11.2% of boys (n = 70) and 9.4% of girls (n = 40) were identified as sporting talents. The internal consistency of the Sports Potential Index (r > 0.70) and the stability of the diagnosis 12 and 24 months after the first evaluation were high (ICC > 0.75). Students selected for the Jogos da Amizade Championship (construct validity) and those who won medals (criterion validity) had a higher Sports Potential Index when compared to non- selected students and non-medalists. After 24 months, more than 90% of students classified as non-talented maintained their classification, while about 50% of those who were athletic talents ceased to be so. Furthermore, biological maturation had little or no correlation with the Sports Potential Index; and it did not correlate with the classification of sporting talent. Conclusions: Reference values (cutoff points) were established for the test battery of the Projeto Atletas de Ouro®, which allowed the creation of a multidimensional index for evaluating the sporting potential of students, which combines objective data (strength, speed, and endurance) with the student's perception of motor competence and the teacher's assessment of potential. The results found showed that the Sports Potential Index is valid and reliable for estimating the sports potential of students aged 13 to 17 years-old of both sexes, constituting an innovative, useful scientific tool that is easy to apply in practice for identifying talents for sports at school.