Determining youth profile using principle component analysis for identifying talent in sports

Abstract

This study attempts to determine youth profile in sports talent identification program. Data of anthropometric and physical fitness included power, agility, speeds, flexibility, strength and endurance were obtained from 600 participants in a sports talent identification program aged 13-15 years. Data analyses were carried out using multivariate analysis of principal component analysis (PCA). PCA revealed three principal components with 71.5% total variation for this studied group. The first component consists of high factor loading in speed variables (10 meter run, 20 meter run, 40 meter run) and endurance (predicted VO₂ max). The second component was constituted by anthropometric variables (weight, height, sitting height and armspan). While third component contains flexibility variable (sit and reach). These selected variables of anthropometric and fitness are, therefore, revealed as the essential attributes those must be prioritized for a talent scouting in sports. Present results had demonstrated youth profile that capable of providing an information that could help coaches in decision making during athlete selection in sports talent identification.