Dotação física e talento para esporte em estudantes do ensino fundamental: análise de uma proposta de identificação

Abstract

Providing conditions for sports talent (ST) to be cultivated since school years is primary because, besides its social importance, it is also a means of promoting self-fulfillment. However, ST is one of the main and most controversial issues of research in sports sciences, including Psychology. One of the main debates is regarding the role of the organism and the environment on its establishment. The Differential Model of Gift and Talent (DMGT 2.0) represents a theoretical alternative that integrates these and other dimensions, and can explain ST. In order to analyse the nature and possible determiners of ST, emphasizing its manifestation on students, three studies were carried out. The first one analyzed today's art conditions of ST researches. In order to do so, it analyzed the scientific production indexed in international databases (PsycINFO, Web of Sciense, Sport Discus) and in a national one (SciELO). The conclusion was that ST has not received little attention in the sciences field. Such attention, when it happens, is focussed on young male soccer players. In Brazil, the art conditions are even worse. The second study analyzed physical abilities, emphasizing their role in the identification of gifted people (10% more capable) and compared their manifestation in both genders. Furthermore, the magnitude of age effect, maturation and practice were estimated in the identification of this kind of gift. Primary school students (N=346) went under tests of anthropometric measures and physical aptitude. Groups of boys and girls with physical abilities showed equivalent dimensions. The analysis of the main components identified that the group of measures can be organized in two types of gift: Anthropometric Gift (AG) and Technical Gift (TG). Having them as base and with a general score, five gift profiles were created. No difference between genders was observed regarding AG. As for TG, it was concluded that girls are more flexible and boys had better results in the remaining variables. Age and, mainly, maturation had an important effect in the identification of some gifts, specially AG. The third study analyzed, with models of structural equations (MSE), the DMGT 2.0, specifically seven distinct relations between physical gift, environmental and intrapersonal catalyzers, development process and ST. Primary school students of public schools went under questionnaires, scales and a series of anthropometric and physical aptitude tests. The MSE that was considered more suitable for ST showed that the contribution of the development process is mediated significatively and respectively by catalyzers and gift, when the latter presented better direct effect. In general, all three studies indicate that STs are multifaceted, complex, dynamic and need to be researched.