Research Impact: In youth sport, coaches often rely on subjective assessments of current ability and future potential, which may favour players advanced in biological maturation. This study evaluated the accuracy of coaches’ maturity assessments and their impact on perceptions of player ability and potential, as well the inter-coach agreement on talent and maturity evaluations. The findings suggest that the ‘coaches’ eye’ may be inaccurate for estimating maturation. Additionally, there was poor inter-coach agreement in identifying talented athletes, indicating the ‘coach’s eye’ is subjective and variable. These results may have significant implications for future talent identification research and processes in sport organizations.
Fitzgerald, F., Campbell, M., Kearney, P.E. and Cumming, S.P., 2024. The eyes don’t have it: Coaches’ eye is not a valid method of estimating biological maturation in male Gaelic football. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, p.17479541241290585.
Read the full paper here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/17479541241290585
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