High-level youth Australian Football players are scouted early and placed into a high-level development academy for career progression, but an earlier developing athlete doesn’t always make for a higher performing athlete.
I am examining the characteristics of high-level youth Australian Football players to assess their potential for success as elite athletes. Working with the Sydney Swans Academy, I am taking a multidimensional approach incorporating aspects of anthropometry, motor competence, perceptual-cognitive skill, fitness and coach ratings of technical skill to identify which characteristics are important for career progression and selection into a high-level U16 development program.
In the UTS skill acquisition lab, I am measuring young Australian Football athletes’ ability to make fast and accurate decisions. The virtual reality function and the simultaneous back and front projections of life-size images simulate life-like game-play scenarios to accurately measure players’ perceptual-cognitive abilities.
By providing insight into the age-related differences and/or similarities in high-level youth AFL players, the research will inform and assist scouts, selectors, coaches and managers with the assessment process used for talent identification in young players.
The exposure to the industry and the chance to be embedded within an organisation has led me to a job within a professional sporting organisation.
