Identifying the important factors in talent identification through the comparison of anthropometric, physiological, psychological and skill variables of elite and non-elite volleyball players.

Volleyball is one of the most popular and attractive sports among different societies, and developing talent programs to discover and nurture talents and determine the contribution of different talent indicators in this sport, a development and research is needed. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to compare the anthropometric, physiological, psychological, and skill variables of elite volleyball players with different positions and non-elite volleyball players.  

250 elite youth volleyball players and the same number of non-elite male players in the positions of middle defense, passer, libero, power receiver and middle defense while they were selected as available and participated in this study. Anthropometric indices, physiological capabilities, psychological characteristics and skill abilities of the participants were measured by field and experimental methods. For statistical analysis, one-way analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis statistical methods were used.

The results showed that the aerobic and anaerobic power, height, sitting height index, arm span, leg cororal, psychological variables (motivation, self-confidence, goal setting, tension, depression, anger, vitality, fatigue, confusion), service, pass and spike skill of the elite volleyball group were significantly higher than the non-elite group (p<0.05).  On the other hand, body mass index, sitting height, arm span, and forearm brachial index, did not show any significant differences between players of different volleyball positions (p>0.05).

According to the results of the present study, for scientific sports talent identification, besides anthropometric and physiological variables, psychological and skill variables should also be considered to identify talent. It is suggested to use anthropometric variables that were more different than others to find talent for different volleyball positions.