Investigate the Most Important Characteristics of Elite Volleyball Players for Sports Talent Identification.

This research aimed to investigate the most important characteristics of elite volleyball players to identify sports talents. 150 elite and 150 non-elite volleyball players were selected by random sampling and accessible to perform the tests. The measured variables included anthropometric indices, physiological abilities, psychological characteristics, and skill abilities. Independent t-test and the Mann-Whitney statistical test were used to compare the variables of the two groups. Principal component analysis was used to determine the main variables. The significance level of 0.05 was considered. The result showed the variables of height, arm span index, brachial index, leg cororal index, aerobic power, anaerobic power, vigor, hand grip strength, Sargent's jump, spike jump, overhead serve, forearm, and overhead pass in elite volleyball players were significantly higher than in non-elite players. Variables of weight, body mass index, sitting height index, waist-to-hip circumference index, tension, and anger were significantly higher in non-elite players than in elite players. By using principal component analysis, the most important variables in the research to identify elite volleyball players were obtained, respectively: height, overhead serve and forearm pass, vigor, sitting height index, brachial index, spike jump, and anaerobic power. In the current research, the differences between the elite and non-elite groups, along with the most important variables from the anthropometric, physiological, psychological, and skill areas of the elite volleyball players, were obtained, and the main variables for the identification of sports talent were determined.