ID: hksportsinstitute
Talent Identification and Development Unit
About the Program
The HKSI’s Talent Identification & Development (TID) Programme was launched in 2013. Benchmarked against the TID programmes of global sports institutes, our programme is based on the FTEM (Foundation, Talent, Elite and Mastery) model (Figure 1) of long-term athlete development, and the underlying principle of biopsychosocial aspects of elite athlete development. The essence of FTEM is to create an environment that allows junior athletes to build a multi-disciplinary understanding of their talent, and to retain and nurture them in the programme.
Figure 1 - FTEM Model
The TID Programme provides support to National Sports Associations (NSAs) and athletes with an aim to increase the number of talented athletes in NSAs and track their development, and ultimately lead them to the elite athlete pipeline. The scope of services of the programme include:
1. Talent Testing Programme (TTP)
It assesses physical attributes by way of dedicated assessment days in order to verify potential talents in NSA squads, enabling them to receive higher level of training and specific sport training.
The TTP is divided into two parts. The first part provides regular monitoring of an athlete's performance, aiming to build a database of Hong Kong athletes' physical attributes. Athletic attributes including endurance, agility, speed, strength, reaction time and repeat sprint ability are tested.
The second part is a one-off testing day to verify talented athletes to support NSAs in their quest to find new talents.
2. Sports Specific Programme (SSP)
It is designed to support NSAs in talent verification processes through a three-month training programme and a one-day scientific assessment in order to verify if the physically gifted athletes have the technical, emotional and tactical abilities required to be elite performers. Selected athletes are coached and technically assessed by NSA coaches.
