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Adam Kelly: Talent, Bias, Belief
In this episode of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast I am joined by Professor Adam Kelly, Professor of Sport and Exercise at Birmingham City University.
Adam leads the Research for Athlete and Youth Sport Development Lab. With a background as Head of Academy Sports Science at Exeter City Football Club, Adam bridges the gap between academic research and applied coaching practice. His work spans collaborations with FIFA, the ECB, Olympic Lyonnais, and the South Asian Cricket Academy, focusing on talent identification and development processes in sport.
Three Key Messages
1. Understand the person before the player: One of the most important shifts coaches and pathway designers can make is to look beyond sporting attributes and first understand who the athlete is as a person. Factors like relative age, biological maturity, training age, family background, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity can all significantly shape how a player performs at any given moment. By understanding these individual characteristics first, coaches can better readjust their assessment of current performance and make more informed judgements about longer-term potential.
2. Widen the pool - different pathways for different players: Delaying selection matters, but so does broadening who gets considered. Adam shared two powerful examples: England Squash's birthday banding approach, which evaluates players as individuals rather than against age-group peers, and Denmark's Futures Team in football, a parallel pathway for younger or later-maturing players that has produced just as many senior international players as the traditional performance pathway. The message for clubs and pathway designers is clear - one route doesn't fit all, and widening the talent pool now pays dividends later.
3. Talent ID systems are designed for children: A simple but profound reframe: talent identification systems are built around children, yet they are rarely designed with children truly at the centre. Adam challenges coaches and organisations to ensure children's rights are actively lived and realised within their pathways, from child protection checks on scouts and recruiters, to consulting young athletes on the shape and experience of the pathway itself. The asset value placed on young players in some systems can all too easily overshadow the fact that they are children first.
Other Things Worth Knowing
The TIDE Society: Adam co-founded the Talent Identification and Development Environments for Sport Society (TIDE), a global network of over 150 researchers and practitioners across more than 20 countries. Their forthcoming position statement outlines 13 principles of talent identification, a practical and reflective framework for coaches, recruiters, and pathway designers. It will be published as an open-access paper in the Journal of Sport Sciences. Watch this space.
The South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA): A standout initiative born from research revealing that Asian cricketers were significantly underrepresented at professional level despite being overrepresented in the talent pathway, and despite showing no meaningful difference in bowling, batting, or physical metrics compared to white peers. SACA provides an intensive programme for 18–24 year olds, and in four years has seen 18 players sign professional contracts, nearly doubling Asian representation in first-class counties. Find out more here: https://www.saca-uk.com/
The coach's eye, valuable but not enough on its own: Experience genuinely matters in talent identification, but it also carries risk. Subjective judgement informed by personal experience can lead to unconscious bias. Even highly experienced scouts interpret players differently. Adam encourages coaches to pair their intuition with an evidence-informed, intersectional lens - one that considers who the athlete is, not just what they can currently do.
Adam’s Game Changing Advice: "Believe in every athlete — don't form a fixed mindset about potential too early."
Those selected gain confidence, opportunity, and development. Those not selected lose it. Keeping an open mind about who can develop, and over what timeframe might be the most important habit a talent identifier can build.
Get in touch:
Tom’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/
Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamlkelly/
View all episodes
By Tom HartleyIn this episode of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast I am joined by Professor Adam Kelly, Professor of Sport and Exercise at Birmingham City University.
Adam leads the Research for Athlete and Youth Sport Development Lab. With a background as Head of Academy Sports Science at Exeter City Football Club, Adam bridges the gap between academic research and applied coaching practice. His work spans collaborations with FIFA, the ECB, Olympic Lyonnais, and the South Asian Cricket Academy, focusing on talent identification and development processes in sport.
Three Key Messages
1. Understand the person before the player: One of the most important shifts coaches and pathway designers can make is to look beyond sporting attributes and first understand who the athlete is as a person. Factors like relative age, biological maturity, training age, family background, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity can all significantly shape how a player performs at any given moment. By understanding these individual characteristics first, coaches can better readjust their assessment of current performance and make more informed judgements about longer-term potential.
2. Widen the pool - different pathways for different players: Delaying selection matters, but so does broadening who gets considered. Adam shared two powerful examples: England Squash's birthday banding approach, which evaluates players as individuals rather than against age-group peers, and Denmark's Futures Team in football, a parallel pathway for younger or later-maturing players that has produced just as many senior international players as the traditional performance pathway. The message for clubs and pathway designers is clear - one route doesn't fit all, and widening the talent pool now pays dividends later.
3. Talent ID systems are designed for children: A simple but profound reframe: talent identification systems are built around children, yet they are rarely designed with children truly at the centre. Adam challenges coaches and organisations to ensure children's rights are actively lived and realised within their pathways, from child protection checks on scouts and recruiters, to consulting young athletes on the shape and experience of the pathway itself. The asset value placed on young players in some systems can all too easily overshadow the fact that they are children first.
Other Things Worth Knowing
The TIDE Society: Adam co-founded the Talent Identification and Development Environments for Sport Society (TIDE), a global network of over 150 researchers and practitioners across more than 20 countries. Their forthcoming position statement outlines 13 principles of talent identification, a practical and reflective framework for coaches, recruiters, and pathway designers. It will be published as an open-access paper in the Journal of Sport Sciences. Watch this space.
The South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA): A standout initiative born from research revealing that Asian cricketers were significantly underrepresented at professional level despite being overrepresented in the talent pathway, and despite showing no meaningful difference in bowling, batting, or physical metrics compared to white peers. SACA provides an intensive programme for 18–24 year olds, and in four years has seen 18 players sign professional contracts, nearly doubling Asian representation in first-class counties. Find out more here: https://www.saca-uk.com/
The coach's eye, valuable but not enough on its own: Experience genuinely matters in talent identification, but it also carries risk. Subjective judgement informed by personal experience can lead to unconscious bias. Even highly experienced scouts interpret players differently. Adam encourages coaches to pair their intuition with an evidence-informed, intersectional lens - one that considers who the athlete is, not just what they can currently do.
Adam’s Game Changing Advice: "Believe in every athlete — don't form a fixed mindset about potential too early."
Those selected gain confidence, opportunity, and development. Those not selected lose it. Keeping an open mind about who can develop, and over what timeframe might be the most important habit a talent identifier can build.
Get in touch:
Tom’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/
Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamlkelly/