CEBU, Philippines - The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) through the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) has formally launched its Sports Mapping Action Research for Talent Identification (MART ID) program in the Visayas yesterday the Sacred Heart School Mango Avenue campus.
“The program of the Philippine Sports Commission through the Philippine Sports Institute is for talent identification. This is the flagship program of PSC chairman Butch Ramirez to identify talents for future competitions,” said Prof. Henry Daut, PSI's deputy national director and grassroots development head.
“We are trying to look for sports talents for the grassroots. What we are doing here is testing the kids for their performance skills that will also direct them to a specific sport where they have the potential,” Daut added.
For a start, 58 selected Physical Education (PE) teachers all over the region have undergone their practicum where they personally performed the basic tests to identify the potential of a kid. They will then impart the basic tests to 60 selected grassroots kids from Abellana National School and City Central School.
“We are training the teachers from the Department of Education (DepEd) so that when we conduct the nationwide testing, they will become the partners in implementing the SMART ID program,” said Daut.
As strategized by Daut himself, the kids will undergo in two phases of tests - the anthropometric test where they will be measured according to their height, weight, sitting height and wingspan, and the performance skills test which is a general testing of the kid’s performance. Furthermore, the data gathered will be placed in a data bank and will be statistically analyzed to determine who has a potential for a certain sport.
“So from the SMART ID, the results will be evaluated statistically, analyze, and the National Sports Associations (NSAs) will determine the standard of the performance wherein they can say that this kid with this course has a potential for a specific sport,” Daut explained.
“From there, the kids will be brought in a training center where they will be given a developmental training program for sports and they will be further be tested for fitness in terms of their sport and those who will qualify will become part of the talent reserve for the youth.”
The PSI has tapped various experts with field in sports science to help them implement the program.
“We have the Sports Mapping Action Research for Talent Technical Experts and Manpower (SMART TEAM). They are composed of sports scientists, graduate of sports psychology, and science, that's why we tapped them because they have the background on how to implement the testing program for talent identification,”s aid Daut.
The basic tests for talent identification have been conducted in various countries already like in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, and United Kingdom.
“We want to make sure that everyone will have the opportunity to be identified using a scientific-based talent identification. Now everybody has a chance based on performance rather than based on affinity to somebody,” Daut stressed. “The SMART ID program is giving every Filipino child an opportunity to be identified, to be selected, to be trained, and to develop them into champions, not just in sports but also in life.” (FREEMAN)