Seminar Series - "Applied Performance Ecology: Using Ecological Approaches to Improve Talent Identification in Sports"

Abstract:

Sports scientists and evolutionary ecologists tackle conceptually similar challenges using remarkably comparable data. Both focus on an individual’s ability to outperform and thus outcompete others, whether in the natural world or in sporting competitions. Yet these disciplines rarely interact. In this talk, I’ll discuss how we’re applying ecological strategies to solve one of the biggest challenges in youth soccer: the inherent biases in talent identification. Expert scouts are the cornerstone of talent ID, but select players based on limited match and training observations—a highly subjective practice that is prone to bias and (as we have shown) routinely misses exceptional players. For the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of Brazil’s most prestigious soccer clubs, including Fluminense, Botafogo, Vasco da Gama, and FC Bahia, to develop a novel data-driven approach to talent identification. Our methodology doesn’t aim to replace scouts—but make them better. By introducing a more efficient, objective, and fairer approach, we’re helping scouts and clubs to enhance their decisions. I’ll discuss the range of individual tests we’ve developed to predict success and how we use small-sided training games to assess players during game-like scenarios, mirroring real match conditions. Finally, I’ll present our large-scale test of our methodology on young players in Brazil, showing how this approach could reshape the future of talent scouting in soccer and other team sports.

Bio:

Robbie Wilson is a Professor in the School of Environment at The University of Queensland, Australia. After completing his PhD at UQ, Robbie spent two years as a postdoc at the University of Antwerp in Belgium and two years on a Royal Society Fellowship at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Robbie then returned to UQ to take up an ARC early career fellowship and was appointed on a continuing position in 2005. During his time at UQ, he has been awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award and an ARC Future Fellowship. His research interests are in the ecology of physical performance, with a focus on understanding what drives task success in wild animals and human athletes.

Questions? Please contact SENV General Services – senv.gsa@uq.edu.au