From Pool to Play: Designing a Game-Based Screening Tool for Early Swimming Talent Detection in Youth Athletes

Abstract

Early swimming talent detection in youth athletes remains challenging because commonly used approaches are resource-heavy, technique judgments are often subjective, and prediction models may not generalize well across clubs, pools, and populations. Although physiological testing can explain swimming performance, many informative measures (e.g., laboratory VO₂max, controlled lactate profiling, repeated maximal protocols with advanced monitoring) are impractical for large-scale screening in community settings. Evidence from youth swimming indicates that performance is more consistently associated with strength/power and lean-mass–related traits than with body fat percentage, which shows weaker and more variable relationships. Longitudinal modeling studies further suggest that a compact set of feasible anthropometric and physiological indicators can provide meaningful predictive signal, and that explainable machine-learning methods can improve coach-facing transparency by clarifying which features drive model outputs. Technique remains central in a technique-dominant sport such as swimming; however, unstructured observation is vulnerable to rater bias and inconsistency. Standardized video-based tools such as Tec Pa demonstrate high inter-rater agreement, supporting the feasibility of structured technique checkpoints for early screening. Beyond physical and technical factors, talent-development scholarship highlights the risks of early exclusion and maturation bias, emphasizing that youth screening should be developmentally appropriate, repeatable over time, and fair. Psychological and cognitive indicators (e.g., motivation, self-regulation, goal orientation) may therefore be used as supportive signals to guide development rather than as strict selection thresholds. Building on this evidence, this short review proposes “From Pool to Play,” a game-based screening concept that converts field-friendly physical proxies, structured technique checkpoints, and age-appropriate psychosocial measures into engaging, repeatable poolside and in-water “missions.” The goal is to reduce assessment burden, enhance motivation and adherence, standardize data capture across contexts, and enable transparent, explainable profiling of early talent signals in youth swimmers.