Purpose: This study investigated the most recent estimates of underweight, overweight, and obesity prevalence in Pakistani school-aged children and adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience random clustered sampling approach with 3,551 Pakistani school children aged 9 to 17 years from 52 schools throughout seven districts in central Punjab province. The CDC US 2000 was used to define underweight (BMI < 5th percentile), overweight (85th ≤ BMI < 95th percentile), and obesity (95th percentile ≤ BMI) for different school grade cohorts (primary, middle, secondary, and higher secondary schools). As a trend test, the Chi-square test was used. A Spearman correlation analysis (r) was used to determine the correlations between demographic variables and weight status. A regression analysis was conducted to explore the predictive power of demographic factors in relation to body weight. Results: In Pakistani school-aged children and adolescents, the prevalence of underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity was 21.9%, 66.9%, 5.8%, and 5.4%, respectively. Significant correlations with body weight status were shown for individual demographic parameters (age, gender, school type, and school grade). Children in urban areas were more likely to be underweight, overweight, or obese than those in rural areas. Boys were found to have a lower BMI than girls. Accordingly, more boys than girls were underweight (odds ratio (OR) = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.33–1.85) and more girls had a higher risk of obesity than boys (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.03–1.86). Lower grades showed more underweight (OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.39–1.99) whereas higher grades showed a higher risk of obesity (OR = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.41–2.57). Conclusions: In Pakistani school-aged children and adolescents, underweight, overweight, and obesity were prevalent. Compared with studies from 2011, the risk of overweight and obesity in Pakistan has decreased. However, this may also be due to the fact that students in Pakistan have a lower BMI compared to other countries. This issue has also been seen in the present study and is confirmed here by the high number of cases of underweight students. Future research studies should look into additional weight status correlates and factors. To evaluate the association between weight status and behavioral and other health variables, future research should use longitudinal or interventional designs.

Several talent identification programs in elementary school have implemented motor diagnostics to introduce children to groups of sports, like game sports, or even to particular sports like soccer. However, as in most other sports, in youth soccer, the predictive value of such early testing is still unclear. This prospective study evaluated the midterm prognostic validity of generic motor performance tests. The sample consisted of male second-grade children, which had received a recommendation to participate in soccer. The talent screening campaign was a basic check comprising two anthropometric parameters, five physical fitness, and three motor competence diagnostics of the German Motor Test 6–18. The test data were collected from the participating elementary school classes of the years 2010 to 2014. The soccer competition performance of those children having completed the age of at least 15 years (n = 502) up to the end of the season 2019/2020 (2020, September 30) was recorded. This group of U17 players was then assigned individually to five different competition levels. The prognostic validity of the physical and physiological tests was determined using ANOVAs, odds ratios, and a regression path analysis. All diagnostic methods exhibited medium-to-high prognostic validity over the 8 year time span from the talent screening to the later soccer competitions in the adolescent age groups. For later success in soccer on the province level, the 6-min run (OR = 4.28), dynamic balance (OR = 4.04), and 20-m sprint (OR = 2.46), as well as the participation in the training center of the German Soccer Federation (OR = 5.67) and the diversity of club sport activities (OR = 3.56), were of particular importance.

(1) Background: The search for talented young athletes is an important element of top-class sport. While performance profiles and suitable test tasks for talent identification have already been extensively investigated, there are few studies on statistical prediction methods for talent identification. Therefore, this long-term study examined the prognostic validity of four talent prediction methods. (2) Methods: Tennis players (N = 174; n_♀ = 62 and n_♂ = 112) at the age of eight years (U9) were examined using five physical fitness tests and four motor competence tests. Based on the test results, four predictions regarding the individual future performance were made for each participant using a linear recommendation score, a logistic regression, a discriminant analysis, and a neural network. These forecasts were then compared with the athletes’ achieved performance success at least four years later (U13‒U18). (3) Results: All four prediction methods showed a medium-to-high prognostic validity with respect to their forecasts. Their values of relative improvement over chance ranged from 0.447 (logistic regression) to 0.654 (tennis recommendation score). (4) Conclusions: However, the best results are only obtained by combining the non-linear method (neural network) with one of the linear methods. Nevertheless, 18.75% of later high-performance tennis players could not be predicted using any of the methods.

Training in elite sport aims at the optimization of the athletic performance, and to control the athletes`progress in physiological, anthropometrical and motor performance prerequisites. However, in most sports, the value of longitudinal testing is unclear. This study evaluates the longitudinal development and the influence of intense training over 2-years on specific physiological performance prerequisites, as well as certain body dimensions and motor abilities in elite youth athletes. Recruited between 11–13 years of age at Shanghai Elite Sport school, the sample of student-athletes (N = 21) was categorized as the swimming group (10 athletes), and the racket sports group (11 players: 7 table tennis and 4 badminton players). The performance monitoring took place over two years between September 2016 and September 2018 and included 5 test waves. In all the test waves, the athletes were assessed by means of three physiological measurements (vital capacity, hemoglobin concentration, heart rate at rest), three anthropometric parameters (body height, body weight, chest girth), and two motor tests (back strength, complex reaction speed). Seven out of eight diagnostic methods exhibit medium to high validity to discriminate between the different levels of performance development in the two sports groups. The investigated development of the performance characteristics is attributed partly to the inherited athletic disposition as well as to the different sport-specific training regimens of the two sports groups.

Due to poor results, the German talent identification and development of the German soccer association DFB no longer performs a shooting test since a few years. The aim of this study was to create and validate a new soccer shooting test that allows valid conclusions to be drawn from the shooting quality of youth soccer players about their overall soccer skills. The shooting test was performed with a total of 57 male club players (age: 15.24 ± 0.864 years) from four different teams from the first, second, fifth, and the seventh division of the respective age group (under 15-year-olds until under 17-year-olds). Each subject took one shot at maximum shot speed and eight target shots, measuring accuracy and the shot speed. A multivariable linear regression analysis with forward selection revealed significant values for the variables average shot speed nondominant leg (p < 0.001) and total score (p = 0.004; accuracy × speed of every target shot). Based on these two variables, the soccer skills could be derived from the shooting skills of the adolescents in 57.4% of the cases. The study shows the importance of a good technique with the nondominant leg and of the ability to shoot accurately as well as fast simultaneously.