Purpose:
One of the basic operational goals of early physical education is the early recognition of athletic potential in children. When examining the presence of talent, it is necessary to consider the specific nature of a given sport, especially if it is a team sport, and the fact that skill in playing a sport is determined not only by featuring a high level of applicable motor abilities. Within this context, the aim of this study was to determine what dependencies existed between the methods frequently used to assess talented children in the game of handball, specifically targeted sports and motor tests. The popularity of these diagnostic methods is based on the theory that achievement in sports is accompanied by a high level of physical ability. Therefore, the practical aim of the study was to improve the accuracy of recognizing and examining sports talent.

Methods:
A group of 21 twelve-year-old boys were recruited, all of whom were involved in a sports program that specialized in handball. Talent was identified by the observation, analysis, and interpretation of the participants’ (1) general physical ability – assessed by the Eurofit test battery, (2) targeted physical ability – measured by specific hardball skills such as moving with the ball, catching and passing the ball, and throwing the ball from a distance, and (3) innate in-game behavior – based on a ranking of thirteen behavioral categories exhibited during the course of a game.

Results and conclusion:
The correlation coefficients adopted in this study indicated a high dependency between the three methods used to identify potential talent in handball. This indicates that young athletes who score relatively well in one test are likely to attain positive results in the other two methods.