Maturity Has a Greater Association than Relative Age with Physical Performance in English Male Academy Soccer Players

Radnor, John M. and Staines, Jacob and Bevan, James and Cumming, Sean P. and Kelly, Adam L. and Lloyd, Rhodri S. and Oliver, Jon L. (2021) Maturity Has a Greater Association than Relative Age with Physical Performance in English Male Academy Soccer Players. Sports, 9 (12). e171. ISSN 2075-4663

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Official URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/9/12/171

Abstract

This study aimed to: (1) examine differences in physical performance across birth-quartiles and maturity-status, and (2) determine the relationships among relative age, maturation and physical performance in young male soccer players. The sample included 199 males aged between 8.1 and 18.9 years, from two professional soccer academies in the English Football League. Data were collected for height, weight, self-reported biological parent heights, 30 m sprint time and countermovement jump (CMJ) height. Relative age was conveyed as a decimal, while maturity status was determined as the percentage of predicted adult height (PAH). There were no significant differences in any measure between birth quartiles, however early maturers outperformed on-time and later maturers in most performance measures. Pearson-product-moment correlations revealed that maturation was inversely associated with 30 m sprint time in U12 to U16 (r = −0.370−0.738; p 0.05), but only positively associated with CMJ performance in U12 (r = 0.497; p 0.05). In contrast, relative age was unrelated to sprint performance and only significantly associated with superior CMJ performance in U16. This study indicates that maturity has a greater association with sprint performance than relative age in English male academy soccer players. Practitioners should monitor and assess biological maturation in young soccer players to attempt to control for the influence on physical performance, and avoid biasing selection on absolute performance rather than identifying the most talented player.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	From MDPI via Jisc Publications Router History: accepted 09-12-2021; pub-electronic 20-12-2021. ** Licence for this article: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Identification Number:	10.3390/sports9120171
Dates:	Date Event 9 December 2021 Accepted 20 December 2021 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sprint, countermovement jump, youth, maturation, predicted adult height, football
Subjects:	CAH03 - biological and sport sciences > CAH03-02 - sport and exercise sciences > CAH03-02-01 - sport and exercise sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences > Centre for Life and Sport Sciences (C-LASS)
SWORD Depositor:	JISC PubRouter
Depositing User:	JISC PubRouter
Date Deposited:	17 Jan 2022 11:26
Last Modified:	17 Jan 2022 11:26
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/12559