No 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.

The key reason behind the richness of different structures and patterns displayed in nature is the universal mechanism of symmetry breaking. It shapes configurations at all length scales encountered in universe. Structures reached via symmetry breaking transitions are commonly described in terms of order parameter fields. One of the simplest systems where symmetry breaking concepts have already been explored in detail, are various liquid crystal (LC) phases. The reason behind this is rich variety of structures exhibited by LCs and their convenient experimental accessibility. Consequently, a wide spectrum of different theoretical tools have been developed in LCs. In this contribution the orientational ordering of housing block in San Francisco, which we choose as a typical large-city representative, was studied. Following nematic LC analogy we determine the local degree of ordering. The structural pattern of the city displays a domain-type pattern. The average degree of ordering within a domain strongly correlates with crime rate within it. Therefore, the results confirm an intuitive expectation that structures define properties. This model can be used as a helpful tool in education as it provides a way of understanding complex topics with the help of well-known every day phenomena. Key words: education, liquid crystal analogy, order parameter, city structure, crime rate, soft mater education.