One of these things is not like the other: time to differentiate between relative age and biological maturity selection biases in soccer?

Abstract

Both maturity and relative age selection biases are entrenched within professional academy soccer programmes. Lay opinion, and that of some scholars, holds that relative age effects exist as a product of advanced biological maturity. That is relatively older players succeed as a consequence of the physical and athletic advantages afforded by earlier maturation There is, however, a growing body of evidence to suggests that this is not the case, and that relative age and maturation should be considered and treated as independent constructs. To avoid a disconnect between contemporary academic evidence and practitioner practice, the aim of this commentary is to provide discussion of pre-existing and new evidence relating to maturity and relative age selection biases in soccer. It is hoped that this commentary will provide an overview of new insight regarding the differences between the two selection phenomena and enable practitioners who are responsible for the (de)selection of academy soccer players for talent development programmes to make more informed decisions regarding their retention/selection strategies.

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

“…Interestingly, although the percentage of late maturers was similar from each birth quartile (~10-12%), a greater percentage of BQ4 s were early maturers (33%) compared to the other birth quartiles (10-30%). It is often assumed that relatively older academy soccer players are further advanced in maturation and, thus, possess greater anthropometric qualities and superior performance characteristics [6]. However, the findings from the current study supports the notion that maturation and relative age are different constructs [6], and that being BQ4 does not mean that an academy soccer player will be a later maturer.…”

“…It is often assumed that relatively older academy soccer players are further advanced in maturation and, thus, possess greater anthropometric qualities and superior performance characteristics [6]. However, the findings from the current study supports the notion that maturation and relative age are different constructs [6], and that being BQ4 does not mean that an academy soccer player will be a later maturer. However, these findings suggest that it may be important for players born in BQ4 to be early maturing to increase their likelihood of overcoming the relative age bias and being selected into an English male soccer academy.…”

“…Two factors that have been shown to impact both player performance and selection in youth soccer are relative age and biological maturation [3][4][5]. Contrary to lay opinion, relative age and biological maturation are distinct constructs that exist and operate independent of one another [6].…”

The effect of bio-banding on academy soccer player passing networks: Implications of relative pitch size

“…The findings from our study suggest two practical applications for implementing bio-banding to reduce bias which is exclusive to maturity status [ 15 ] within academy soccer players. First, (and as reported in previous studies [ 40 ]), smaller pitch sizes should be used if the training objective is to increase the frequency of technical actions, such as passing.…”

“…To control for the confounding influence of maturation alone [ 15 ] during talent identification and development, researchers and practitioners have grouped players according to maturation status (typically referred to as ‘bio-banding’ [ 16 , 17 ]) to create homogenous groups of players who are primarily ‘matched’ for maturity-related anthropometric characteristics. However, despite players and key stakeholders valuing the approach [ 18 – 20 ], there is limited applied soccer-based research to support its efficacy [ 21 – 25 ].…”