Predicting the timing of the peak of the pubertal growth spurt in elite male youth soccer players: evaluation of methods

Abstract

Background: Three commonly used non-invasive protocols are implemented to estimate the timing at which PHV most likely occurs. Accurate estimation of circumpubertal years can aid in managing training load of adolescent athletes. Aim: Three protocols were compared against observed age at PHV: an estimate of 13.8 ±1.0 year -generic age at PHV (from longitudinal measures); an estimate based on the maturity offset equation, predicted age at PHV ±1.0 year; a window of PHV based on 85 -96% of predicted adult height at time of observation. Subjects and Methods: A final sample of 23 (from 28) adolescent male participants were selected from the academy of an English Premier League club. Anthropometric measures were collected across five playing seasons; age at PHV was estimated with Super-Imposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR). The three protocols were compared based on measures at 13.0 years. Results and Conclusions: An age window based on predicted maturity offset did not improve estimation of PHV compared to generic age method; however, the percentage of predicted adult height window showed improvement in performance shown by the following results. Predicted age at PHV correctly assigned 15 participants (65%) as experiencing PHV, while the percentage height correctly assigned 17 participants (74%). Generic age and predicted age at PHV correctly predicted observed age at PHV for 14 participants (61%), percentage of adult height window correctly predicted 22 participants (96%).

Estimating somatic maturity in adolescent soccer players: Methodological comparisons

“…Data from the current study would suggest that PAH % is a useful indicator of maturity status in youth team-sport players, however, it does provide maturity estimations that differ from MO methods. Based on the aforementioned limitations of MO methods, and in conjunction with previous findings, PAH% may offer increased accuracy, 18,34 but is not reliably comparable to MO methods. Therefore, practitioners should employ either a MO or PAH% method of maturity estimation consistently across the various facets of application (e.g.…”

“…The absence of a criterion value to compare maturity estimations limits confidence in the conclusions from this study, and prevents formal conclusions about which method may be superior, if any. Previous work has attempted to address this 15,34 but further studies are required to corroborate these findings. However, this multicentre dataset offers insight into the interchangeability (or lack of) of the common approaches, and highlights how the same anthropoemrtical data may be interpreted differently based on the approach used.…”

“…This bias is more substantial than any of the MO compared with one another, therefore suggesting that practitioners should use either a MO method, or PAH%, but not both interchangeably. Parr et al 34 conducted longitudinal analysis to observe timing of PHV, and illustrated that PAH% was accurate 96% of the time, with MO correct 61% of the time. This, combined with other studies 11,18 highlight potential limitations with MO methods having a tendency to regress towards the mean which may limit their efficacy when differentiating between stages of maturation.…”

Coach awareness, knowledge and practice in relation to growth and maturation and training load in competitive, young gymnasts

“…More recently, stature and mass are often collected alongside other measurements (seated height, parental height, age, sex) to predict when peak height velocity (PHV) will occur. 51 Identifying PHV is particularly important as it is a time when young athletes are at an increased risk of injury. 4 However, it was not clear from the focus groups how the majority of coaches used this information.…”

Human biology of physical activity in the growing child

“…An ongoing challenge in practice and in applied research is the assessment of biological maturity. Two studies in the supplement, one by Parr et al 2020 andthe other by Teunissen et al 2020, investigate the accuracy of non-intrusive prediction equations based on anthropometric measurements. Parr and colleagues compared the maturity offset method (Mirwald et al 2002) to predict age at APHV and the three protocols to predict the percentage of mature adult height (Khamis and Roche 1994) with observed APHV (criterion) in 23, 13-year-old male football (soccer) academy players.…”