The effect of bio-banding on technical and tactical indicators of talent identification in academy soccer players

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of bio-banding on technical and tactical markers of talent identification in 11-to 14-year-old academy soccer players. Using a repeated measures design, 92 players were bio-banded using percentage of estimated adult stature attainment (week 1), maturityoffset (week 2) and a mixed-maturity method (week 3). All players contested five maturity (mis)matched small-sided games with technical and tactical variables measured. Data were analysed using a series of Bayesian hierarchical models, fitted with different response distributions and different random and fixed effect structures. Despite differences during maturity-matched bio-banding for postpeak height velocity players, very few tactical differences were evident during the remaining maturitymatched and mis-matched fixtures for both banding methods. In fact, the results showed no consistent differences across both banding methods for practitioner and video analysis-derived technical performance characteristics during maturity matched and mis-matched fixtures. Both bio-banding methods explained similar levels of variance across the measured variables. Maturity-matched biobanding had some effect on both technical and tactical characteristics of players during maturitymatched bio-banded formats. That said, this trend remained during maturity mis-matched bio-banded formats which restricts the conclusions that can be made regarding the effectiveness of bio-banding to manipulate technical and tactical measures in academy soccer players.

Leveling the Playing Field: A New Proposed Method to Address Relative Age- and Maturity-Related Bias in UK Male Academy Soccer Players

“…Several proposals have been suggested to remove relative age bias including changing (Barnsley, 1988 ; Helsen et al, 2012 ) and rotating the cut-off dates (Barnsley, 1988 ), installing sport-specific cut-off dates (Musch and Grondin, 2001 ), and particular [i.e., age-ordered numbered soccer shirts and birthday banding (Kelly et al, 2020 )] talent identification strategies (Mann and van Ginneken, 2017 ). Maturity-related selection bias between players' differences has been addressed using maturity bio-banding (Reeves et al, 2018 ; Abbott et al, 2019 ; Macmaster, 2021 ; Towlson, 2021 ; Towlson et al, 2021a ), whereby players are grouped according to their maturation status (Cumming et al, 2017 ; Malina et al, 2019 ). Despite the relative success of some of the aforementioned methods to reduce RAE (i.e., birthday and bio-banding) and maturity selection bias (i.e., bio-banding), many proposed solutions can be difficult to implement and rely on the flexibility of coaches in how they structure games and training programs.…”

Examination of differential ratings of perceived exertion (dRPE) during bio-banded small-sided games

“…Whilst we acknowledge that PHV has been shown to occur at approximately 86% of estimated adult stature [12], bandings were defined as 'post-PHV' (�90% EASA) and 'pre-PHV' (<90%) to allow even distribution of players per category. Given that previous research has shown bio-banding to have little effect on players within the circa-PHV category [10,15,16], only players at either extreme of the maturation continuum were selected to participate in the study. Players anthropometric data was collated within the month prior to the testing period, extenuating the influence of biological growth on subsequent accurate maturity bandings.…”

“…In both conditions, players performed a standardised, 15-minute club led warm-up and contested 6 bio-banded and mixed maturity SSGs (total: n = 6) on an outdoor 4G surface, The SSGs were contested by teams of four players. This method has been previously used for the intention of talent identification within UK soccer academy practice [46] and previous bio-banding SSG research [10,15,16]. In addition, given the prevalence of the maturation selection bias with UK academy soccer programmes [3,43] the sample of players per academy deemed to be pre-PHV was finite.…”

“…This pitch size was selected as previous research, using a pitch size of 18.3m x 23.0m (52m 2 per player), highlighted the smaller pitch size as a limiting factor when assessing maturity-related outputs during bio-banded SSG [10]. Given the paucity of bio-banding research that has used SSG formats [10,15,16], and that the aim of the study was to examine the effect of bio-banding and not the influence of relative pitch size per se on players dRPE, a pitch which was considered representative of 'normal' playing conditions and familiar to the players was implemented. Each SSG was interspersed with a three-minute interlude of passive recovery [46].…”

“…The grouping of athletes according to their maturation status, rather than chronological age is commonly referred to as bio-banding [4,5,7]. The exclusive [8] objective of bio-banding is to reduce between player maturity-related differences in anthropometric [9], and physical fitness characteristics, and create a more equitable playing and training environment [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Bio-banding has been shown to be an effective strategy to reduce the large within group variations associated with the early development of maturity-related anthropometric characteristics, such as stature and body-mass [1,2] which can be directly associated to the maturation process [9].…”