1. Ashley Cripps1, Luke Hopper1,2, Christopher Joyce1
Anthropometric, fitness and coaches’ perceptions of technical skill favour early maturing adolescent Australian Footballers.
Ashley Cripps1, Luke Hopper1,2, Christopher Joyce1
1School of Health Sciences, University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, WA
2 Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, WA
Anthropometric, physiological and skills outcomes for late, average and early maturational groups (mean ± standard deviation).
Introduction
Adolescent sports are typically age stratified by one or two years in an attempt to ensure competition equity and player safety. However, despite age stratification large differences in biological maturity still exist. Adolescent athletes of advance maturity are at a significant performance advantage with clear links evident between maturity, physical testing and match performance. However, football is a multi-factorial sport where technical skill efficiency is also critical to individual and team success. The impact that maturational variation has on technical and perceived skill efficiency in adolescent Footballers is yet to be explored.
Maturational Status
Late
Average
Early
Cohen’s d
Anthropometric
Height (m)
1.70 ± 0.05
1.76 ± 5.25 a
1.84 ± .05a,b
2.67
Weight (kg)
60.03 ± 6.29
67.56 ± 6.26 a
76.16 ± 6.69 a,b
2.49
Physical
SVJ (m)
0.48 ± 0.07
0.52 ± 0.06 a
0.54 ± 0.11 a
0.76
RVJ Left (m)
0.58 ± 0.08
0.61 ± 0.10 a
0.65 ± 0.08 a,b
0.94
RVJ Right (m)
0.54 ± 0.09
0.58 ± 0.09 a
0.62 ± 0.08 a,b
0.99
20m Sprint (sec)
3.24 ± 0.18
3.16 ± 0.11
3.11 ± 0.13 a,b
0.83
Shuttle Distance (m) ± ± ±
0.07
Technical Skill
Kicking Test
16.48 ± 4.23
15.81 ± 4.43
17.56 ± 4.21
0.26
Handball Test
19.54 ± 6.84
20.17 ± 5.06
19.92 ± 5.45
0.06
Aims
To determine how maturational in Australian Footballers impacts on:
Anthropometric and physical testing
Technical skill efficiency
Coaches’ perceptions of skill efficiency
Methods
Participants recruited from Western Australian Football league (n=225, age ± 0.29 years). Participants completed anthropometric, physical, and technical skill tests. Physical testing included; standing and running vertical jumps, 20m sprints and the Multi-Stage Fitness Test. The technical skills assessed were kicking and handball efficiency, using the Australian Football Leagues kicking and handball tests. Senior coaches for each team (n=7) were recruited to provide subjective ratings of athletes technical skills. Maturation groups were derived from estimations of years from peak height velocity, with participants classified as either late, average or early maturing. Between group analysis of variance was used to test differences between the maturational groups and independent variables measured.
a significantly different (p<0.05) from Late; b significantly different (p<0.05) from Average.
Coaches' perceptions of skill for late, average and early maturational groups (mean ± standard deviation).
Maturational Status
Late
Average
Early
Cohen’s d
Kicking
2.54 ± 0.51
2.73 ± 0.90
2.67 ± 0.84
0.19
Marking
2.33 ± 0.48
2.60 ± 0.75 a
3.10 ± 0.71a,b
1.27
Handball
2.54 ± 0.48
2.71 ± 0.80
2.93 ± 0.78
0.60
Clean Hands
2.63 ± 0.49
2.78 ± 0.81
3.13 ± 0.86
0.71
Ball Winning
2.63 ± 0.71
2.92 ± 0.89
3.17 ± 1.02
0.61
Overall Technical Rating
12.66 ± 2.12
13.75 ± 3.55
15.00 ± 3.49 a
0.81
Australian Football Leagues kicking and handball tests.
a significantly different (p<0.05) from Late; b significantly different (p<0.05) from Average.
Summary
Early maturing footballers significantly taller, heavier and physically developed
No concurrent advantage associated with technical skill efficiency
Coaches’ perceived early maturing footballers to have significantly better overall technical skill and marking abilities
Handball Test
Kicking Test
Results
Biological maturity varying by up to 3.41 years between the most and least mature athletes, despite chronological age only differing by 0.43 years.
Acknowledgments
The University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Football Commission for their support with this project.