Bell, Joseph Robert (2025) Applying and Advancing a Maturity Correction Process for Talent Identification in Adolescent Male Footballers. Masters thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

Maturation is a source of selection bias within youth football academies talent identification due to players who may be the same age will still differ in their maturation status. Maturation timing refers to when a player reaches a physical or biological development milestone, while maturation tempo refers to the rate or speed in which a player progresses through maturation. To reference a player’s maturation the most common variable that is used is peak height velocity (PHV), the period in which maximum growth occurs, while maturity offset estimates the number of years a player is before or after their PHV. Players who are early mature often show to have physical advantages in height, weight, and muscle mass, alongside of physical performance advantages in such as great speed, strength, and power performances. These temporary physical maturational advantages have led to biases within talent identification as early mature players are more favoured over late mature players in terms of long-term potential. Despite research suggesting the use of bio banding, skeletal methods and other methods, one method within research has become popular in use is the use of maturation correction equations. Which are maturation methods that use mathematical formulas that can estimate players maturation status, although there is limited research as to applying maturation correction equations to adjust physical performance scores affected by maturation. The study’s aim is to first analyse the influence of maturation on physical performances using maturity offset, determine which physical performance variables will be most influenced by maturation, and further analyses whether the maturation correction equation (Koziel and Malina, 2018) can reduce the maturation-biases within physical performance scores and rankings. A total number of 120 youth players (U11-U16) between the ages of 11 and 16 from CAT 1 premier league (44) and Cat 2 championship (76) youth football academy. Biological maturation was assessed by using Koziel and Malina, 2018 to find a players maturity offset to establish their peak height velocity. Physical performances were assessed using 5m,10m,20m, and 30m, sprint tests, countermovement jumps (CMJ), hip abduction/adduction 45 strength tests, and Nordic hamstring strength tests. Once performance scores were assessed they were adjusted quadratic regression-based maturity correction equation adapted by Hogan et al., (2022), which uses maturity offset and maturity offset² too account for an any non-linear relationship between maturation and physical performances. A maturation adjustment correction procedure (MCAP) was applied to adjust performance scores based on a player’s maturation status to account the differences in scores and changes in performance rankings. Maturation demonstrated to have a strong relationship speed performance (10m: r=0.714, 20m: r=0.759, 30m: r=0.792) and countermovement performance (r=0.706), hip abduction strength performance (r=0.804), while demonstrating a weaker relationship with hip adduction strength performance (r=0.663) and nordic hamstring strength performance (r=0.623). Application of the MAT-CAP correction producer led to adjustments in sprinting and countermovement jump scores resulting in changes in post-PHV rankings going down and pre-PHV players rankings moving up. The findings show that maturation will affect physical performance scores and youth player rankings. Applying the maturation correction equation with MAT-CAPS will reduce the influence of maturation related biases within talent identification allowing for a fairer selection process.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV0557 Sports G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV0861-1017 Ball games: football, etc.
School/Department:	School of Science, Technology and Health
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15484

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