1. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
IN ADOLESCENCE
&
THE EFFECT OF PUBERTY
ON YOUTH SPORTS

2. Objectives
 Understanding puberty and its
effect on adolescence in
youth sport
 Evaluate how best to foster
growth and development of
adolescence in youth sport
Concepts
 Growth
 Puberty
 Early vs. Late Maturers
 Relative Age & Timing
OBJECTIVES & CONCEPTS

3. 1. Continuous, but not uniformly steady
2. Different rates and patterns of growth for
different parts of body
3. Humans take longest time to develop
4. Growth has increased in U.S. population with
each generation
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF GROWTH

4. PUBERTY
 Succession of anatomical and physiological
changes in early adolescence that culminate in
fertility
 Time of greatest variability among humans in
physical characteristics and motor skill
 Average child progresses through pubertal stages
over four years
 Total duration may be as short as 18 months or
long as 8 years

5. AGE RANGES OF PUBERTY
Girls:
Mean age of 11-13 yrs
Mean for menarche: 12 yrs
Decreasing historically
Boys:
Mean age of 15-16 yrs

6. 1. A child’s biological age or maturation is not the
same and does not exactly follow their
chronological age.
2. We all have unique genetically determined
“biological clocks”
3. Children with same chronological age can
differ as much as five years in biological age
(or maturation).
BIOLOGICAL (MATURATIONAL) VS.
CHRONOLOGICAL AGE

7.  Increase in body size (either
as whole or specific parts)
 Height, weight, fatness
*Focus on SIZE
 Speed and timing of progress
toward the mature biological
state (biological clock)
 Sexual maturity: fully
functional reproductive
capability
 Skeletal maturity: fully
ossified adult skeleton
*Focus on PROGRESS/RATE of
attaining adult size/maturity
GROWTH VS. MATURATION

9. DEVELOPMENT
 Acquisition and refinement of behaviors expected by
society1
 Types of competence to be developed
Social
Cognitive
Emotional
Motor (physical)

10. DEVELOPMENT AND PHYSICAL
PERFORMANCE
 Development and refinement of skillful physical
performance in a variety of motor activities is a
major developmental task of childhood and
adolescence
 Children’s performance characteristics and abilities
are related to their growth, maturation, and
development

12. TWO MAJOR GOALS PROMOTED BY YOUTH
SPORT
1. Talent Development
2. Lifelong Physical Activity
Participation

13. 1. Talent identification and development
2. Rate and timing of biological maturation
3. Relative age and athletic success
BIO-CULTURAL PHENOMENA

14. TALENT IDENTIFICATION
 Identification of
individuals who have the
physical, behavioral and
psychological requisites
for a specific sport
 Priority is given to
selection of children
thought to most benefit
from intensive training
 Assumption: requisites
for a given sport can be
identified at a young age

15. THREE MATURITY GROUPS
 Average Maturer: BA within one year of CA
 Early Maturer: BA at least one year greater than CA
 Late Maturer: BA at least one year less than CA
*BA = Biological Age; CA = Chronological Age

17.  Early maturers, especially males, have huge
advantage in performance and selection process in
sports where body mass is advantageous
 Issue is potential short-term and long-term treatment
of early and late maturers
IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING MATURATION OR
DEVELOPMENTAL AGE IN YOUTH ATHLETES

18. EARLY MATURING BOYS
1. Taller, heavier, stronger
2. Mesomorphic
3. Perform speed and power tasks better than late
maturing boys
4. May lead to higher self-confidence and self-esteem
5. May be “caught” by other boys and lose
confidence/motivation
6. May be “pigeon-holed” into position specialization (help
develop range of skills)
7. Need personal goals and challenges to focus on mastery,
not outcomes; need fundamentals

19. LATE MATURING BOYS
1. More linear in build
2. Ectomorphic
3. Less power and speed (less muscle mass)
4. May have less self-confidence and self-esteem due to
societal pressure for boys to be muscular and skilled at
sport. Could fall victim to the self fulfilling prophecy.
5. Often drop out of sport or “turned off” because
coaches/teachers favor more skilled and built early
maturers
6. Need support to persist in skill development (body will
catch up to others).

20. EARLY MATURING GIRLS
1. Taller and heavier
2. Leads to endomorphic (pear-shaped) or mesomorphic
3. Performance advantages and disadvantages
4. May lead to lower self-esteem and body image issues
5. Sometimes socialized away from sport; coaches
expectations change based on body shape

21. LATE MATURING GIRLS
1. More linear in build
2. Often ectomorphic
3. End up taller as adults
4. May be advantaged in
speed and body
movement, but smaller
5. Female athletes tend to
be late maturers

22. 1. Adult height
 Early maturers enter growth spurt at
younger age, don’t grow for as long, and
generally are shorter adults
1. Obesity
 Early maturation is associated with
overweight and obesity in females
FACTORS RELATED TO EARLY AND LATE
MATURATION

23. RELATIVE AGE
Differences in age among children born
in the same calendar year
Malcolm Gladwell Explains Why Human
Potential is being Squandered:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kspphGO
jApk

24. RELATIVE AGE EFFECT (RAE)
 Phenomenon where greater
numbers of athletes born early
in a selection year are over-
represented in some elite
sports compared to what would
be expected based on national
birth rates.
 Children born in the early part
of the sport or academic
eligibility year are advantaged
over children born in the later
part of the eligibility year.

25. RELATIVE AGE AND ACADEMIC
ATTAINMENT
 Relative age advantage is for
children born in
September/October/November as
compared to those “younger”
children in same grade born in
June/July/August.
 School entry cut-off dates result in
children within a particular grade
being up to a year apart in
chronological age, thus creating
large maturational differences.
 Relatively older students achieve
more academic success and perform
better on standardized tests than
relatively younger students.

26. 1. Significantly more athletes in the NHL, Junior Canadian
hockey were born in first part of year (January -March) and
significantly less were born in the last quarter of the year
(October-December).1 *cutoff for age groupings is December
31
2. Major League baseball players are more likely to be born at
the beginning of the baseball year with the number of major
league players’ birthdates decreasing through subsequent
months.2
3. Soccer players born in the first quarter of the soccer year
were overrepresented on the 1990 World Cup and 1989
World Tournaments teams.3
RELATIVE AGE AND SPORT ATTAINMENT

30. WHY IS RELATIVE AGE AN ADVANTAGE?
1. Maturational advantages
2. Instructional and talent
development advantages
3. Psychological advantages
And why is it a problem?

31. 1. Selection
if you make a decision about who is good and
who is not good at an early age
2. Streaming
if you separate the “talented” from the
“untalented”
3. Differentiated experience
if you provide the “talent” with a superior
experience compared to the “untalented”
SKEWED AGE DISTRIBUTIONS OCCUR WHEN THREE
THINGS HAPPEN

32. RELATIVE AGE EFFECT OUTCOMES
1. Small initial advantage
relatively “older’ child starts
with persists over time
2. Accumulative advantage
3. Squandering the talent of half of
the athletic population
4. Prematurely writing off many as
less talented, just because they
are less mature or had less reps

33. 1. Set up two or three leagues, divided by month of birth
(lessening the range of age differences).
2. Elementary schools: put January through April students in
one class, May through August in one class, and September
through December in one class.
3. Simply raise awareness of the RAE – and focus on skill
development for everyone.
4. Rotating cut-off dates from year to to year to provide
different groups with the relative age advantage.
SOLUTIONS TO THE RELATIVE AGE EFFECT?

34.  What are the physical/bodily characteristics of early maturing
boys and what advantage does this give them in specific motor
performance tasks compared to late maturing boys?
 Explain several examples of what coaches and teachers can do
to compensate for the ways in which maturation can
disadvantage youth in learning and performing sport skills.
 What are the major events of puberty and how long does the
average child progress through pubertal stages.
 What is the difference between chronological age and
maturational age and how can they be measured?
 What is the Relative Age Effect and how does it occur?
REVIEW QUESTIONS

35. ACTIVITY
 Case Study 1: Most studies of the Relative Age Effect
focused on team sports however an analysis of the
birthdates of fencers registered with British Fencing’s
national age group development squads shows it exists
in individual sports too. Most fencers take up the sport
at around 8 years of age. They are recruited to the
sport most often through either family involvement or
through primary school based programs. Four of the
five female fencers recruited from primary school
programs were born in Q4 (October - December) and
would have been the most physically mature in their
school year when they were introduced to the sport.
What systematic changes would you make to counter
the RAE?

36.  Case Study 2: Ben and Jonathan are both 10 years old
on the first day of January, and so they compete in the
Under-11 age group of their sport, soccer. Ben is 10
years and 11 months old on the first day of the year
(his birthday is in February). Jonathan is 10 years and
1 month old (his birthday is in December), and so he is
a full 10 months YOUNGER than Ben. At the age of 11,
10 months is an eternity. A child at that age can
improve enormously from one month to the next. This
means that Ben has a 10-month advantage over
Jonathan unless Jon receives the proper support. Now
the coach (You) enters the picture. What methods
would you use to make sure Ben and Jonathan’s
potential is fostered equally?
ACTIVITY (CONT.)

37.  Case Study 3: At the French Football Federation
national training center they scout the best 13 year
olds every year and offer 24 scholarships to live
there, train, and go to school. Investing in 13 year
olds is highly speculative. At that age an early
maturer might dominate a late bloomer with more
skill and upside. To understand prospect growth
potential, X-rays are taken of their left wrists to
calculate “bone age,” which can differ greatly from
actual age. In the U.S. how can we better implement
technology like this and support adolescence so
early and late maturers don’t feel the negative
effects.
ACTIVITY (CONT.)