An essential guide to bio-banding

Content of essentials article

• What is bio-banding?
• Maturity Related Challenges in Sport
• What are players’ experiences of bio-banding?
• What are the effects of bio-banding upon performance?
• What are the psychological implications of bio-banding?
• Conclusion

What is bio-banding?

Considering the challenges and limitations posed by chronological competition, an alternative to grouping athletes chronologically is bio-banding athletes into groups of similar levels of estimated biological maturation ^{[6, 7]}. Percentage of peak adult height (PAH) can be calculated using the non-invasive methods described previously, and provides a current indication of an individual’s maturation status. Individuals can subsequently be grouped into specific bands based upon their percentages of PAH: 85-90%, 90-95%, etc.

The purpose of bio-banding is to reduce the variance in physical attributes, resulting in equal competition and a reduced risk of injury ^{[2, 8]}. By matching players for growth and maturation, players are exposed to different circumstances and stimuli than they would see in chronological-based competition.

Creating diverse challenges and learning environments through bio-banding has a positive effect upon both early and late developers. For early developers, competing against older and more physical opponents results in a larger emphasis on technical and tactical attributes. For late developers, a physically balanced environment facilitates the ability to develop both physical and technical attributes ^[9].

Bio-banding can be a tool to support the talent identification process, providing coaches and scouts the ability to evaluate athletes while controlling for differences in physical maturity ^[2]. Bio-banding can potentially help reduce the release of late developers, who would potentially reach the highest level provided they receive quality coaching and opportunities for competition. Another potential benefit of bio-banding is reducing the inclusion of early developers approaching their predicted adult height, but who may not reach the highest level once their physical attributes are matched ^[10].

Maturity Related Challenges in Sport

Understanding growth and maturation forms a vital aspect of working within youth sport. The maturation-related advantages for early developers, and subsequent disadvantages for late developers, are evident in numerous sports ^[1].

Applying chronological competition and training formats, as is the case with most organised youth sport, creates several challenges for staff responsible for talent identification and talent development. These relate to the large variations in maturity status within chronological age groups, e.g., a U13 squad) An advantage of chronological competition is that it allows for comparing cognitive, social and motor development. However, it does not account for individual differences in physical maturation ^[2]. In addition to performing better in tests of strength and power, early developing athletes also cover greater distances at high speed, produce higher maximum speeds and are involved in a higher frequency of repeated high intensity actions. These are all beneficial qualities for most team sports, upon which coaches and scouts look favourably.

A subsequent mistake that clubs make is overlooking potentially gifted players by observing and prioritising physical maturity rather than technical and tactical ability.

As a result of their advanced physical attributes, early developers are more likely to be perceived as successful and talented, and recruited into or retained within the system ^[2]. This provides early developers with increased access to specialist coaching, training resources and investment in their development. Conversely, late developers are more likely to be overlooked, excluded or denied development opportunities through premature exclusion from systems. This is despite the late developers potentially possessing strong technical, tactical and psychological attributes, just not possessing the physical attributes needed to showcase their overall abilities at a given time.

It’s important to note that the relative advantages / disadvantages between early and late developers are only temporary, lasting until athletes reach their full maturation ^[1].

In addition to the limitations on showcasing their abilities against more physically developed teammates and opposition, another challenge late developers experience is the potential injury risk associated with maturity mismatches ^[3]. Figueiredo et al ^[4] suggest variation in body size and the subsequent physical mismatches may increase injury risk in late developers.

Late developers are not the only ones to experience the challenges that maturation poses. Ironically, the physical advantages early developers initially experience may be detrimental to their long term development ^[2]. Whilst progressing through age groups and impressing through their superior physical attributes, the technical and tactical development of early developers is often neglected. Adolescence provides a period of increased neural refinement, whereby frequently used neural connections are strengthened and infrequently used connections are removed ^[2]. This may result in a missed opportunity for early developers longer term, and lead to them failing to progress as expected once maturity-associated differences fade away.

This highlights the importance of recognising the variations in maturity status between athletes of the same chronological age, both for the optimal development of early developers, and the potential economic, psychological and health related implications of prematurely releasing late developers ^{[5, 6]}.

What are players’ experiences of bio-banding?

Several applied research investigations focusing on the benefits of bio-banding in sport have come out in the last five years. A high proportion of the research has looked at football, and focus on comparing chronological and bio-banded competition for players of different maturation statuses.

In the first investigation of its kind, Cumming et al ^[2] investigated Premier League academy players’ experiences of bio-banded competition. Sixty-six players from four professional football clubs took part in bio-banded competition, followed by focus groups to describe their experiences compared to their normal chronological competition.

Early developers described bio-banded competition as more physical challenging, and said they had to adapt their style of play to place a higher emphasis upon technique and tactics. Late developers found bio-banded competition to be less physically challenging than chronological, and reported an increased opportunity to use and develop their technical, physical and psychological attributes. An extract of these results is below, and suggest bio-banded formats contribute positively towards the holistic development of youth footballers.

Benefits of bio-banding: Physical development
Sub-theme	Qualitative evidence
Greater competitive equity	It was more beneficial, and it’s more competitive. More equal. More of a physical challenge. (EM)
	I felt the same, not just physically, which can good, but sometimes it’s harder, and expect a bit of a challenge… It can be a positive, because … it gets you ready for when you’re older, playing bigger and better teams. …. you have to get used to it, when you’re playing older people. (EM)
	… it gives us more freedom and, like I said before, a sense of– we get a chance to prove to ourselves that when we are up against people our same size, we’re good. We’re really good. And make an impact on the game. (LM)
Less physical challenge	I find it a bit easier playing with youngers and that (was a) negative, because that’s not as much of a challenge. (LM)
	So I quite like it to be quite physical, because it makes me play better, because I maybe can move the ball a bit quicker than normally. (LM)
	…85% of the time, we’re going up against players bigger than us and you can’t always just beat your man physically…..when the ball comes into you, say you’ve got someone on your back, you can hold off a bit more easier So instead of just the big guys can get their legs around you and push you off it, but then with smaller ones, they have to try and get around you. It’s a bit easier to hold them off. (LM)
	It’s nice for me to be able to physically beat my opponent. (LM)
Use of physicality	… I could use my physical strengths. Sometimes I do at my age group, but I’ve done it more today. (LM).
	I don’t use my strength as an advantage, as much as I do with my own age group. (EM)
	When a younger one plays on a big pitch, like that, it makes it hard for us, the older ones, because (LM) we’ve got to recover quicker (LM). Yeah. I felt like I’ve done a lot of running today. (LM)
Injury risk	When you went into tackles, the older lads go in stronger, because they’re obviously stronger than you. So that sometimes gets you hurt more. (EM)

Soon after, Bradley et al ^[11] conducted an investigation evaluating players’ perceptions of competing in a football tournament matched for physical maturity. Results complemented those of Cumming et al ^[2], stating early developers perceived bio-banded competition to provide a greater physical and technical challenge.

This study also demonstrated that late developers thought bio-banded competition provided them with less of a physical and technical challenge, but a greater opportunity to demonstrate their technical and tactical skills. In addition, players reported less perceived injury risk; and all three maturity groups reported an increased opportunity to engage in leadership behaviours, influence game play, and express themselves on the ball during bio-banded competition. Bio-banded competition, therefore, may facilitate development for both early and late developing academy players by presenting them with new learning environments and challenges.

What are the effects of bio-banding upon performance?

Up until this point, research mainly focused on the players’ perceptions of maturity-matched competition. Abbott et al ^[12] built upon this by investigating the physical and technical outcomes from bio-banded and chronological formats. Results indicated that early developers produced significantly more shorter passes, fewer dribbles and higher ratings of perceived exertion during bio-banded competition. On-time developers produced significantly more short passes and dribbles, and fewer long passes, during bio-banded competition. Finally, late developers produced significantly more tackles and fewer longer passes during bio-banded competition. An excerpt of the results is below. No differences in physical performance were identified between competition format for any maturation group. Therefore, results demonstrated bio-banded football competitions could increase the frequency of some key technical skills without reducing the associated physical demands.

This led to further investigation into the physical and technical differences between bio-banded and chronological competition. Ludin et al ^[13] demonstrated early maturing players faced higher physical challenges, specifically increased accelerations, in bio-banded competition. Results also showed later maturing players demonstrated their technical and tactical skills by making more attacking passes and winning more duels. Romann et al ^[14] extended the research and found that bio-banding encouraged a more technically and tactically challenging game.

Benefits of bio-banding: Technical performance
Technical performance metric	Early developers		On-time developers		Late developers
	Chronological	Bio-banded	Chronological	Bio-banded	Chronological	Bio-banded
Dribbles	7.7 ± 2.1	6.0 ± 2.2	3.0 ± 2.3	4.6 ± 2.5	3.0 ± 1.6	4.9 ± 3.2
Tackles	9.0 ± 3.7	9.0 ± 3.3	7.6 ± 3.0	8.0 ± 3.8	4.4 ± 2.7	7.5 ± 3.4
Shots	1.9 ± 1.5	2.7 ± 1.6	2.5 ± 1.8	2.5 ± 2.0	2.4 ± 1.7	2.5 ± 1.6
Crosses	1.9 ± 1.9	2.0 ± 1.7	1.9 ± 2.1	1.6 ± 1.6	2.0 ± 1.9	0.8 ± 0.9

What are the psychological implications of bio-banding?

Along with the technical, tactical and physical performance of bio-banding, the psychological influence of this format is also open for study. Cumming et al ^[2] investigated the effects of biological maturity status upon self-regulation in academy footballers. Results showed later maturation was inversely associated with adaptive self-regulation, while relative age was unrelated to self-regulation. This suggests that later maturing players possess a psychological advantage, perhaps bolstering the underdog hypothesis: the notion that relatively younger players regularly playing with and against more physically mature players develop a psychological advantage.

Towlson et al ^[15] also noted that chronological competition is an effective format to enhance coaches’ ability to identify key psychological characteristics. Players often display key psychological characteristics in times of adversity, like when competing against taller, stronger and faster players, as happens routinely during chronological competition.

Conclusion

Research has demonstrated numerous potential benefits of bio-banding for individual development and talent identification. Bio-banding exposes athletes to stimuli and circumstances they would not receive via chronological competition, providing long-term advantages to both early and late developers.

This has significant implications from both the athlete’s and club’s perspectives. For a player, bio-banding provides an even playing field by reducing maturation mismatches. By grouping late developers with younger, less experienced players, they are provided more opportunities to demonstrate and utilize their technical, tactical, and physical attributes ^{[2, 12]}. Grouping early developers against physically matched but older and more experienced players challenges them to develop their technical, tactical and psychological skills. Bio-banding provides individuals of all maturation levels the ability to develop from a more holistic perspective, optimize safety and achieve their overall potential ^[9].

From a club and talent identification perspective, bio-banding allows coaches, scouts and other relevant stakeholders to observe players in a different environment. It is easy to overlook potentially gifted individuals by observing physical maturity rather than technical and tactical ability. By matching players based upon maturation, the staff have an opportunity to assess each individual’s football ability from a holistic perspective, leading to more informed decisions regarding retains and releases ^{[1, 2]}.

For bio-banding to be implemented effectively, practitioners must heed several considerations. First, bio-banding should not preclude the consideration of psychological or technical development, as there are potential social and psychological implications of having older, late developing athletes compete with younger ones ^[4].

Second, educating players, parents and coaches about the rationale and processes around bio-banding is vital. It is especially difficult for a player or parent to find themselves “playing down” with younger athletes. Explaining bio-banding and the rationale for these decisions can help dispel these anxieties and support holistic development.

Third, synergy and effective communication between members of the multidisciplinary team is vital for bio-banding to be effectively implemented within a programme. This is vital to increase buy-in, avoid misunderstanding and maximize the advantages of the methodology.

Finally, an organisation’s programme should aim to utilize the advantages from both bio-banded and chronological game and training formats. Bio-banding should not replace chronological-based training – both have their place in the sports development environment.