Bio-Banding

Maturity biased selections are often seen in youth sports wherein biologically mature athletes are preferred over less mature ones. Children grow and mature at different rates. The variation in maturity levels at a young age can create a misconception for coaches who often perceive players who mature early to be more talented. The players who mature at a later stage might be more technically gifted but struggle to keep up with the speed or physical nature of the early maturing players. So to improve the overall performance and quality of the sports, it is essential to bring in new techniques to identify and cultivate the best players, not just the early maturing ones. This is where Bio-Banding comes into the picture.

Bio-Banding is an effective and innovative approach to grouping athletes on the basis of attributes associated with growth and maturation rather than chronological age(under-13s). Since the timing of individual maturation has such a big impact on training, competition and talent discovery, bio-banding is essential for evaluating young athletes without being biased by their age. Bio-Banding creates an optimal environment where both early and late maturing athletes can thrive while supporting them to identify talent better. By adopting this method, low maturing players have a greater opportunity to perform in an environment without being subdued by a lack of physicality, which helps them reach their fullest potential. Also, it creates new challenges for early maturing players who are bio-banded with those with similar physical traits, which encourages them to utilise and foster their technical and tactical skills. This way, coaches can evaluate athletes in a fairer environment by judging them on the basis of their overall potential without being biased by their maturity. Imagine a team of higher average height and weight competing with a team of lower ones in the same age category. The early maturers tend to use physical advantage and neglect their technical and tactical skills. Thus it may affect the athlete's development. Bio-Banding can rectify these issues and improve the performance of athletes by acting optimally.

How to Bio-Band Athletes?
In Bio-Banding, players are not grouped based on height or weight. Researchers make specific calculations from growth and maturation information and use mathematical modelling to predict a child's future adult height and the percentage they are from reaching their future stature. This will allow players of similar maturity from different chronological age groups to play together. There are two methods by which athletes are bio-banded based on their maturation rates.

1. Percentage of predicted adult stature/height(PAH)
2. The maturity offset

Using PAH, athletes are categorized as Pre-pubertal(<85% of PAH), Early pubertal(85-90% of PAH), Mid- pubertal(90-95% of PAH) and Late pubertal(>95% of PAH). On the other hand, maturity offset concludes maturity rates by calculating Peak Height Velocity(PHV is the period at which the child experiences the most significant increase in stature).

Since youth participation and development in sports depends on growth and maturation, Bio-Banding may evolve as an emerging technique to assess athletes without bias. This would help sporting clubs and institutions improve their talent identification.