Abstract
Within a group of adolescent Australian Rules Football (ARF) players, individuals of the same chronological age can differ greatly in biological maturation, with some players maturing vastly earlier or later than their peers. Such large differences in maturity can cause a disparity between physical performance, influence the perceptions of talent, and affect training practice. In attempts to address such issues, this overview proposes the concept of bio-banding in ARF, which may be used periodically within the national talent pathway to optimise player development. Bio-banding is the process of grouping adolescent athletes into specific categories or ‘bands’ based on biological maturation, rather than chronological age. This review describes how bio-banding may be used to enhance player development in ARF, giving context to its background and implementation in other sports.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 637-646 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 9 Sept 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2022 |
Bibliographical note
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Financial support was given from the Volkswagenstiftung “Forschung in Museen” to organise the first sorting workshop in Wilhelmshaven July 2016. The second workshop in Spała (Poland) was organised with the support from the internal funds of the University of Lodz and the enthusiasm of all travelling experts. This paper would not be in this special Issue of ZooKeys without the support of the Volkswagenstiftung. Special thanks go to Antje Fischer, who always offered her technical support to solve all issues looking out for vials in the storage rooms and made specimens available to all experts involved at any time. Technical help was also provided by Karen Jeskulke solving all database issues and requests. Leon Kobe did his school practical days during the workshop in Wilhelmshaven and was a great help organizing the workshop as well as Charlotte Brenneken, who provided her student helper assistance in database entries of sorting protocols during this workshop. We thank all workshop participants who could not contribute to paper writing for their participation and sorting effort during the workshops, namely Stas Malavin, Paulina Dębiec and Josh Hatton. Without the enthusiasm of Magda Błażewicz and her team the second workshop in Spała would not have been possible. Species level identification for Oedicerotidae and Amphilochidae was enabled by the Volkswagenstiftung allowing Anne-Nina Lörz, Bente Stransky, and Saskia Brix to invite the specialists for these groups to the DZMB Hamburg for research visits in April 2017 (Lauren Hughes and Ed Hendrycks) and June and August 2017 (Anne Helene S. Tandberg). Travel funds for Tammy Horton were provided by the EU ATLANTOS program. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 633211. Alan Myers is thanked for his helpful and constructive review comments on our manuscript. Funding Information: Financial support was given from the Volkswagenstiftung “Forschung in Museen” to organise the first sorting workshop in Wilhelmshaven July 2016. The second workshop in Spala (Poland) was organised with the support from the internal funds of the University of Lodz and the enthusiasm of all travelling experts. This paper would not be in this special Issue of ZooKeys without the support of the Volkswagenstiftung. Special thanks go to Antje Fischer, who always offered her technical support to solve all issues looking out for vials in the storage rooms and made specimens available to all experts involved at any time. Technical help was also provided by Karen Jeskulke solving all database issues and requests. Leon Kobe did his school practical days during the workshop in Wilhelmshaven and was a great help organizing the workshop as well as Charlotte Brenneken, who provided her student helper assistance in database entries of sorting protocols during this workshop. We thank all workshop participants who could not contribute to paper writing for their participation and sorting effort during the workshops, namely Stas Malavin, Paulina Debiec and Josh Hatton. Without the enthusiasm of Magda Blazewicz and her team the second workshop in Spala would not have been possible. Species level identification for Oedicerotidae and Amphilochidae was enabled by the Volkswagenstiftung allowing Anne-Nina Lörz, Bente Stransky, and Saskia Brix to invite the specialists for these groups to the DZMB Hamburg for research visits in April2017 (Lauren Hughes and Ed Hendrycks) and June and August 2017 (Anne Helene S. Tandberg). Travel funds for Tammy Horton were provided by the EU ATLANTOS program. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 633211. Alan Myers is thanked for his helpful and constructive review comments on our manuscript.Keywords
- adolescence
- biological maturation
- Australian Rules Football
- team sport
- relative age effect
- talent identification
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)