Presentation
Anthropometric, fitness and coaches’ perceptions of technical skill favour early maturing adolescent Australian footballers
The University of Notre Dame Australia
(2015)
Abstract
During mid-adolescence, biological maturity can vary greatly between athletes of similar
chronological ages, resulting in early maturing athlete’s benefiting from greater anthropometric and
fitness characteristics, when compared to their late maturing counterparts. In Australian Football,
advantages associated with early maturation may also result in greater technical and perceived skill
efficiency. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of maturational status on
anthropometric and fitness testing, technical skill efficiency and coaches’ perceptions of skill in
talented adolescent Australian Footballers (n=225, age 15.64 ± 0.29 years). An estimation of years
from peak height velocity (Y-PHV) was used to class athletes as either late (Y-PHV below 1.16
years, n=44) average (Y-PHV between 1.17 and 2.15 years, n=138) or early (Y-PHV above 2.16
years, n=43) maturing individuals. Unsurprisingly, early maturing athletes where significantly
taller, heavier and outperformed late maturing athletes in the sprint and vertical jump tests (p<0.05).
No difference was found between maturational groups in the aerobic endurance test or for
performance in the two skill efficiency tests. Coaches’ perceived early maturing athletes to have
significantly better overall technical skills (p<0.05) when compared to late maturing athletes
however, of the independent technical ratings only marking (p<0.05) showed significant difference
between groups. Early maturing adolescent athletes are likely to be afforded significant competitive
and selective advantages compared to their later maturing counterparts because of the combination
of superior anthropometric, and fitness capacities, and greater perceived technical skill. This is
despite early maturing athletes not demonstrating superior technical skills in tests used.
Keywords
- Australian football,
- anthropometric,
- junior
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring May 21, 2015
Citation Information
Ashley Cripps, Luke Hopper and Christopher Joyce. "Anthropometric, fitness and coaches’ perceptions of technical skill favour early maturing adolescent Australian footballers" The University of Notre Dame Australia (2015) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/chris-joyce/15/