I still don’t understand why the youth system is set up by age group instead of something like weight division for example. Some interesting facts about male puberty: - The average age puberty starts is 12 - The normal range of age at start varies from 10 to 14 - Puberty can be as fast as 2 years or as slow as 5 years - Muscle mass increases significantly at each of the last two stages of puberty (out of 5 stages) - Boys grow about 4 to 6 inches in height towards the end of puberty - Boys can’t build muscle at the gym until their body is producing enough testosterone So get this, some boys begin puberty at 10, reach adult maturation by 12, and have four years of extra strength training by 16. Other boys begin puberty at 14, reach adult maturation at 19, and only then start strength training. While the average boy is somewhere halfway between these two timescales. So why are we putting boys together by age group, unless we’re deliberately just selecting for pace and power and eradicating technique and the opportunities for late bloomers?
Completely agree!! You wouldn’t have an under 8 in an under 12 team no matter how good he was. But in terms of physical maturation it’s what happens in the ages you mention below in teams of relative/physical ages.
The Wolves website stated that defender Harvey Owen will travel to St George’s Park later this week for the upcoming under-15s selection camp. I presume you mean the club youth system? Obviously international competition has UEFA/FIFA regulations for age. Although the Czech Republic at U15/16/17 level run teams for less physically developed players. Belgium are another. England themselves had a training camp couple of years back specifically for the younger 2004 lads. Given births peak in late September, all things being equal, there should not be more lads being selected from earlier in the year. Do you know if the club academy system in regards this issue is different in other countries? The relative age effect is something youth coaches are aware of though, the Premier League has run bio-banding tournaments for a few years. This article from Training Ground a couple of months ago seems relevant. Also players are held back sometimes, such as Oxlade-Chamberlain. I think Angel Gomes was another.
Interesting articles. It’s promising that the system isn’t totally ignorant of this problem now, which they admit they were until recently. But here’s a quote from an interview with Sean Cumming: So as good as he claims the academies are, they’re clearly not keeping enough of the late developers in the system are they? This was also interesting Late maturers are almost completely missing from the more prestigious age group tournaments by their late teens. I get the sense that the premier league, under advice from Cumming, are trying to use biobanding as a supplement to age groups instead of replacing or restructuring age groups into separate divisions. I guess the problem with that is all the prestigious tournaments that people have heard about are are age grouped, and if the late maturers aren’t participating in them, are they motivated to stay in the system?
I don't think Gomes was, he made his under 18 debut aged 14 and senior debut aged 16. Jesse Lingard definitely was keep back a year though.