Maturation Aware Coaching for LTPAD
Why Maturation Matters
Sport, especially team sport, favours earlier maturing children, not because of talent, but because an early size advantage can bias team selection, often at the expense of late developers.
While this appears positive for the selected players, the remaining squad are at a disadvantage, having fewer opportunities to build their experience, impacting their skills development, enjoyment of the game and increasing their risk of quitting.
Science tells us that early or late maturation does not determine adult body characteristics, but how kids are coached during adolescence can impact their potential into adulthood. What’s optimal for them in terms of speed, stamina, flexibility & strength training depends on what stage they’re in, not their age.
Ignoring maturation in how we coach kids risks losing up to 60% of the potential adult talent pool, to the team, to the club and to the sport.
The SURPASSPORT Maturation Assessment applies sports science to a set of skeletal measurements to predict timing of growth and to identify windows of accelerated adaptation during which the developing body responds best to speed, stamina and strength training, for short term fitness and long term athletic potential.
This information then helps with planning training sessions to individual needs, a key element in retention and long term development.
How it works
As coach or teacher, you arrange an on-site assessment session with SURPASSPORT and then communicate the booking link to your team’s parents, informing them when and where, allowing them to register and pay for their kids. Assessment sessions typically cater for between 20 and 50 children, where each parent receives a time-slot on registering.
Our experienced assessors measure and record heights, arm-span and weight. SURPASSPORT uses this data to calculate when peak growth occurs and identify their maturation stage and most opportune training emphases. Projected adult heigh can also be estimated, but requires the child’s parents’ heights. Parents’ height can be included in the assessment, if required.
Parents receive a PDF report, keeping them informed and aligned with your coaching programme. The assessment findings are available to your team’s coaches on SURPASSPORT.
You then can tailor your coaching games and drills to emphasise speed, stamina, flexibility, strength or skills based on groups corresponding to your players’ maturation stages, ensuring an individualise experience.
SURPASSPORT will remind you and parents when the assessment should be repeated, so as to refine the estimate of when peak growth is expected, or to confirm when it occurred.
The Benefits
Supporting children in their journey to becoming adult players is a key reason we coach underage sport. Coaching children through their teenage years must take account of their individual development, especially their physical development.
SURPASSPORT eliminates guesswork and informs your conditioning programme for each player, appropriate for their biological age.
- Starting resistance training in girls at the optimal age is vital for building bone density, which will last a lifetime.
- Early developing boys’ fleeting size advantage can lead to complacency and then result in frustration as their own age group catch up.They benefit from a regular reality check by training with biological peers, helping them to maintain work rate through these years..
- Early developing girls are at higher risk of dropout due to non-conformance with their age-group.
- Matching later developing children with their physiological peers makes sport more about skill, not strength, especially at an age when everything is already changing. They are reassured that they will catch up, with every chance that they will be the better players, having had to work harder all along.
Using maturation status on SURPASSPORT to rebalance team training helps each kid to feel valued and allows all kids to be challenged on effort and skills.
This contributes in no small part to their enjoyment at training and matches, which in turn motivates practice, fitness and participation.
Long term gains are equally possible, where working to windows of accelerated adaptation can yield improved speed muscle, mental and aerobic stamina and suppleness, perhaps allowing aspiring athletes to compete on a world stage.
Helping kids safely achieve their sporting potential is more than a noble goal or health benefit. It encourages lifelong participation and makes for stronger teams, stronger clubs and stronger sport.
Costs
The assessment costs €25.00 per child, including VAT when pre-booked online, or €30.00 at the door. The assessment is generally delivered at the school or club and involves taking a number of skeletal measurements, after which, parents receive a generated report and invited to install the SURPASSPORT App.
We strive to deliver the service efficiently across Ireland, but reserve the right to apply travel expenses depending on numbers and location.
