Relationship Among Biological Maturation, Physical Characteristics, and Motor Abilities in Youth Elite Soccer Players

Itoh, R and Hirose, N. Relationship among biological maturation, physical characteristics, and motor abilities in youth elite soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 34(2): 382–388, 2020—Studies investigating skeletal maturity and motor abilities in youth Asian elite soccer players are lacking. We aimed to investigate the cross-sectional relationship among skeletal age (SA), physical characteristics, and motor abilities in youth elite soccer players. Skeletal age is commonly used to estimate the maturity status of youth athletes using a hand-wrist radiograph. We enrolled 49 youth elite male soccer players (12.7 ± 0.2 years). Height, body mass, body fat percentage, circumference (thigh/calf), flexibility, 10-m/50-m sprint, 10-m × 5 shuttle run, the crank test, 5-step bounding, Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 2, and cooper run were measured. Participants were divided into early (n = 14), average (n = 22), and late (n = 13) maturation groups according to their chronological age (CA) and SA based on the following criteria: SA-CA +1 year, respectively. The difference in parameters among the groups was analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and Tukey's post hoc test. Statistical significance was set at p
Source: Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research - Category: Sports Medicine Tags: Original Research Source Type: research