Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Soccer coaches vs. sport science and medicine staff: who can more accurately predict the skeletal age of high-level youth soccer players?

Soccer coaches vs. sport science and medicine staff: who can more accurately predict the skeletal... Biological maturity is an important aspect in the context of talent identification and development processes within elite youth soccer players. The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of soccer coaches (SC) as well as sports science and medicine staff (SSMS) to predict the skeletal age of high-level youth soccer players. We also aimed to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of the skeletal age predictions among the SC and SSMS. Skeletal ages were collected for 89 male academy soccer players registered for the U12 to U16 age groups at a professional German Bundesliga club. In addition, 12 SC and five SSMS provided their skeletal age predictions for each player of their respective age group. Standardised mean differences and equivalence testing were performed between actual and predicted skeletal ages. Intra-class correlations (ICC) were calculated to assess the inter-rater reliability. For the SC, differences between predicted and actual skeletal ages were trivial and equivalent to zero for the U12, U14, and entire sample, while for the SSMS, standardised mean differences ranged from trivial to small for all age groups and the entire sample. ICC for skeletal age predictions for the entire sample was good among the SC and excellent among the SSMS, but was somewhat lower when age groups were analysed separately. While, on average, predictions were close to the actual skeletal age, SC were slightly more accurate than the SSMS. However, variability among the SSMS was large on an individual level. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Science and Medicine in Football Taylor & Francis

Soccer coaches vs. sport science and medicine staff: who can more accurately predict the skeletal age of high-level youth soccer players?

Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/soccer-coaches-vs-sport-science-and-medicine-staff-who-can-more-l1DUiXZtGR

References (43)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
ISSN
2473-4446
eISSN
2473-3938
DOI
10.1080/24733938.2022.2100461
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Biological maturity is an important aspect in the context of talent identification and development processes within elite youth soccer players. The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of soccer coaches (SC) as well as sports science and medicine staff (SSMS) to predict the skeletal age of high-level youth soccer players. We also aimed to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of the skeletal age predictions among the SC and SSMS. Skeletal ages were collected for 89 male academy soccer players registered for the U12 to U16 age groups at a professional German Bundesliga club. In addition, 12 SC and five SSMS provided their skeletal age predictions for each player of their respective age group. Standardised mean differences and equivalence testing were performed between actual and predicted skeletal ages. Intra-class correlations (ICC) were calculated to assess the inter-rater reliability. For the SC, differences between predicted and actual skeletal ages were trivial and equivalent to zero for the U12, U14, and entire sample, while for the SSMS, standardised mean differences ranged from trivial to small for all age groups and the entire sample. ICC for skeletal age predictions for the entire sample was good among the SC and excellent among the SSMS, but was somewhat lower when age groups were analysed separately. While, on average, predictions were close to the actual skeletal age, SC were slightly more accurate than the SSMS. However, variability among the SSMS was large on an individual level.

Journal

Science and Medicine in Football – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jul 3, 2023

Keywords: Maturation; adolescence; talent identification; development

There are no references for this article.