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Removing maturational influences from female youth swimming: the application of corrective adjustment procedures

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 24; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jsams.2021.09.098

1440-2440

Stephanie Abbott, M Castiglioni, Stephen Cobley, Mark Halaki, Catherine Ann Hogan, G. Lynn Mitchell, Michael Romann, Judy Salter, G. Yamauchi,

Sport Psychology and Performance

Introduction: Common annual age-group competition structures unintentionally introduce participation inequalities, performance (dis)advantages and selection biases due to the effect of maturational variation between youth swimmers. On this basis, there are implications for improving performance evaluation strategies. Therefore the aim was to: (1) To determine maturity timing distributions in female youth swimming; (2) quantify the relationship between maturation status and 100-m FC performance; (3) apply Maturational-based Corrective Adjustment Procedures (Mat-CAPs) for removal of maturational status performance influences. Methods: (1) Cross-sectional analysis of 663 female (10-15 years) swimmers who underwent assessment of anthropometrics (mass, height and sitting height), and estimations of maturity timing and offset. (2) 100-m front-crawl performance (seconds) was assessed at Australian regional, state, and national-level competitions between 2016-2020. (3) Participants aged 10-13 years were categorised into maturity-offset categories. Maturity-offset distributions for Raw ('All', 'Top 50%' & 'Top 25%') and Correctively Adjusted swim times were examined. Chi-square, Cramer's V and ORs determined the occurrence of maturation biases for each age-group and selection level. Results: (1) Maturity timing distributions illustrated overrepresentation of 'normative' maturing swimmers (11.82 ± 0.40 years), with a descriptive shift toward the early maturing relative to the normative population. (2) A curvilinear relationship between maturity-offset and swim performance was identified (R2 = 0.53, P < 0.001) and subsequently utilised for Mat-CAPs. (3) Raw maturity-offset categories identified partial maturation status skewing towards biologically older swimmers at 10/11 and 12 years, with effect magnitudes increasing in the 'Top 50%' and '25%' of performance times. Following Mat-CAPs application, maturity-offset biases were removed in similar age-groups and selection levels. Discussion: The overrepresentation of 'normative' maturing female swimmers contrasted with the substantial overrepresentation of 'early' maturing male swimmers found in 100-m front-crawl. These findings suggest early maturational timing is not advantageous in females, but findings associated with Aim 2, highlight how advanced maturational status remained beneficial to performance. Observed differences between female and male maturational biases may relate to the differential impact of physiological development during pubertal years. Females experience greater increases of fat mass and potentially differing changes in body shape which can negatively affect swim performance. When adjusting performance times for maturity-offset, Mat-CAPs was successful in mitigating against maturational biases until approximately 1-year post Peak Height Velocity. By removing maturity biases within youth female swimming, Mat-CAPs could help improve participation experiences and the accuracy of identifying genuinely skilled female youth swimmers. Conflict of interest statement: My co-authors and I acknowledge that we have no conflict of interest of relevance to the submission of this abstract.