REF-603 · Cumming, Lloyd, Oliver, Eisenmann & Malina, 2017 · Strength & Conditioning Journal, · Paper
Bio-banding: group/program youth by biological maturity, not chronological age
To counter the relative age effect, maturation bias, and "adolescent awkwardness"
Key Findings
Bio-banding = putting athletes into groups by attributes linked to growth and maturation, instead of by chronological age. Among children of one age, biological maturation differs a lot, with some ahead of their peers and some behind; when maturation happens carries important implications for training, competition and talent identification (abstract).
The overview describes the purpose and process of bio-banding, its potential benefits and limitations, and recent advances in its application in youth sport (abstract).
Full text; not checked against the abstract: early maturers are bigger/stronger by TIMING, not talent, biasing selection; the relative age effect over-represents those born early in the selection year while late maturers are deselected despite equal/greater potential; maturity is estimated as % of predicted adult height or maturity offset vs PHV; around PHV, rapid growth transiently disrupts coordination ("adolescent awkwardness").
Practical Application
The overview's position: because same-age children differ widely in maturation, grouping and training by maturity rather than birth date is the tool for fairer competition, selection and S&C — youth coaches/selectors should estimate maturity, not credit early-maturation size as talent, and protect late maturers from premature deselection.
Around PHV, temper technical expectations and load (coordination dip), reduce injury-provoking spikes during the growth spurt (full text; not checked against the abstract).
Adult translation: don't apply PHV/awkwardness logic to the adult's own training.
Limitations
Narrative overview, not an outcome trial; maturity estimation carries error near PHV; youth-specific; the indexed abstract is a short description of scope, so the detailed mechanisms are full-text claims.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
regraded 2026-09-27 from C: narrative review without systematic method (rubric C+), from the group that developed bio-banding (Cumming, Malina, Lloyd, Oliver)
Content correction 2026-09-27
Level C -> C+ per rubric (narrative review); Tier "N/A" -> Tier 0-2.
Findings split into abstract-supported (definition, maturation variance, implications) and full-text (RAE, maturity estimation methods, adolescent awkwardness), labelled accordingly.