Predicting Adolescent Maturity and Growth Curves
Athletes can now be categorized into early, average, or late maturers based upon an algorithm developed by the University of Saskatchewan. Photo courtesy of Google.
Have you ever wondered about your son, daughter, or even about yourself in regards to development? Will I get any taller? Have I finished growing? How can I possibly tell if I’m physically maturing at the proper rate?
Often times the gold standard for measuring development of a human being is Riser’s sign of the iliac crest, fusion of apophysis, and completion of epiphyseal growth plates obtained through x-ray imaging. However, in the majority of situations it is inappropriate to utilize radiation when attempting to screen athletes for developmental progress.
Since the work done by the University of Saskatchewan in the early 2000’s there is now a valid and reliable way to predict adolescent development. The method designed has the ability to predict adult height within +/- 5.35cm 95% of the time in males and +/- 6.81cm 95% of the time in females. Therefore, the Saskatchewan peak height velocity calculator is a valid, non-intrusive, inexpensive, and simple method of predicting adult height in adolescent children who are free of growth impedances.
Why would we want to know if athletes were early, average, late maturers? Or even how far along in their developmental they are?
Well, the fact of the matter remains that not all humans develop the same way and at the same rate. Take for example, a team of 15 adolescent baseball players. These players are all aged at 16 years old. During offseason training and development, it is clear that some kids excel with body awareness and strength adaptations while other kids appear far more awkward and unaware due to their location on the developmental curve. In this case, should each individual athlete be participating in the same strength and conditioning program? Or should athletes be screened according to their developmental status and then split into groups that better aid in their progression and injury prevention?
So how do I determine where myself or my child are located on their developmental curve?
Having a licensed practioner assess your athlete and input the proper objective measures into the Peak-Height Velocity algorithm will provide information regarding current development, developmental rate, and a timeframe to project final development. With this information, a more specific and safe training protocol can be developed to promote proper athletic development.
References
Sherar LB, Mirwald RL, Baxter-Jones AD, Thomis M. Prediction of adult height using maturity-based cumulative height velocity curves. The Journal of pediatrics. 2005 Oct 1;147(4):508-14.