Why College Coaches Need to Understand Growth & Maturation

All across America, college baseball coaches are scouting talent this summer.

Here’s a short story about one.

A decade or so ago, a graduate student in my KIN 580 Growth, Maturation and Physical Activity course took a keen interest in talent identification, selection and development. He also did a really nice project on the age- and maturity-related changes in baseball performance metrics from 12U-16U.

This summer, this well-educated college baseball assistant coach and recruiting coordinator was at a showcase tournament. He sees your typical 14U “elite travel” team coached by 5 dads .. you know - head coach (son is SS and P, bats 3rd), first base coach, third base coach, hitting coach and pitching coach (former high school standout who blew his arm out).. and oh ya, the stats guy too… So essentially, we have 6 of the 11 players dad’s in the dugout. All of them are between 5’7” and 5’9 1/1” (with shoes on).

And all of the kids are about same height or taller than their parents.

Given that the college baseball coach is aware of the genetics of height and body size, knows about either the Khamis-Roche or Maturity Offset equation to predict adult stature and convert to %predicted adult stature as indicator of maturity status and can do some quick visual assessment of maturity, he deems most of these kids as early maturers and likely not to grow much more.

He’s also quite aware that selection to a team like this one is often based on size and maturity (and a quick glance at the roster also shows the relative age effect or birthdate effect), and ultimately that success at this age may not be a good predictor of future performance.

He leaves the facility and wonders to another ball game.

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💼 Schedule a consult: If you are a college coach and want to discuss and learn how you can leverage the science of growth, maturation, talent identification and selection, please contact me (joeeisenmann@gmail.com) to start the conversation so you don’t choose Fool’s Gold and lose the Diamonds in the Rough.

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