This review highlights the relationship between maturity status, body composition and fitness performance in women's football. The scoping review protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/6wvm5).The literature on growth and maturation in female football players was scoped on PubMed, SCOPUS and Web of Science between February 2023 to April 2025. Studies were considered if they were on, or if they included female football players less than 17 years and included indicators of biological maturation. Two reviewers (FB and BK) selected studies and extracted data. Forty-six studies met the criteria. Regarding maturation the mean age at peak height velocity (APHV) ranged between 12.5 and 12.4 years and the mean age at menarche between 13 and 12.8 years. Body composition varied according to maturation status. Early maturing players are heavier and have greater fat mass than the late maturing ones. Concerning physical performance it was observed that, countermovement jump improved after the PHV, as did change-of-direction ability; for pre-PHV players greatest improvements were observed in sprinting performance and anaerobic endurance. Coaches should consider maturity status while programming their training sessions, not only to adapt their training load more rigorously but also to prevent injuries. However, scientific research on the growth and maturation of female football players is still limited and most of the studies carried out did not consider the players’ training age.

Background: This cross-sectional study aims to clarify the relationship between coaches’ decisions and players’ relative age, biological maturation, and experience when identifying Under-14 (U14) players for the District and National Teams. Methods: A total of 360 male soccer players participating in the U14 national inter-association tournament, Lopes da Silva, were assessed. Birth dates were recorded, and players were categorized by birth quarter. Anthropometric measurements, fitness level (handgrip strength), and success indicators (performance evaluated by the coach, minutes played, and selection for the National Team) were documented, Maturation status was determined using bone age. Results: The majority of the sample was born in the 1st and 2nd quartiles regardless of maturation status. Morphological and functional differences between players born in different quartiles were no longer significant after controlling the effect of bone age. Late-maturing athletes played significantly fewer minutes. Among the players selected for the National Team, 89.9% were early or on-time maturers, and 92.9% were born in the first or second quartile of the year. While previous studies have shown reduced variability between bone and decimal age in the third and fourth quartiles, our findings indicate greater variability across all birth quartiles. Conclusions: Maturation status and relative age effect are crucial factors influencing coaches’ selection decisions. These findings highlight the need for a more equitable approach to talent identification, which should include track maturation bias avoiding the pursuit of short-term success and promoting long-term development programs for young soccer players. Undoubtedly, maturation status and relative age effect (RAE) play a significant role in a coach’s decision-making process.

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the presence of relative age effect (RAE) in the World Fencing Championships of the 2022–2023 season across three age categories.Methods: Data from the participants of the World Fencing Championships were collected from the International Fencing Federation, resulting in a total of 2,791 participants distributed according to the age categories: 713 cadets, 1,048 juniors, and 1,030 senior athletes. The data collected included the athletes’ birthdate, birth quartile, sex, weapon, age category, country, continental area, and world championship result. An athlete’s relative classification was computed using their competition classification and the total number of participants in the event. The chi-square goodness-of-fit test was performed to assess the presence of RAE, examining differences in birth quarter distribution across the total sample, for each sex, and for the 18 events. Follow-up analyses included standardized residuals, Cramér's V effect size, and odds ratios. In events where RAE was detected, the Kruskal–Wallis and Quade's non-parametric ANCOVA tests were used to compare athletes’ relative classification across birth quarters.Results: RAE was present, in the overall sample [χ²(3) = 16.142, p < 0.001, V = 0.044], according to sex [female: χ²(3) = 10.349, p = 0.016, V = 0.053; male: χ²(3) = 7.987, p = 0.046, V = 0.041], and was inconclusive when focusing on each event.Discussion: The complexity of results in individual sports and the lack of research in fencing makes it difficult to understand the relevance of RAE in this sport. Despite the lack and inconsistency of results in fencing, coaches should be aware of this effect.

To validate maturity status classification, based on %PAH, relative to SA, in a sample of Portuguese children and adolescents of both sexes. BA was measured by the Tanner-Whitehouse-3 method, the PAH and %PAH were estimated by the Tanner-Whitehouse-3 method (BA- PAH, % BA-PAH) and the Khamis-Roche method (KR- PAH, %KR- PAH) in 371 children (171 girls). Intraclass Correlation Coefficients and Bland-Altman plots were performance between BA-PAH / BA-%PAH and KR- PAH/%KR- PAH methods. Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was made to evaluate the effect of sex and maturity status. The average mean differences between BA-PAH and KR-PAH was 0.2 ± 4.2 cm in boys and 0.6 ± 3.1 cm in girls (p > 0.05) and between BA-% PAH and KR-% PAH was -0.1 ± 2.1% in boys and 0.4 ± 1.8% in girls (p > 0.05). A high interclass correlation coefficient was higher than 0.91 for BA-% PAH and KR-% PAH. Early maturity status was related to negative differences between BA- KR PAH. KR % PAH presented a good agreement and might be a valid estimate of biological maturity status in average maturing children and adolescents.

This systematic review aimed to evaluate the use of voice change, specifically, changes in fundamental frequency (F₀), as a nonnvasive objective indicator of somatic and pubertal maturation in boys. Traditional maturity assessment methods, such as skeletal age or secondary sexual characteristics, are often invasive, costly, and logistically complex. Voice analysis offers a potentially simpler and more scalable alternative. A comprehensive search was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus up to December 2024, adhering to preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. Inclusion criteria targeted studies examining the relationship between chronological age (CA), peak height velocity (PHV), and voice parameters (primarily F₀) in boys aged 8-17. A total of 52 studies involving 6250 male participants were included. Data on voice tasks, analytical methods, and maturational indicators were extracted and assessed for quality using the mixed methods appraisal tool. The majority of studies reported a significant negative correlation between F₀ and CA, with F₀ decreasing notably during adolescence. Age at voice change typically ranged from 11 to 13 years, while age at peak voice change was most commonly observed between 12 and 14 years. These milestones closely aligned with pubertal events such as PHV and Tanner stages. Voice parameters, particularly F₀, are strongly associated with biological and pubertal maturation in boys and offer a promising, noninvasive proxy for assessing maturational timing. Future research should aim to standardize protocols and validate voice-based assessments against established biological maturity markers.