The Rightfield Syndrome Part Two - Maturation Rates
Physical maturity levels vary widely between individuals of the same age.
At the Little League age (10-12) there can be a noticeable difference in the physical maturity of players.
The beginning of adolescence for the average male is around 12-years-old.
An early maturing male may begin adolescence at 10-years-old or earlier while a late maturing male may not enter puberty until the age of 15 or later.
Associated with adolescence is an increase in height, weight, muscle mass, and bone mass.
The individual is transformed into a body that is much more capable of performing at higher and more coordinated levels of physical activity due to the change in physique and stature.
The implications of maturation rates and youth baseball are great.
For example, a 15-player team may have five players who are early maturers, five who are average maturers, and five who are late maturers.
The five players who are early maturers may have a biological age that is two to three years ahead of their chronological age while the five players whose rates of maturation are later than the average may have a biological age that is two to three years behind their chronological age.
This translates, at the physical level, into having five players on the team who are between the ages of 14 and 15 and another group of five who are between the ages of eight and nine.
So essentially there are kids with the bodies of 14-and 15-years-old competing against kids with the bodies of eight-and nine-years-old.
This example may seem drastic, and in most cases this does not happen to such an extreme, but it is entirely possible in a youth-sport setting like Little League baseball.
It is no wonder that we typically see the bigger and more physically mature kids making up the majority of the all-star teams.
At the Little-League level, the game of baseball favors the players who are bigger and stronger.
The bigger and stronger players can throw harder and farther, swing the bat faster and with more control, handle a baseball glove more proficiently, run faster, and in general produce more strength, power, and coordination with their physically advanced bodies than the average and late maturing players.
Thus, the early maturing players tend to occupy the positions considered to be of the most importance on the field, pitcher and shortstop.
It is no coincidence that these positions involve a lot of throwing and catching.
These positions also require the player to engage the game and to become involved mentally with learning the game of baseball.
Meanwhile, the later maturing players tend to occupy the less important positions such as outfield, particularly rightfield, where they will be less likely to have to throw and catch and less likely to be making decisions that will affect the outcome of the game.
The early maturing players also tend to occupy the more important positions in the batting order, slots one through five, while the late maturers are typically placed at the bottom of the line up in the seven, eight, and nine hitting slots.
Early maturers' physical size and stature provides them with an advantage when it comes to hitting.
They have greater bat speed and better bat control than the later maturing players.
This phenomena tends to decrease as the level of play and specialization of position increases.
For example, players who were right fielders at the lower levels of little-league often become left fielders or first baseman, if they haven't dropped out by then, at the higher levels of junior-high and high-school baseball because the throwing distances are shorter at those positions.
However, the "Rightfield Syndrome" is particularly prevalent at the Little-League level.
Youth sport coaches and parents need to be keenly aware of the fact that a late maturing child will eventually catch up to and many times surpass the early maturer in the changes associated with adolescence.
This means that the smaller, less physically mature child has the same physical potential of playing Major-League baseball as the early-maturing child.
There is little correlation between stardom at the Little-League level of play and stardom at, and beyond, the college level of play.
While maturation rates may explain some of the difference in youth-league performance levels coaches and parents should avoid pigeonholing players into positions because of physical features that may simply be a byproduct of differences in maturity levels between players.
At the Little League age (10-12) there can be a noticeable difference in the physical maturity of players.
The beginning of adolescence for the average male is around 12-years-old.
An early maturing male may begin adolescence at 10-years-old or earlier while a late maturing male may not enter puberty until the age of 15 or later.
Associated with adolescence is an increase in height, weight, muscle mass, and bone mass.
The individual is transformed into a body that is much more capable of performing at higher and more coordinated levels of physical activity due to the change in physique and stature.
The implications of maturation rates and youth baseball are great.
For example, a 15-player team may have five players who are early maturers, five who are average maturers, and five who are late maturers.
The five players who are early maturers may have a biological age that is two to three years ahead of their chronological age while the five players whose rates of maturation are later than the average may have a biological age that is two to three years behind their chronological age.
This translates, at the physical level, into having five players on the team who are between the ages of 14 and 15 and another group of five who are between the ages of eight and nine.
So essentially there are kids with the bodies of 14-and 15-years-old competing against kids with the bodies of eight-and nine-years-old.
This example may seem drastic, and in most cases this does not happen to such an extreme, but it is entirely possible in a youth-sport setting like Little League baseball.
It is no wonder that we typically see the bigger and more physically mature kids making up the majority of the all-star teams.
At the Little-League level, the game of baseball favors the players who are bigger and stronger.
The bigger and stronger players can throw harder and farther, swing the bat faster and with more control, handle a baseball glove more proficiently, run faster, and in general produce more strength, power, and coordination with their physically advanced bodies than the average and late maturing players.
Thus, the early maturing players tend to occupy the positions considered to be of the most importance on the field, pitcher and shortstop.
It is no coincidence that these positions involve a lot of throwing and catching.
These positions also require the player to engage the game and to become involved mentally with learning the game of baseball.
Meanwhile, the later maturing players tend to occupy the less important positions such as outfield, particularly rightfield, where they will be less likely to have to throw and catch and less likely to be making decisions that will affect the outcome of the game.
The early maturing players also tend to occupy the more important positions in the batting order, slots one through five, while the late maturers are typically placed at the bottom of the line up in the seven, eight, and nine hitting slots.
Early maturers' physical size and stature provides them with an advantage when it comes to hitting.
They have greater bat speed and better bat control than the later maturing players.
This phenomena tends to decrease as the level of play and specialization of position increases.
For example, players who were right fielders at the lower levels of little-league often become left fielders or first baseman, if they haven't dropped out by then, at the higher levels of junior-high and high-school baseball because the throwing distances are shorter at those positions.
However, the "Rightfield Syndrome" is particularly prevalent at the Little-League level.
Youth sport coaches and parents need to be keenly aware of the fact that a late maturing child will eventually catch up to and many times surpass the early maturer in the changes associated with adolescence.
This means that the smaller, less physically mature child has the same physical potential of playing Major-League baseball as the early-maturing child.
There is little correlation between stardom at the Little-League level of play and stardom at, and beyond, the college level of play.
While maturation rates may explain some of the difference in youth-league performance levels coaches and parents should avoid pigeonholing players into positions because of physical features that may simply be a byproduct of differences in maturity levels between players.
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