‘I feel more comfortable in contact with similar-sized players’: male youth rugby union players’ perceptions of bio-banded training

Background: Bio-banding has been used to moderate disparities in maturity status between youth players of the same chronological age to support development. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate male youth rugby union players’ perceptions of bio-banded training compared to chronological age grouping. Subjects and methods: Fifty-four U16 players participated in games-based bio-banded training before completing an eight-item Likert scale questionnaire, with the option of providing an explanation for each response. Aligning with typical peak height velocity (PHV) categories, maturity banding was based upon percentage of predicted adult height (i.e. circa-PHV ≤95% and post-PHV ≥96%). A series of one-sample and Welch’s t-tests were used to analyse quantitative data, and qualitative data were assessed using an inductive thematic analysis. Results: Irrespective of maturity status, the majority of players perceived they understood and enjoyed most aspects of the bio-banding format and believed they were less likely to get injured compared to chronological age grouping. Both maturity groups perceived bio-banding facilitated superior psychosocial capacities and offered a greater technical and tactical challenge, whilst circa-PHV and post-PHV players perceived bio-banding as less and more physically challenging than chronological age grouping, respectively. Conclusion: The results suggest using bio-banded grouping for training, as an adjunct to chronological age grouping, may positively contribute to the holistic development of male youth players in rugby union irrespective of maturity status.