Science to Soccer with Lauren

Bio banding: The innovative method to develop elite soccer players

Lauren — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:47 GMT

Players who are born in a certain month are less likely to go pro.

Quite often in soccer we see players of different sizes and shapes. Some are tall and strong like Erling Haaland and others are small and technical like Messi. Yet in the traditional system in youth sports players are grouped by their calendar birth rather than their biological issue. This creates a favoritism in soccer towards the tall and more physically matured players. This is where bio- banding comes in. It solves that issue by grouping players by their biological age to take away those physical advantages or disadvantages.

Photo by 磊周 on Unsplash

What is bio-banding

“Bio-banding is the process of grouping athletes on the basis of attributes associated with growth and maturation rather than chronological age.” (1). Instead of grouping athletes based off of their calendar birth they group the based on how much they matured. Bio-banding has primarily been applied in soccer but has also bee proposed in many sports (2) (3).

Chronological vs Biological age

Chronological age = The time you were born measured in years and months (4). Basically how old you are.

Biological age= How your body acts based on factors such as nutrition, exercise, genetics, cell health, cell function and your internal organs (5). Your biological age is based on how well your cells and organs are working.

Relative Age effect and Maturation

The relative age effect refers to performance advantage of youth born in the first quarter of the birth year when auditioning for select, age-restricted sports (6). Children born before a specific age cut off period may have an advantage in their athletics (7). Since the system around soccer is based on age the relative age effect is a huge issue.

For example meet Anna. She is a 6 foot 13 year old girl who had matured earlier than her other peers. She is faster stronger and taller than the rest of her teammates. During her youth years she uses her physicality to dominate on the field. She even gets scouted into an academy.

Now our other player is Olivia who has matured later than the rest of her peers. For now she isn’t as fast or strong as her other teammates.

While Olivia is just as skilled as Anna she struggles to keep up with the speed and physicality of the game. This lead her to be benched and even cut from her team.

Studies have shown that players born earlier in the year have more of a physical advantage (8). Due to a advantage from your biology earlier maturing players were faster than players who are later mat As a result being born later int he year puts you in a disadvantage. This explains why potentially players born later in the year drop out in their youth years.

Why bio banding is important

This is where bio-banding comes in. this has been proposed to solve that issue.

Due to the relative age effect coaches may mistake players who have matured earlier to be more talented. One studied showed that more matured boy soccer players covered greater distance and performed more high intensity actions than else matured boys (9).

Since Anna was more physically stronger than her peers she built more of her physicality rather than her technical ability. This led her to not do well when players finished hitting puberty. She struggled on the pitch due to her lack of tactical and technical ability.

Olivia on the other hand was able to dominate on the field once she was able to catch up in maturing. Due to her maturing late she was forced to build a technical ability over a physicality. After years of struggle she was able to catch up with her peers.

Bio-banding helps solve the issues in three areas (1)

Identifying talent
Training
Competition

Identifying talent

“If you are an early developer and have already gone through your growth spurt, you’re probably performing quite well,” says Dr Sean Cumming, a senior lecturer at Bath University and internationally recognised as a leading expert on growth and maturation in sports. Since players that have early matured are more dominant on the field coaches see this as them having more talent. But your success in your youth is a poor predictor of the success the player will have when they are adults (10). There could be players out there who are really talented that slip through the cracks.

Training

Players like Anna who rely on their physical ability are more likely to struggle in the future. they tend to rely on their physicality rather then developing their technical and tactical skills. Once everyone has matured it can cause those athletes to struggle at the higher level (12). By implementing bio-banding the players who have already matured will be forced to focus their tactical and technical side of the game.

Competition

Bio-banding helps level out the playing field for both late maturing and early maturing athletes. For example Olivia is able to gain more confidence since she is playing against peers that are more eventually matched in size and speed. Anna on the other hand will become more technical and grow tactically making her a overall better player. It’s a win win for both players.

Summary

Bio banding is grouping athletes by their biological age instead of their calendar birth
The relative age effect is a advantage certain players have due to how close they are born to a certain cut off period
Bio banding helps improve fairness, skills of both players, confidence and prevents talented players from being unnoticed.

Homework

If you are a smaller player remind yourself that you will catch up to the other players. Put a sticky note saying don’t give up on your bathroom mirror.
If you are a bigger player remember to focus on improving your technical and tactical skills. Open your calendar and make a time slot to do extra training for your technical skills.
Help spread awareness by sharing this article or telling others about the relative age effect or bio-banding.

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Share this article with anyone you know

When preparing for the tryout I trained for hours on end, took care of my nutrition, studied game film and made sure that I was better than who I was the day before

When I arrived at the tryout I was shocked. I was the only player that was trying out for the PDP team. At first I was celebrating thinking I had a better chance now. But I realized that the PDP team didn’t do well during their season which makes sense why no one wanted to tryout. Even though they weren’t the best team out of the other PDP teams the environment, players and coaches were all a improvement from my last team

Two tryouts pass and I thought that I was doing pretty well. I gave it my all out there making sure that I did as much as I could to impress the coaches.

A week passes and I received a phone call.

I pick it up waiting anxiously for what the coach would say and she says that I did not make the team this season. Even with their smaller roster and me being the only person at tryouts I still failed.

That night I sat in my room humiliated and devastated. I couldn’t ignore the disappointment I saw on my parents faces and myself. I could’ve made excuses saying oh maybe I’m just not good enough or I’m too small so they rejected me. I could’ve just told myself I wasn’t made out for PDP yet.

But instead I made a choice. A choice that wasn’t the easy one

The next morning I went to the gym making it a new rule to become the best player that I can become. I stayed on the same team for another 2 seasons and made sure I was the hardest worker.

Photo by My Profit Tutor on Unsplash

Extra training, early practices, smart recovery, watching game film and taking care of my nutrition. I would wake up at 5am just to go to training before school. At practices with my team I cut in on the time socializing to get extra touches on the ball. This meant making sacrifices just so I could get extra training in.

Every single day

At the end of the indoor season I decided to try again to try out for the the PDP team. Turns out the team had folded leaving me with two other PDP teams I could try out for. But both teams had full rosters so i decided to try out for the top team in my club pool.

I went to the tryouts and I was accepted.

I didn’t just become part of the team I was improving and showing my skills every single game. The indoor season with my old team I scored no goals. But the outdoor season with my new team I was making assist and scoring more goals than I have ever done before. And that outdoor season we placed second in our pool.

What I learned

What I learned is that when you fail you have two choices

You can either quit or choose to keep going

You can let the failure define you or use it to become better than you were before

Even if you don’t achieve the thing you originally set to accomplish you can accomplish something new that you never expected.

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Homework chapter

When you want to quit remember that this could be the moment where success is right around the corner
After you make a mistake view it as a learning opportunity
Always remember that your effort, hard work and determination will eventually pay off in the end

I know this isn’t what I usually post but I just wanted to share my story with everyone.

Leave a comment sharing any stories you have learning from your failures.

How to trick your brain into picking the hard choices

Lauren — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 20:53:35 GMT

Your alarm goes off and it’s 6am in the morning. You originally said you were going to train for soccer but your brain had a different idea.

Oh but your bed is so much more comfortable right now
You can do it tomorrow
Lets just scroll on our phone for once
Why do you always do the hard things its not going to be worth it

And you end up giving in breaking the promise you made to yourself. It’s like your brain is working against you. But what if I told you it doesn’t have to be this way and there is simple trick that can go against what your brain is seeking.

Why we pick the easy choices

The initial resistance we feel whenever we need to do something difficult is part of how our brain was designed. Your not lazy. Your brain is just doing it’s job to avoid effort.

During the human evolution your energy was extremely valuable since it was necessary for survival. Overtime your brain created mechanisms to conserve that precious energy whenever possible. Studies show your brain always seeks to see if you can get the same result but with the bare minimum amount of energy.

“Conserving energy has been essential for humans’ survival, as it allowed us to be more efficient in searching for food and shelter, competing for partners, and avoiding predators,” said senior author Matthieu Boisgontier, a post-doctoral researcher in UBC’s Brain Behaviour Lab in the Department of Physical Therapy.

Studies show that when you are choosing to do the hard things your brain uses more energy compared to choosing easy choices. No wonder your brain seems to be negotiating with you like its a business deal whenever you do something difficult.

There’s a famous quote saying easy choice=hard life hard choices=easy life. Your brain doesn’t see that doing the things that might suck at first will be better for you long term. It only sees the easy choice will lead to a reward right away without using too much energy

How to rewire your brain

Photo by Bhautik Patel on Unsplash

The main reason why we choose what’s easy is because your brain seeks that fast and easy reward. When something doesn’t give you that instant reward your brain has more resistance towards it. If we simply retrain our brain to see that the reward will eventually come we will start to make the choices that are better for us long term.

5 minute rule

Whenever it feels like doing a task is impossible set a timer for 5 minutes. promise yourself that you will do the said task for only 5 minutes. Your brain will likely want to keep going after the timer goes off.

Examples

I will write this Substack article for just 5 minutes
I will just practice soccer for 5 minutes
I only need to study for 5 minutes
Starting is always the hardest part.

Break it down into small steps

Most often when people procrastinate is because the bar of entering a task is too high. For example you need to go to the gym to workout

Don’t just say I need to go to the gym to workout

You first need to

pack your water
change into gym clothes
pack your keys and phone
drive to the gym

Breaking the task down into smaller steps can lead you to more likely follow through. if even those steps feel too big break it down into even smaller steps.

pick up your water bottle
Get out your workout clothes
Find your keys to your car

Your brain will start to think Oh this is easy I can do this.

Prepare before the resistance hits

Instead of waiting till that initial resistance hits try preparing for it.

Think which task will I most likely procrastinate tomorrow?

For example if I know I will procrastinate writing a new Substack article the next day I will start wiring the intro the day or night before.

Or if you are going to the soccer field to practice I will set out my cleats and water the night before.

Since I’ve already started the task it gives less thinking for my brain making me more likely to continue with it.

Show your brain the reward

In order to make your brain choose to do the hard thing you need to show that effort now can lead to rewards later.

Training your brain is like training if you want to build muscle. it takes effort patience and time. The more you show that the effort you put in now leads to results the more your brain will start to crave doing the things that are hard.

Summary

Your brain resist hard things because they were wired to do that in order to survive during human evolution.
When task feel too big break it down into small steps and if you still feel resistance break it down even smaller.
Overtime by choosing to do difficult things your brain will learn to have less resistance towards it.

Homework chapter

Brainstorm which task you procrastinate most and break it down into tiny steps
Start any small hard task you’ve been putting off for two minutes.
Share this article with any athlete, coach or anyone you know that wants to build discipline.

Sources

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-athletes-way/202001/the-neuroscience-of-seeking-pleasure-and-avoiding-pain

https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/hardwired-for-laziness-tests-show-the-human-brain-must-work-hard-to-avoid-sloth/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVPkc2P_Gus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg5fl0NhwFw

https://medium.com/@rashi.bilash/neuroscience-and-convenience-how-our-brain-prefers-easy-over-effort-748a80337ece

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6343649/

Ice baths: Do they help with recovery?

Lauren — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 17:36:46 GMT

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Imagine finishing a really good workout or 90 minute match. You’re all sweaty and tired. The last thing you would want to do is take a plunge into the ice cold water. But in fact ice baths are one of the most effective recovery methods. Legends such as Christiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.

Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

Why should you take a ice bath

Eases muscle soreness

When you do intense physical activities like working out or playing a soccer match your muscle fibers get tiny tears. These tears are what cause your muscles to strengthen and adapt to the intensity of your physical activity. As a result your body sends more blood and swelling to make those repairs. Too much soreness can cause muscle fatigue. higher risk of energy and hold you back from training hard consistently.

Cleveland clinic says ‘Slipping into frigid water may help reduce muscle soreness” The low temperatures from the ice baths causes your blood vessels to become narrow and squeezed tight for a short period of time. Since less blood is flowing to your muscles there isn’t as much swelling or fluid.

After you get out of the ice bath your body experiences something called the Warm Up Effect. Due to your body temperature warming up your blood vessels open up wide and your muscles relax. New blood that is flowing faster are able to deliver the necessary nutrients and oxygen to repair the tissues.

Builds discipline

Initially your mind is like nope I don’t want to go into the freezing cold water. Doing the things you are uncomfortable with or scared are one of the best ways to grow. Research shows that viewing discomfort as a indicator of growth results in individuals having more motivation and perseverance.

People we invited to embrace discomfort were more motivated: They persisted longer in improvisation exercises, engaged more in an expressive writing exercise, and opened themselves up to challenging but important information,” wrote Woolley and Fishbach from Cornell and University of Chicago.

Photo by Imagine Buddy on Unsplash

Helps you sleep better
One study has shown that when a group of individuals that took a 5 minute ice bath after a intense workout reported having better sleep. In order to fall asleep your initial body temperature needs to cool down. when you take a ice bath this speeds up the process sending a signal to your brain that its time to rest. In addition on another study showed that athletes reported having a increased amount of deep sleep and less waking up in the middle of the night

Before taking a ice bath remember this

Only spend 5-10 minutes in an ice bath. any longer than that can cause numbness
Avoid water colder than 15 degrees celsius because it can lower your body temperature to a dangerous level
Start by taking a ice bath as a beginner one to two times a week
Make sure to slowly warm up after the ice bath because it prevents your body from shivering or feeling faint. Immediately going into hot conditions can make you even feel more uncomfortable.

Homework Chapter

After doing a hard workout make a promise to yourself to take a 5 minute ice bath
Remind yourself that your brain telling you not to do it is a sign where the most growth can happen
While in the ice bath focus on taking deep breathes

Please subscribe to get more articles like this and lets go on the journey together to level up our game.

Sources

https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-nutrition/do-ice-baths-help-workout-recovery

https://icebarrel.com/blogs/educational/ice-baths-sleep?srsltid=AfmBOoom3-uAx9tUWb6saHf16TCopyojR39u41mT4tSvIDo5rEfPwTsY

https://www.sunstreamsaunas.com.au/ice-bath-sleep-quality/

https://rayofhealth.sg/ice-bath/

Dehydration: The effects on the body

Lauren — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 20:02:20 GMT

Photo by Amine mouzaoui on Unsplash

Here is a free guide you can look at to get started to stay more hydrated.

Hydration action plan

Soccer is ranked 10 out of 60 sports in terms of intensity. You are running, jumping, sprinting, changing direction kicking and exerting huge amounts of energy for 90 minutes. This is why you’ll hear from nutritionist, parents and even coaches telling you to drink water. While drinking water seems to be a basic action it has a significant influence on all parts of your performance

When you are dehydrated this means your body cannot makeup for the fluids that you lost. This is why drinking water is important to replace those fluids. Being as little as 1-2% dehydrated can significantly affect your endurance, speed, reaction time, body temperature control and decision making.

Effects of dehydration

lower endurance
lower blood pressure
faster heart rate
more muscle fatigue
decrease speed
slower reaction time

How it affects your performance

Think of blood as a busy road with lots of cars traveling where they need to go. If the cars are slowed down it can cause backup and traffic in other roads and areas. This is the similar for blood when you are dehydrated.

Photo by Anirudh on Unsplash

When you are dehydrated it causes your blood volume to decrease and your blood pressure to decrease. Your blood starts flowing slower since it becomes more sticky and thicker. Since the oxygen is being delivered slower this causes more muscle fatigue leading to a higher injury risk. Your heart starts to work harder to try and keep up with your performance.

As it tries to compensates it starts to beat faster using more energy causing you to become more tired easily. Studies show that losing just 2% of weight in water can lead to a 10-15% decrease in endurance. In addition if playing in hot and humid environment’s your body is more likely to use more of it’s energy to help you stay cool. Your body cannot produce enough sweat if you are dehydrated which is one of your main ways of cooling down. Sweating is essential for helping prevent cramps. heat stroke, and heat exhaustion.

Did you know your brain is made out of 75% water. This shows how when your water levels drop so does your performance. Studies from the Research Gate shows that more incorrect passing decisions are made when dehydrated during a match. Dehydration can also reduce your mental focus and concentration over a long period of time. Research from the National Library of Medicine says that contestants who were dehydrated had a reduced alertness and concentration.

How to know if you are dehydrated

Most people are not aware you don’t have to be severely dehydrated to feel the side effects of it. Athletes can sometimes be dealing with mild symptoms but still be suffering from the consequences.

Studies show from the University of Maryland medical system says early signs of dehydration include

slight headache
darker urine
dry mouth
sluggish feeling
mental fatigue

The Secret Weapon: Electrolytes

Studies from the International Journal of Academic Medicine say that not having enough electrolytes can cause a disturbance in neuron signalling. neuron signaling is basically your brains way of talking to your body. This results more difficulty when performing mental task such as processing, analyzing and reacting to your surroundings.

Electrolytes also responsible for keeping up your hydration levels in your cells through Osmosis. The water is attracted wherever the electrolyte levels are higher. So if there’s a higher concentration of electrolytes in your cells the water will move into them. Sodium and potassium are the main electrolytes used for this. it creates a efficient exchange back and forth where the sodium stays outside the cell and potassium stays inside the cell.

Photo by Zoshua Colah on Unsplash

Summary

Dehydration causes your blood pressure to lower leading to faster heart rate, higher risk of injury, less energy, lower power and decreased speed
You don’t have to be severely dehydrated to feel the side effects it only takes you to be 2% dehydrated
You just don’t need water you also need electrolytes too to help maintain fluid balance and neuron signalling.

So now you know why you should stay hydrated here is is your

Other sources

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/sports-and-hydration-for-athletes

https://medlineplus.gov/fluidandelectrolytebalance.html

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02701367.2018.1488026

https://www.scienceinsport.com/sports-nutrition/the-importance-of-hydration-and-

https://www.sqwincherindustrial.com/2026/02/17/dehydration-and-slowed-reaction-time-in-cold-work-environments/

https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/dehydration-and-its-effects-on-performancesrsltid=AfmBOorF_bWATaLy8dG2gtwQc1d_7VPeTZwf7BIuQiOI6ib_0cFKMIt

https://health.umms.org/primary-care/recognizing-dehydration-symptoms-in-athletes/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=.NaFVDQYLU8sIRNkrsmXCX_sJ6hGW0XjHU.3sIoZWmk-1785353419-1.0.1.1-Jxpa2GnsET9Sh0nCGYeiOkYL9FsFp6EmKbMlTNQ7LX0

Hydration Plan 💧⚡️

Lauren — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 21:45:03 GMT

Note* Don’t try and do these steps all at once. Pick 1 or 2 to do each day that works for you

Instructions: Pick 2 baby step actions, 1 bigger action and one action from the electrolyte steps to start off.

Hydration Plan: Drink more water

Small steps you can take today

Get up and grab yourself a small glass of water to drink.
If you don’t feel like drinking water tell yourself you’ll have a reward if you do. Examples could be scrolling for a brief time, watching a video, reading and etc.
Set out a goal for how much water you want to drink. Be specific and make sure its do-able for example I want to finish a minimum of one water bottle each day.
Write it on a piece of paper and stick it to a place you’ll see it

Bigger steps you can take

Set out a water bottle beside your nightstand ready to fill up tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning fill that water bottle up and drink it in the morning.
Associate the habit of drinking water in the morning with a habit you already do weather that is checking your phone, reading or eating breakfast.
Figure out which locations you most often visit whether that be the living room, your bedroom, your office, car or even the bathroom
Fill up a few water bottles and put them in the rooms where you most often visit. Put them in a spot where you will most likely see them.
Drink a bottle of water two hours before your trainig session or game, you can do this by setting a timer.
Drink a bottle of water after your practice or game by promising yourself a reward or setting it out before practice.

Ideas if you don’t like the taste of water or if water taste bland

Add fruits, herbs or vegetables to your water
You can add a splash of juice to take away the bland flavour
You can try zero sugar fizzy water
You can add sugar free liquid drops or sugar free powdered packets
If you have a higher budget you can invest in a scented water bottle that uses scent to make it taste better.

Electrolyte Plan: Incorporate more electrolytes

Do a quick google search of what foods contain electrolytes. Pick the ones you want to incorporate into your routine. It can be vegetables, fruits, powdered electrolytes, sports drinks etc. Pick whatever works best for you.
Add a high mineral snack to your daily life like for example

fruits like bananas
salted nuts
yogurt cups or cheese

Have this during lunch at school or after school by packing in in your lunch-kit, backpack or setting it out on the kitchen table before you leave for school. Only set out foods that can stay out of the fridge for a long time like certain fruit or nuts.

Before a hard practice session mix a pinch of salt and squeeze the juice of some fruit into your water bottle. Fruit examples could be oranges, lemon, berries, water melon or coconut water.
If you have a protein shake after a workout associate that habit with drinking a electrolyte drink.

Science to Soccer with Lauren

Bio banding: The innovative method to develop elite soccer players

What is bio-banding

Chronological vs Biological age

Relative Age effect and Maturation

Why bio banding is important

Identifying talent

Training

Competition

Summary

Homework

If you enjoyed this post subscribe if you want to level up your soccer game and become elite.

Share this article with anyone you know

Leave a comment on what you found most interesting from this article

What became one of the most humiliating moments of my life became my biggest strength

What I learned

Homework chapter

How to trick your brain into picking the hard choices

Why we pick the easy choices

How to rewire your brain

5 minute rule

Break it down into small steps

Prepare before the resistance hits

Show your brain the reward

Summary

Homework chapter

Sources

Ice baths: Do they help with recovery?

Why should you take a ice bath

Before taking a ice bath remember this

Homework Chapter

Dehydration: The effects on the body

Hydration action plan

How it affects your performance

The Secret Weapon: Electrolytes

Summary

Hydration Plan 💧⚡️

Hydration Plan: Drink more water

Small steps you can take today

Bigger steps you can take

Ideas if you don’t like the taste of water or if water taste bland

Electrolyte Plan: Incorporate more electrolytes