The Influence of Biological Age and Sex on Gross Motor Skill Development in Young Athletes: A Pilot Study

Background: Gross movement skills (GMS) development is important for long-term physical activity participation. Despite this, the influence maturation has on GMS is understudied. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effect of maturation and sex on GMS in adolescents and identify numbers for a definitive study. Methods: We recruited seventy-one athletes (21 male, 50 female) from 8 to 17 years of age. Height, sitting height, and body mass were measured, and biological age (indexed as years from peak height velocity [PHV]) was predicted. Athletes were classified into three maturational categories: pre-PHV, peri-PHV, and post-PHV. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 was used to assess GMS. Differences in overall GMS, locomotor skill, and object control skills were evaluated using ANCOVA controlling for height, weight, sex, physical activity, and sport specialization. Results: We found that GMS scores were greater for athletes post-PHV (83.62 ± 6.09) when compared to athletes peri-PHV (74.25 ± 12.92; p = 0.01). There were no differences between the pre-PHV and post-PHV groups (p = 0.13). Between sexes, males had greater GMS scores than females within each maturational category (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our pilot study is inconclusive but suggests that factors such as sex, exposure to different GMS, and time spent practicing GMS may influence GMS performance to a greater extent than maturation. However, these findings are underpowered; a sample of 154 would be required for a definitive study.