How we tackle the Age Effect
Players of all ages and sizes can be skillful with the ball—it’s one of the reasons we focus on skill! But older and bigger players may still appear “better” to the subjective eye. To counter this, we have created and scientifically validated precise statistical models to account for a player’s age, height, and weight in each of our tests.
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach: each test must be analysed according to a different, custom formula because age, height, and weight affect different skills in different ways. For some skills, like sprinting or straight-path dribbling, we find that older, taller and bigger players have a huge advantage. Yet for other skills, like passing and control or dribbling on a curved path, there are fewer advantages for older, taller or bigger players. We can precisely account for age, height and mass in our assessments because we know how each of these factors, independently and in combination, affects each skill tested.