What is Bio-Banding? Everything You Need to Know About This Practice

If you’re a parent of a youth soccer player, you know that a player’s physical size – especially around puberty – can play a huge role in their experience. Taller players often end up dominating the match because they have such a huge physical advantage over their smaller counterparts.

Coaches want to win, so they have no choice but to diminish the role of smaller players so their taller players can put their physical abilities on display and bully the other team. This prevents smaller players from getting the playing time they need to develop their game.

An increasingly popular solution to the issue of size in youth soccer is bio-banding. Normally, athletes are placed on teams based on their chronological age, so just about everyone on the team is the same age. With bio-banding, athletes are placed on teams based on their height and weight.

Though bio-banding is designed to level the playing field for bigger and smaller players alike, youth athletes tend to have a negative perception of this controversial practice. Before explaining why, let’s go over how bio-banding works.

What is Bio-Banding?

The argument for bio-banding stems from the undeniable fact that children mature at vastly different speeds. Two kids can be the exact same chronological age, though one might be significantly taller or shorter than the other. These differences are especially prevalent in children who are just beginning or in the middle of puberty (e.g. 13, 14, 15 years old), since this is the time when some kids experience massive growth spurts.

So, when leagues place children on teams based on their chronological age alone, a player could end up in a situation where they are much taller or shorter than the majority of their teammates. Since smaller players can struggle to compete with the physicality of their larger teammates, the former group too often spends the match sitting on the bench.

This lack of opportunity for smaller players is why bio-banding started being used. When a player is bio-banded, it means they are placed on a team with children who are chronologically younger than them, but around the same height and weight. In other words, a 14-year-old who is particularly small for their age might be placed on a team with kids who are 13 years old, instead of automatically grouping the player with other 14-year-olds.

How Bio-Banding Affects Smaller and Bigger Players

When someone who is small for their age is placed on a team with similarly-sized kids, they go from “small” to “average.” No longer burdened by their size, the player now gets more playing time because they’re just as tall or strong as the rest of the team.

Another advantage of bio-banding is allowing taller athletes to play with more kids who can match their size and strength. This means that taller players can no longer rely on their size to dominate the game, and must develop their technical skills to out-play other kids their own size.  

Why Bio-Banding is Viewed Negatively

Getting bio-banded feels like a punishment, as if the club is saying, ‘You’re not good enough to play with kids your own age, so we’re going to send you down an age group.’

Additionally, kids on the team receiving the bio-banded player can feel frustrated as they are going to lose their minutes to someone older than them. So, a bio-banded player often feels like their club just demoted them, and their teammates for the game in the younger age group can resent them too.

The negative perception of bio-banding also comes from the common preconceptions on the path towards a successful professional career. Put simply, bio-banding is not part of that path – at 14 you’re supposed to be competing with 18 year olds and at 18 you’re supposed to be a full professional.

In reality, everyone has their own unique path, and it’s usually anything but smooth and conventional. Of course you want to be playing up against bigger players – it’s a great way to get better…but it’s not the only way.

Bio-Banding Is Not Wrong, Just Different

In soccer, the best 10 year old on the nation rarely becomes the best 14 year old in the nation. The best 14 year old rarely becomes the best 18 year old. There is so much development in those eight years – at different rates of improvement for each player – that it is impossible for scouts and coaches to accurately ID players.

If you get bio-banded, we won’t tell you how to feel – it’s ok to feel hurt and down because of it. But it’s a perfect opportunity to evolve and move even closer to your long-term goal. When a player gets bio-banded, they get the chance to learn that something different or unexpected isn’t “bad” or “wrong.” The ability to embrace these inevitable twists and turns and build your mental resiliency is essential for a long and successful career, and the sooner a player figures this out, the better. It’s undoubtably a tough lesson, but it is necessary for every player to reach the highest levels.

At Beyond Goals Mentoring, we know how disappointing it can be when a player’s soccer journey doesn’t go as planned. That’s why we provide young athletes with the mental tools to stay focused when life gets bumpy and dedicate 100% of their effort to the task in front of them. So, if your athlete is feeling down after a setback, let’s set up a mentoring session and find out what’s really stopping them from regaining their momentum.