Five seasons at Aris Limassol

Between June 2021 and July 2026 we put 1,620 children in the Aris Limassol academy through ergometric testing. That is 3,248 assessments in total. All the tests are field tests and were carried out at the club's own facility. Below are the four things the data showed. One of them is not flattering.

Aris does not promote children on the basis of month of birth

Age groups are defined by year of birth. So within the same age group, a child born in January can be up to eleven months older than one born in December of the same year. At ten or twelve years old those months matter a lot: the child born earlier is usually taller, heavier and stronger, simply because they have had longer to grow. So in academies around the world, the older children are promoted more often. Not because they have more talent, but because they have more months. This is called the relative age effect, and it is one of the best documented phenomena in sports science.

This balance is not a given. Across all the children we assess in Cyprus, the four quarters hold roughly equal shares of births. So the imbalance we see at other clubs is not down to the country. It is down to how children are selected and promoted. Aris has the largest academy population we assess in Cyprus, and it does not have that imbalance.

The improvement was not just growth

Every child improves as they grow. The question is a different one: do they improve more than other children of their age? That is why we do not compare the raw values themselves. We compare each child's position within the Cypriot norms.

Aerobic capacity rose eight percentile points. From the 44th percentile, below the national average, to the 52nd, above it. 62% of athletes improved. The same pattern appears in agility and in speed.

This improvement is the result of the club's training. Assessment does not improve anyone; it simply makes visible what the training achieved.

Two things went backwards

Body composition fell five points and flexibility one. In body composition only 37% of athletes improved. That means almost two in three lost ground relative to their peers.

375 children are right now at the most sensitive point

During the growth spurt the bones grow faster than the muscles and the tendons. Coordination temporarily drops and the risk of overuse injury rises. The child appears to be getting worse, when in reality they are simply growing.

Without assessment, these 375 children do not stand out. They look like athletes who have stopped progressing. With assessment, the coach knows who they are and what they need: adjust the load, do not raise the demands.

One assessment gives a number. Four give a trajectory.

Rate of improvement cannot be calculated retrospectively. It needs history. When a club changes testing provider, it starts again from zero, because the new provider's first assessment has nothing to compare with.

What one assessment does not show

Balance in selection, rate of improvement, stage of maturation and the two parameters that went backwards: none of these shows up in a single assessment. They emerged because the same children were assessed for five years, with the same methodology, in the same database.

Data from the 360 Ergometric Tests database, 25 June 2021 – 19 July 2026. All the tests are field tests and were carried out at the club's own facility. Aerobic capacity was estimated from the beep test. Stage of biological maturation was calculated with the Moore (2015) model, from age, height and body mass. Comparisons are made against Cypriot norms built from 10,347 athletes and 22,154 assessments. Paired comparisons include only athletes assessed at least twice with a minimum interval of five months. Published with the consent of the Aris Limassol academy. No individual data is disclosed.