scholarly journals Relative age effect in Brazilian handball selections

Author(s):  
Julio Cesar da Costa ◽  
◽  
Flavio Afonso Montes ◽  
Vinicius Muller Reis Weber ◽  
Paulo Henrique Borges ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative age effect (RAE) in Brazilian male handball teams who competed in the world championships in the U-19, U-21, and adult categories. The sample was composed by 160 male handball players, 47 players being on U-19 category, 48 on U-21, and 65 on Adult category. The chronological age, body mass, height, and game position of each athlete were obtained on the International Federation of Handball website. The adopted significance level was of 5%. RAE was observed in all the three following categories U-19 (X2=21.511, P<0.01), U-21 (X2=15.894, P=0.01) and Adults (X2=35.123, P<0.01). Moreover, no RAE was found in re-selection process by sequential category (P= 0.63, U-19 to U-21; P= 0.46, U-21 to Adult). The RAE is found in Brazilian male handball national teams. However, this effect was not found in re-selection process, thus, players have great influence of RAE in U-19 and this remains through subsequent categories.

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Pizzuto ◽  
Matteo Bonato ◽  
Gialunca Vernillo ◽  
Antonio La Torre ◽  
Maria Francesca Piacentini

Purpose:To analyze how many finalists of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Junior Championships (WJCs) in the middle- and long-distance track events had dropped out from high-level competitions.Methods:Starting from 2002, the 8 male and the 8 female finalists in the middle- and long-distance events of 6 editions of the WJC were followed until 2015 to evaluate how many missed the IAAF rankings for 2 consecutive years starting from the year after WJC participation. For those still competing at elite level, their careers were monitored.Results:In 2015, 61% of the 2002, 54.8% of the 2004, 48.3% of the 2006, 37.5% of the 2008, 26.2% of the 2010, and 29% of the 2012 WJC finalists were not present in the IAAF rankings. Of the 368 athletes considered, 75 (20.4%) were able to achieve the IAAF top 10 in 2.4 ± 2.2 y. There is evidence of relationships between dropout and gender (P = .040), WJC edition (P = .000), and nationality (P = .010) and between the possibility to achieve the IAAF top 10 and dropout (P = .000), continent (P = .001), relative age effect (P = .000), and quartile of birth (P = .050).Conclusions:Even if 23 of the finalists won a medal at the Olympic Games or at the World Championships, it is still not clear if participation at the WJC is a prerequisite to success at a senior level.


2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina López de Subijana ◽  
Jorge Lorenzo

AbstractThe aims of this study were: i) to analyze whether relative age effect occurs in the athletes of the junior national teams and professional athletes in Spain in general and in soccer and basketball, and ii) to compare the long-term success of the players selected for the junior national team between these sports. The samples for this study were Spanish professional soccer (n = 461) and basketball (n = 250) players in the 2013-2014 premier league and players from the junior Spanish soccer (i.e., n = 273; U-17: n = 107; U-19: n = 166) and basketball (i.e., n = 240; U-18: n = 120, U-16: n = 120) teams that classified to play in the European Championships (from 2004 to 2013). Junior players (42.3%) were more frequently born in the 1st quarter of the year than the professional players (30.7%) (χ2(3) = 30.07; p = .001; Vc = .157). This was found in both basketball (χ2(3) = 12.2.; p = .007; Vc = .158) and soccer (χ2(3) = 20.13; p < .001; Vc = .166). Long-term success is more frequent in soccer, where 59.9% of the juniors selected for the national team played later in the premier league, while in basketball that percentage was 39.6% (χ2(1) = 14.64; p < .001; Vc = .201). On the other hand, 79.4% and 39.8% of the professional soccer and basketball players had been previously selected for junior national teams (χ2(1) = 60.2; p < .001; Vc = .386), respectively. The talent selection process should be reviewed as players born in the second half of the year have fewer opportunities to stand out.


Retos ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 519-523
Author(s):  
Alejandro Muñoz Moreno ◽  
Carla Serrano Gonzalez ◽  
Iñaki Quintana-García ◽  
Miriam Granado Peinado

  El pádel ha pasado a ser a uno de los deportes más practicados en España. El propósito de este estudio fue evaluar el Efecto Relativo de la Edad (RAE) en los jugadores del circuito de World Pádel Tour (WPT) (n=395) teniendo en cuenta el mes de nacimiento, género, nacionalidad, edad y ranking. La distribución trimestral observada no fue significativamente diferente (χ2; p>.05) a la esperada para el grupo general o para cualquiera de las subcategorías analizadas. Por tanto, no parece confirmarse un efecto de la edad relativa en los jugadores profesionales de pádel analizados, considerando el ranking, género y nacionalidad, a diferencia de lo que ocurre en otros deportes de raqueta. En este sentido, esta investigación constata que la fecha de nacimiento no es un factor relevante en el circuito de WPT y confirma que llegar a la élite del pádel no se basa exclusivamente en factores físicos y antropométricos.  Abstract: Padel has become one of the most practiced sports in Spain. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Relative Effect of Age (RAE) in the World Padel Tour (WPT) circuit players (n = 395) taking into account the month of birth, gender, nationality, age and ranking. The quarterly distribution observed was not significantly different (χ2; p> .05) than expected for the general group or for any of the subcategories analyzed. Therefore, it does not seem to confirm an effect of relative age on professional padel players analyzed, considering the ranking, gender and nationality, unlike what happens in other racket sports. Thus, this investigation confirms that the date of birth is not a relevant factor in the WPT circuit and confirms that reaching the elite of the paddle that is not based exclusively on physical and anthropometric factors.


Retos ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 195-198
Author(s):  
Lucas Leonardo ◽  
Cristian Javier Ramirez Lizana ◽  
Tathyane Krahenbühl ◽  
Alcides José Scaglia

Resumo: A competição é um ambiente de aprendizagem cuja participação é um elemento de formação esportiva. Este estudo visa analisar as influências do efeito da idade relativa, em inglês, relative age effect (RAE), sobre as decisões dos treinadores no tocante à oportunidade de participação de atletas do sexo masculino de até 13 anos numa competição de handebol. Foram coletados 254 tempos de participação de 100 atletas em 22 partidas. Agrupou-se os dados em gA para atletas com idade acima do 3º quartil; gB para atletas entre o 3º quartil a mediana; gC para atletas com idades entre a mediana e o 1º quartil e gD para atletas com idades abaixo do 1º quartil. Utilizou-se teste de Lilliefors para verificar a normalidade dos dados e teste de Kruskal-Wallis com post-hoc de Tuckey para verificar diferenças nos tempos de participação. Adotou-se o nível de significância de p < .05. O comportamento das medianas indica que em gA metade dos atletas participaram da partida toda, resultado gradualmente menor para os outros grupos. Além disso o tempo de participação de gA foi estatisticamente superior aos demais grupos e gC foi superior a gD. Os resultados indicam que o RAE influencia as decisões dos treinadores em favor da maior oportunidade de prática competitiva aos atletas com idade relativa superior dentro da categoria e, portanto, reforça a ideia de que atletas com desenvolvimento adiantado possuem maiores oportunidades de aprendizagem no ambiente competitivo.Abstract: Competition is a learning environment, the participation in which is an element of sports training. This study aims to analyze the influences of relative age effect (RAE) on coaches’ decisions about the opportunity of participation of u-13 male athletes in handball competitions. A total of 254 participation lapses were collected from 100 athletes during 22 matches. Data was grouped as: gA athletes aged above the 3th quartile; gB athletes aged between the 3th quartile and median, gC athletes aged between the median and 1st quartile, gD athletes with ages below the 1st quartile. A Kruskal-Wallis test with Tuckey post-hoc was used to determine differences in participation time. The significance level adopted was p < .05. The gA median indicate that 50% of the athletes participated in whole match; that result was gradually lower in the other groups. Also, gA participation time was statistically higher than other groups, and gC participation time was higher than gD. These results indicate that RAE influences coaches’ decisions, as they give more opportunities of competitive practice to athletes with higher relative age. Therefore, our outcomes reinforce the idea that athletes with early development have greater opportunities for learning in a competitive environment.Resumen: La competición es un ambiente de aprendizaje cuya participación es un elemento de formación deportiva. El presente estudio pretende analizar la influencia del efecto de la edad relativa, en inglés relative age effect (RAE), sobre las decisiones de los entrenadores referentes a la oportunidad de participación en partidos de balonmano, de atletas masculinos sub 13. Se recolectaron 254 tiempos de participación de 100 atletas en 22 partidos. Se agruparon los datos en gA los atletas de edades mayores al 3° cuartil; gB para atletas con edades entre el 3°cuartil y la mediana, gC para atletas con edades entre la mediana y el 1º cuartil y gD para atletas con edades por debajo del 1° cuartil. Se utilizó prueba de Lilliefors para comprobar la normalidad de los datos y la prueba de Kruskal-Wallis com post-hoc de Tuckey para verificar las diferencias en el tiempo de participación. La adoptó un nivel de significancia de p < 0,05. El comportamiento de las medianas indica que en gA la mitad de los atletas participaron en todo el partido, resultado que se presentó gradualmente inferior en los demás grupos. Además, el tiempo de participación de gA fue estadísticamente superior a los otros tres grupos y gC fue superior a gD. Los resultados indican que el RAE influye en las decisiones de los entrenadores a favor de una mayor oportunidad de práctica competitiva a los atletas con edad relativa superior dentro de la categoría y, por lo tanto, refuerza la idea de que los atletas con mayor desarrollo tienen mayores oportunidades para el aprendizaje en el entorno competitivo.


Author(s):  
Florentino Huertas ◽  
Rafael Ballester ◽  
Honorato José Gines ◽  
Abdel Karim Hamidi ◽  
Consuelo Moratal ◽  
...  

The need to achieve short-term competitive outcomes in sports may influence the emergence of talent selection strategies, which could bias individuals’ opportunities. The present study aimed to further explore the relative age effect (RAE), a phenomenon that strongly influences youth sport development. The RAE refers to a disproportionately high percentage in sport teams of athletes born early in the selection year. Our primary focus was to explore whether the RAE is supported by behavioral evidence in favor of better fitness—and especially cognitive-attentional functioning—of early as compared to late-born players. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 105 young athletes (u10, n = 52; 9.8 ± 0.3 years old, and u12, n = 53; 11.8 ± 0.2 years old) attending two youth elite soccer academies. Attentional functioning, anthropometrics, physical fitness, and game intelligence were compared across two Age Groups (u10 vs. u12) and four Birth Quarters (BQ1–BQ4). The RAE was statistically significant (p < 0.001), showing that about 50% of participants were born in the first quarter and 75% were born in the first half of the year. More importantly, U12 players outperformed u10 players in measures that were related to sustained attention (with faster and less variable responses; p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively), and in all anthropometric measures (p < 0.001), physical-fitness capacities (p < 0.05). Crucially, neither the attentional measures, game intelligence, anthropometrics, nor physical fitness were affected by BQ (all ps > 0.1 and BF10 between 0.08 and 0.6, showing strong evidence for the null hypothesis). The present findings suggest that the early selection process that occurs during scouting in youth soccer academies offsets the age-related differences that could be anticipated in cognitive skills, anthropometrics, and physical abilities, due to growth and maturation. These birth asymmetries could lead teams to disregard later maturation athletes and athletes born later in the year inducing a larger dropout of those players with the consequent reduction in the talent pool.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystian Rubajczyk ◽  
Andrzej Rokita

Abstract The relative age effect (RAE) is related to discrimination against youth athletes born in the last quarter of the calendar year. The current study presents research on the RAE in elite youth soccer players in Poland. Players in the Central Junior League (CLJ) finals represent 0.59% of the 25,756 players under 20 years old (U20). This study analyzed the post-game protocols of the CLJ knockout stage from the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons as well as the U17-U21 teams during 2015, including only players who played on the field for at least one minute (n = 395). The results revealed the existence of RAE in the examined groups ( CLJ 2013/2014, χ23 = 15.441, p < 0.01, CLJ 2014/2015, χ23 = 20.891, p < 0.001 U17-U21, χ23 = 25.110, p < 0.001). In addition, the results differed by monthly birth distribution in the Polish population (PP) between 1995 and 1999. This study is the first to examine the RAE in youth soccer in Poland. The occurrence of the RAE with regard to the most promising youth and national team players suggests that a similar effect exists among younger age categories. To reduce the RAE related to identifying soccer talent, tools should be implemented to optimize the player-selection process, such as those that consider the biological development of a player.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-202
Author(s):  
Fábio A. D. Campos ◽  
Ídico L. Pellegrinotti ◽  
Leandra C. B. Campos ◽  
Tiago M. R. Dias ◽  
Miguel-Ángel Gómez

AbstractThe relative age effect (RAE), within the sporting scope, refers to the possible advantages of participation and performance of athletes born in the first months of the year of selection in relation to others within the same age category. The aim of the present study was to investigate the RAE in girls’ volleyball players participating in the U-18 World Championship, analysing the differences between the medal teams and other teams in the tournament, and considering this phenomenon in relation to the continents. Data collection was obtained from the website of the International Volleyball Federation with a sample made of 1654 youth players in the last six world championships (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017). A greater representation of athletes born in the first months of the year of all the world championships was observed. In the comparison among the continents, it was observed that in Africa, there was a more equal distribution of quartiles compared to America, Asia and Europe. It should be noted that there was a higher percentage of medalist athletes born at the beginning of the year in comparison to the countries that placed in the last three positions of the championship. Therefore, in U-18 female volleyball, there is an advantage to have the closest birth age at the beginning of the competitive biennium.


Author(s):  
Eduard Nikolayevich Bezuglov ◽  
Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis ◽  
Vladimir Khaitin ◽  
Elvira Usmanova ◽  
Anastasiya Luibushkina ◽  
...  

The relative age effect (RAE) has been well studied in adolescent and adult soccer players; however, less information has been available about children engaged in regular soccer training and the role of performance. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of RAE in children and adolescent soccer players, as well as the role of age and performance. Russian soccer players (n = 10,446) of various ages, playing positions and performance levels were examined for their date of birth. It was observed that RAE was widespread in Russian soccer teams of all age groups. RAE was most pronounced in children teams of the top tier Russian soccer academies and junior Russia national teams, where the proportions of soccer players born in the first quarter were 43.9% and 39.8%, respectively, whereas those born in the fourth quarter of the year were 7.7% and 6.3%, respectively. In top tier soccer academies, RAE did not vary by age group. In the middle tier soccer academies, RAE was less pronounced. It was still prevalent in the junior teams of the top tier clubs of the Russian Premier League, where 14.3% of the soccer players were born in the fourth quarter of the year compared to 42.9% born in the first quarter of the year. RAE can be observed in the top tier Russian adult teams as well, although it is less pronounced there. In summary, RAE is highly prevalent in Russian children and junior soccer and is associated with the level of competitiveness. At the same time, the proportion of players born in the fourth quarter of the year is higher in adult teams than in junior and youth teams, which is most likely due to the wider selection of players, not limited by their age and place of residence. In junior teams, RAE results in a bias towards selection of players who are more physically mature, whereas children who may be more talented but are less developed due to their younger chronological age tend to be overlooked.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-214
Author(s):  
Luiz José Frota Solon Junior ◽  
Luiz Vieira da Silva Neto

ABSTRACT Introduction The Relative Age Effect (RAE) refers to the chronological age difference that occurs between athletes of the same age category, which can benefit individuals born in the first two quartiles of the year. This phenomenon is commonly studied in team sports, yet the results are still inconsistent, especially in volleyball. Objective This study analyzed the distribution of the number of births per quartile of Olympic volleyball athletes and whether this would influence anthropometric/motor variables and technical elements. Methods The sample consisted of 116 male athletes who scored during the Rio 2016 Olympics. For data analysis, we identified each athlete’s quartile as well as data on height, attack and defensive (or block) range, and respective scores during the games. The Chi-square test was then used to verify interquartile distribution. To assess the normality of the other variables, we conducted the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Once accepted, one-way ANOVA was performed with the Bonferroni post-hoc test to verify significance between quartiles. A significance level of p≤0.05 was adopted. Results There was no significant difference in the distribution of athletes between quartiles (p = 0.74). When comparing the other variables in terms of the athletes’ trimester of birth, we did not observe any significant difference between height (p = 0.79), attack (p=0.59) and defensive range (p=0.07), and in the scores for serving, attacking and blocking between quartiles either. Conclusion The Relative Age Effect was not observed in Olympic volleyball athletes, therefore this phenomenon is not related to the athletes’ performance. This shows that other possible variables may influence the development of these athletes, discarding the relative age phenomenon. Level of Evidence III; Retrospective and Comparative Study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-237
Author(s):  
Alfonso de la Rubia ◽  
Jorge Lorenzo-Calvo ◽  
Jesús Rivilla-García ◽  
Moisés Marquina

Abstract The relative age effect (RAE) is a phenomenon present in team sports, but it does not influence each gender to the same extent. This study aimed to examine the RAE and its relation to performance in international women's handball competitions (2017/18 World Championships). The sample was composed of 1,096 female players distributed into three categories: youth or under 18 (n = 369); junior or under 20 (n = 328) and senior (n = 399). The teams were divided into four groups based on their final position (medalist, quarter-finalist, eight-finalist and bottom-eight teams). The birthdate distribution (trimesters and semesters) was analysed according to the competition category and the playing position. Differences between the expected and observed birthdate distribution were checked using the chi-square statistical test followed by the calculation of the odds ratio. The results revealed, by trimester, the presence of the RAE in the youth (x2(7) = 87.22; p < 0.001) and junior (x2 (7) = 33.12; p < 0.001) categories, with no impact on senior (p > 0.05). The effect size was relatively strong in the youth category (Vc = 0.48). By semester, the prevalence of the RAE was also found in the senior category (p < 0.05). According to the playing position, the RAE was especially detected in ‘goalkeeper’ (p < 0.01) and ‘centre-back’ (p < 0.05) positions, both in U-18 and U-20 categories. Surprisingly, this effect also appeared in the ‘back’ players in the senior category (p < 0.05). A prevalence of the RAE was identified in teams with a higher final position, but interestingly had a greater impact in the quarter-finalist teams (p < 0.001) than in the medalist teams (p < 0.01). The findings demonstrated that the RAE tends to decrease as the chronological age of players increases, demonstrating a strong presence according to collective performance in international women’s handball.


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