Abstract
Background: The impact on athletes based on grouping methods according to the date of birth within the constituent year, known as the relative effect of age (RAE), is a factor that can influence the achievement of sports success. Many studies have examined the magnitude of this phenomenon in sport; however, the relationship between the RAE and performance in team sports competition has not been accurately evaluated so far. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review on the influence of the RAE on competition performance in team sports through analysis of published peer-reviewed articles from 2000 to 2019.Methods: According to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis systematic search guidelines, 19 studies were identified of the 2,093 that were found in the systematic searching process carried out in four databases: Sport Discus, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, and Scopus. The sample of the study was composed by 77,329 players, of which 92.08% were male and 7.92% were female, whereas the recorded performance measurements were 87,556. The relation between relative age effects and competition performance was registered according to constraints-based theoretical model: individual constraints (sample characteristics) and task constraints (sport context). Moreover, study quality analysis, Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology, was carried out.Results: The short-term individual (10.20%) and collective (18.09%) performance was influenced by the RAE, whereas the long-term individual performance (49.71%) was affected by the RAE reverse. However, in 16.99% of the measurements, no relationship was found between the RAE and competition performance. In the analysis by subcategory, the influence of the RAE was higher in men, in adulthood (senior category), in invasion games, and in national contexts.Discussion: The findings clearly demonstrated that the RAE has a great influence on the performance in team sport. Possible implications for policy and practice should be discussed in order to prevent unequal practice based on biased models that prioritize the athlete's current performance and therefore obviate their maturational development. The heterogeneity and variability of the identified results require a relativization of the findings of this study.
Highlights
In sport, especially at the highest competitive level, there has always been a constant search to achieve excellence at the individual level
(1) Our analyses of productivity included all selections from all draft rounds for a period of 27 years; (2) we tested whether birth quarter was associated with productivity once draft slot was controlled; (3) we investigated a potential mediator of selection bias, the decision to become draft eligible; (4) we tested for changes in selection bias over time; (5) we examined whether selection bias reduces relatively younger individuals’ playing opportunities
To check whether the relative age (RA) effect does exist in the World Basketball Championship U-17, U-19, and U-21 male and female categories, to investigate if the RA effect exists in the different specific positions and try to find differences in height and in performance between players depending on their birthdate
Summary
Especially at the highest competitive level, there has always been a constant search to achieve excellence at the individual level. One of the issues of sports talent identification programs is the attempt to recognize, through transversal measurement models, a future “talent” according to the athlete’s current performance characteristics (physiological, physical, and/or anthropometric) and the current characteristics of their own sport and its evolution (Bailey and Collins, 2013) This approach seems not to take into consideration the maturational status of the athlete, which is omitted when analyzing the player’s development process, or other factors connected to the effects produced by training (Abbott and Collins, 2002). The categories in team sports usually correspond to annual or biannual competitive cycles, getting into competition groups according to the athlete’s chronological age and according to a previously established cutoff date (January 1 is globally accepted as the beginning of the selection year) This normally applied strategy sharpens the differences between athletes because of their maturation status, which does not necessarily correspond to their chronological age (Wattie et al, 2008). The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review on the influence of the RAE on competition performance in team sports through analysis of published peer-reviewed articles from 2000 to 2019
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