Abstract
The relative age effect (RAE) on human performance has been well studied in many sports, especially in soccer; however, little information has been available about the prevalence of RAE in volleyball, and its role on anthropometric and physiological characteristics. The aim of the present study was to examine (a) the prevalence of RAE in selected (i.e., to be considered for the national team) and non-selected youth female volleyball players, and (b) the relationship of birth quarter (BQ) with anthropometric and physiological characteristics. Selected (n = 72, age 13.3 ± 0.7 years, weight 62.0 ± 7.2 kg, height 1.72 ± 0.06 m) and non-selected female volleyball players (n = 53, age 13.9 ± 1.1 years, weight 56.4 ± 7.3 kg, height 1.66 ± 0.06 m) performed a series of anthropometric and physiological tests. Twenty-six selected participants were born in the first quarter of the year, 19 in the second, 14 in the third, and 13 in the forth. The corresponding frequency by BQ in non-selected participants was 12, 12, 17, and 12. No association was observed between the number of participants and their frequency by BQ neither in the selected (χ2 = 2.79, p = 0.425) nor in the non-selected group (χ2 = 0.64, p = 0.886). Anthropometric and physiological characteristics did not vary by BQ (p > 0.05). The absence of RAE in female volleyball players and the similarities of anthropometric and physiological characteristics among BQ might be due to technical-tactical character of this sport. These findings would be of great practical value for coaches and fitness trainers working with young volleyball players.
Highlights
The relative age effect (RAE) on human performance – i.e., the larger prevalence of athletes born in the first months of the year (“early born”) compared to their counterparts born in the last months of the year (“late born”) – has attracted an increased scientific interest during the last three decades considering its relevance for sport performance
Most of the research of RAE in sports has been conducted in soccer (Peña-González et al, 2018; Schroepf and Lames, 2018; Yagüe et al, 2018) and focused on the prevalence of RAE analyzing the distribution of births among months of year
Less information exists in female volleyball (Okazaki et al, 2011), which has been one of the most popular team sports in women worldwide (Deaner et al, 2012), and – to the best of our knowledge – no study has ever examined the relationship of RAE with anthropometric and physiological characteristics in this sport
Summary
The relative age effect (RAE) on human performance – i.e., the larger prevalence of athletes born in the first months (e.g., first quarter) of the year (“early born”) compared to their counterparts born in the last months (e.g., last quarter) of the year (“late born”) – has attracted an increased scientific interest during the last three decades considering its relevance for sport performanceRelative Age Effect in Volleyball (Barnsley et al, 1992) and other domains of human performance (Alsaker and Olweus, 1993). With an exception, where an over-representation of the last quarters of the year for the whole population in recreational volleyball players was found (Larouche et al, 2010), RAE indicated a higher prevalence of “early born” volleyball players especially in the younger age groups suggesting that RAE was attenuating with age in volleyball. This observation was in agreement with findings in soccer, where RAE was less remarkable in the older soccer players compared to their younger counterparts (Brustio et al, 2018)
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