Abstract
Relative Age Effects (RAEs) refer to the selection and performance differentials between children and youth who are categorized in annual-age groups. In the context of Swiss 60m athletic sprinting, 7761 male athletes aged 8 – 15 years were analysed, with this study examining whether: (i) RAE prevalence changed across annual age groups and according to performance level (i.e., all athletes, Top 50%, 25% & 10%); (ii) whether the relationship between relative age and performance could be quantified, and corrective adjustments applied to test if RAEs could be removed. Part one identified that when all athletes were included, typical RAEs were evident, with smaller comparative effect sizes, and progressively reduced with older age groups. However, RAE effect sizes increased linearly according to performance level (i.e., all athletes – Top 10%) regardless of age group. In part two, all athletes born in each quartile, and within each annual age group, were entered into linear regression analyses. Results identified that an almost one year relative age difference resulted in mean expected performance differences of 10.1% at age 8, 8.4% at 9, 6.8% at 10, 6.4% at 11, 6.0% at 12, 6.3% at 13, 6.7% at 14, and 5.3% at 15. Correction adjustments were then calculated according to day, month, quarter, and year, and used to demonstrate that RAEs can be effectively removed from all performance levels, and from Swiss junior sprinting more broadly. Such procedures could hold significant implications for sport participation as well as for performance assessment, evaluation, and selection during athlete development.
Highlights
The practice of annual age grouping occurs throughout and across youth sport and education
With few studies to date examining individual sport contexts or testing underlying mechanistic hypotheses of Relative Age Effects (RAEs); and, fewer still identifying or offering potential feasible solutions to eliminate RAEs and their detrimental impact on sport participation and experience, we considered how an investigation of an athletics contexts could provide beneficial insight
It quantified the relationships between relative and chronological age with sprint performance, and tested whether a corrective adjustment procedure, which corrected for the influence of relative age at each chronological age group, identified a potential solution for RAE removal in sprinting
Summary
The practice of annual age grouping occurs throughout and across youth sport and education. Administrators typically categorise participants into annual age groups for logical logistical control purposes, and to reduce developmental differences during childhood and adolescence [1] in an attempt to help maintain a more equal and even playing-field. Relative Age & Corrective Adjustments the latter, an unfortunate problem remains in that there is potential for up to 12 months of chronological age difference—and potentially more in terms of biological age difference—between individuals within an annual age-group cohort. These can lead to outcomes known as Relative Age Effects (RAEs) [2]. RAEs reflect the interaction between an athlete’s birth date and the dates used for chronological age grouping, and whereby being relatively older compared to being relatively younger, generates consistent participation inequalities, selection biases, and attainment advantages in developmental ages and stages of sport [1]
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