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The Relative Age Effect In Youth And Elite Sport: Did 20 Years Of Research Make Any Difference?, Werner Helsen

Relative Age Effects: An International Conference

In recent decades, our research team (among others) has identified obvious participation and attainment inequalities resulting from annual age grouping procedures across varying forms and levels of sport participation, and the relative age effects (RAEs) associated with it. Generally, youth born early in the selection year have selection and attainment advantages over their relatively younger peers. Twenty years ago, Helsen et al. (1998) observed that 37.9% of soccer players who were transferred from lower league teams to first division teams were born in the first three months of the selection year, while only 12.3% were born in the final three …

Retiring At 10 Years Of Age: A Discussion Of The Major Trends In Organized Youth Sports Today And Their Association To Relative-Age-Related Dropout, Srdjan Lemez, Jessica Fraser-Thomas

Relative Age Effects: An International Conference

A continued interest in investigating how annual age cohort groupings promote 'relative age effects' (RAEs), which create participation, attainment, and learning biases between relatively older and younger players within the same age cohort, has led to advances in our understanding of the magnitude of RAEs globally and what this important socially constructed phenomenon means for talent identification and development (e.g., Wattie, Schorer, & Baker, 2014). Srdjan's talk will highlight some of the major trends in youth sports today, such as the emphasis on the performance ethic and the growth of specialized programs (Coakley, 2014), and their association to positive youth …

Mechanisms Of Relative Age Effects, David Hancock

Relative Age Effects: An International Conference

Several mechanisms potentially contribute to relative age effects, including sport structure, physical, and social mechanisms. A brief description of each is provided.

Sport Structure Mechanisms

To maintain fair athletic competition, organizations often institute one- or two-year age bands (e.g., players born in 2008 and 2009 compete in U8 soccer). Even in a one-year age band, athletes’ ages can differ by 364 days. While smaller age bands and rotating cut-off dates have been proposed, these solutions provide many administrative challenges. Thus, the inherent sport structure lends itself to relative age effects.

Physical Mechanisms

Though not guaranteed, being chronologically older than one’s …

The Rae: The Early Studies, Roger Barnsley, Paula Barnsley

Relative Age Effects: An International Conference

This presentation will discuss the discovery of the relative age effect (RAE), which emerged from observations about a higher incidence of younger children in a classroom or grade labelled as learning disabled. Early explanations of maturity, critical periods, and school readiness failed to explain the number of false positives in these younger children. Further, personal observations of hockey players suggested that skill and achievement were highly correlated with relative age. These issues were examined by analyzing the birthdates of NHL, major junior, and minor hockey players. Based on these early studies, the RAE was found when: a) children were placed …