Abstract:The Relative Age Effect (RAE) refers to an over-representation of athletes born early in a selection year. The aims of this study were twofold: to test the presence of RAE depending on the gender and age in young alpine ski racers, and to test the influence of the level of physical motor skills on RAE. We investigated 989 participants of the entrance exams of three Austrian ski boarding schools, examined their birth dates and tested three different physical fitness abilities. Chi2-tests revealed significant RA… Show more
“…Since these early studies, RAEs have been identified across a variety of team sport and cultural contexts including North American and European ice hockey [20][21][22] as well as soccer [23,24] and rugby worldwide [10,25,26]. RAEs are also documented in individual sports such as swimming [27,28], tennis [27,29,30] and Alpine skiing [31,32]. That said, RAEs are not ubiquitous as the effect has not been consistently observed in adult senior professional sport [33,34] and is absent in sports dependent on technique or skill rather than physical attributes per se (e.g., golf [35]; shooting sports [36]).…”
The findings highlight relative age effects are prevalent across the female sport contexts examined. Relative age effect magnitude is moderated by interactions between developmental stages, competition level and sport context demands. Modifications to sport policy, organisational and athlete development system structure, as well as practitioner intervention are recommended to prevent relative age effect-related participation and longer term attainment inequalities.
“…Since these early studies, RAEs have been identified across a variety of team sport and cultural contexts including North American and European ice hockey [20][21][22] as well as soccer [23,24] and rugby worldwide [10,25,26]. RAEs are also documented in individual sports such as swimming [27,28], tennis [27,29,30] and Alpine skiing [31,32]. That said, RAEs are not ubiquitous as the effect has not been consistently observed in adult senior professional sport [33,34] and is absent in sports dependent on technique or skill rather than physical attributes per se (e.g., golf [35]; shooting sports [36]).…”
The findings highlight relative age effects are prevalent across the female sport contexts examined. Relative age effect magnitude is moderated by interactions between developmental stages, competition level and sport context demands. Modifications to sport policy, organisational and athlete development system structure, as well as practitioner intervention are recommended to prevent relative age effect-related participation and longer term attainment inequalities.
“…Sportler, welche früh im Selektionsjahr geboren sind, haben Vorteile und werden bevorzugt selektiert. Da jedoch das Talent in einer Sportart nicht vom Geburtsmonat abhängt [17], kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass viele Talente verloren gehen, wenn vermehrt und bevorzugt relativ ältere Athleten selektiert werden [15]. Aus ethischer Sicht ist zu sagen, dass dadurch eine Diskriminierung von jungen, talentierten Kindern besteht, da diese trotz ihres Talents und ihrer Anstrengungen nur geringe Chancen haben, das Elitelevel zu erreichen [15,16].…”
Section: Discussionunclassified
“…Da jedoch das Talent in einer Sportart nicht vom Geburtsmonat abhängt [17], kann davon ausgegangen werden, dass viele Talente verloren gehen, wenn vermehrt und bevorzugt relativ ältere Athleten selektiert werden [15]. Aus ethischer Sicht ist zu sagen, dass dadurch eine Diskriminierung von jungen, talentierten Kindern besteht, da diese trotz ihres Talents und ihrer Anstrengungen nur geringe Chancen haben, das Elitelevel zu erreichen [15,16]. Die zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen des RAE wurden des Öfteren untersucht; jedoch sind diese meistens, wie beispielsweise im alpinen Skirennlauf, weiterhin unbekannt und sollten deshalb erhoben werden.…”
The prediction equations to determine APHV seem to be a valid method of assessing the biological maturity status of youths aged 10 - 13 years. The percentage of pupils classified as on time, early or late maturing did not differ significantly between the classifications based on the two methods. Also the Bland-Altman analysis proved the concordance between the two methods. The RAE could be influenced and strengthened by the biological age in sports in which advantages in maturity parameters are important. Athletes born early in the selection year, who are also at the same time advanced in maturity, might be advantaged in the selection process. However, since the prediction equations seem to be valid, this method can be used in the future in the talent selection process in order to not disadvantage late-maturing athletes, which in turn could result in the reduction of the occurrence of the RAE in various types of sports in the future. In talent selection processes the growth spurt and the implemented changes in proportions between core and the extremities are often not considered; although it was shown that during this period, athletes showed poor performances in physical fitness. Since physical fitness is an important criterion in talent selection processes, athletes who go through their individual peak growth spurt at the time of selection have disadvantages due to the diverse proportions. As a consequence, it seems important to know the athlete's APHV in order to consider the variations in physical performance caused by developmental changes. The prediction equations to determine APHV include the leg length and sitting height in order to consider the diverse proportions between core and extremities; hence, this method seems to be accurate and should be implemented in the talent selection process.
“…Los resultados obtenidos en el Test de Harre demostraron la importancia de la capacidad de coordinación dinámica general dentro del esquí alpino infantil habiendo presentado valores superiores a los de jóvenes deportistas de otras disciplinas, en ambos sexos. Este hecho coincide con los resultados obtenidos en estudios más recientes con el mismo test (Müller et al, 2015b;Steidl-Müller et al, 2017). Estos estudios confirman que esta capacidad motora no se ve afectada significativamente por la maduración en niños y la existencia de diferencias altamente significativas a los 11 años, dentro del intervalo comprendido entre los 12 y 14 años, en niñas.…”
Section: Discussionunclassified
“…Journal of Physical Education and Human Movement, 1(2) 16-36. ISSN: 2659-5699 DOI: 10.24310/JPEHMjpehm.v1i2.6394 relativa en esquiadores adultos (Bosco, 1994(Bosco, , 1997Ruiz de Almirón et al, 2002;Raschner et al, 2008Raschner et al, , 2013Müller et al, 2015b;Steidl-Müller et al, 2017, 2019. Esto demostró que esta capacidad requiere niveles de fuerza explosiva y reactiva elevados durante los cambios de dirección en el esquí durante la bajada.…”
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