The relationship between the relative age effect and performance among athletes in World Handball Championships

Abstract

This study examines the relative age effect (RAE) and its impact on the performance of elite male (n = 3,358) and female (n = 3,273) handball players in the U-19 (n = 2,188), U-21 (n = 2,031), and senior (n = 2,412) categories of the

Does the Relative Age Effect Influence Short-Term Performance and Sport Career in Team Sports? A Qualitative Systematic Review

“…In women's sport, it seems that, even with an overrepresentation of relatively older players, the relative age did not entail an influence on competition performance. Probably, as the magnitude of the RAE in female sport is less than in male sport (Smith et al, 2018;de la Rubia et al, 2020), because of factors such as the depth of the competition (Baker et al, 2009) or the number of active participants and the popularity of the sport (Sedano et al, 2015), this phenomenon is not relevant enough to affect the competition performance, either individually or collectively. Furthermore, because of the conditional component of the players seeming to be less decisive for achieving high performance in team sports (Konstantinos et al, 2018), the biological differences (physical, anthropometric, physiological, etc.)…”

“…In team sports, individual performance is not achieved in the same way, but will largely depend on the playing position. For this reason, many studies made this distinction (Schorer et al, 2009b;García et al, 2014;Ibañez et al, 2018;Yagüe et al, 2018;Lago-Fuentes et al, 2019;de la Rubia et al, 2020), concluding, generally, that relatively older players showed a better performance in those positions with greater physical and anthropometric requirements (i.e., pivots in basketball, backs in handball or midfielders in football), whereas in other playing positions, less conditioned by the biological and maturational development (i.e., shooting guard in basketball; wings in handball or forwards in football), there was no difference in competition performance depending on the relative age.…”

“…In the first kind of performance, it has normally been measured by weighing the collective results, using the final team position in the competition (McGarry, 2009); or through observation of individual statistical parameters (i.e., minutes played, goals scored, average performance indexes, etc.) that synthesize officially the participation, intervention, and performance of the players in competition (de la Rubia et al, 2020). Both indicators represent valuable information to accurately interpret the performance and interaction of the athlete with the environment, peers, and adversaries (Sampaio et al, 2015).…”

The relationship between relative age effects and sex, age categories and playing positions in Brazilian National Handball Teams

“…For many team sports in which different functions are performed according to playing positions, it is expected that athletes with a specific set of skills and physical characteristics will be preferred. In several sports, some specific playing positions rely more on the athlete's physical characteristics, such as increased height, as is the case of defensive soccer players 25 , backrowers, and outside backs in rugby 26 , and greater strength and velocity levels of backs and wing players, respectively, in handball 5,27 . These studies mentioned above show how interacting constraints may shape and influence the RAE in sports and elucidate the importance of investigating specific sport contexts 2 .…”

“…Several studies have investigated the RAE in handball and demonstrated its prevalence, whose magnitude seems to be influenced by factors such as sex, context, age category, and playing position, among others 5,12,27 . The characteristics associated with task constraints in handball, such as several repeated high-intensity actions and body contacts as well as technical, physical, and physiological demands, allow athletes who score better on physical performance characteristics and show anthropometric advantages to perform better 28 .…”