The relative age effect in young French basketball players: a study on the whole population

Abstract

The aim of this study is to test the presence of the relative age effect (RAE) and to examine height in an overall population of the young French basketball players from 7 to 18 years old, male (n=151 259) and female (n=107 101). For the boys as for the girls, the results show a statistically significant RAE in all age categories. The effect seems more pronounced during puberty. As far as the height is concerned, players born during quarters 1 and 2 are always significantly taller than those born during quarter 4, apart from the 17-year-old female players. These results require a new look at the methodology in the statistical calculation and the interpretation of RAE. A study wanting to give a precise measurement of this effect will have to take as the expected theoretical distribution the whole population of licensed players in the corresponding years, rather than one on the global population of the country. This will avoid the hasty conclusion that an asymmetric distribution of dates of birth of professional players would be due to RAE, whereas in reality it would be representative of one existing in the population of licensed players.

Efeito da idade relativa no Campeonato Brasileiro de Basquete: Categoria sub-15

“…The results found in the present study corroborate those of the international literature [10][11][12]21,22 . Multiple factors related to the individual (birth date, sex and maturation), task (type of sport, competitive level and game position) and environment (sports system-division into categories, popularity of sport, influence of family and coaches) interact for the occurrence of RAE 4,19,23 .…”

“…Regarding gender, RAE is particularly evident in males in various modalities 24 , including basketball, so the results found confirm the findings of other studies with U-15 basketball players in France 5,11 and Spain 21,22 . Studying RAE in this category becomes important, since from 13 to 15 years, boys are in a period of great biological variability, as a function of the growth spurt.…”

“…Our findings for females do not corroborate the available literature. In young female basketball players, RAE was observed in French girls aged 7-18 years 5,11 , in Brazilian schoolchildren 17 and in U-17 athletes of the 2015 Brazilian Basketball Championship 18 . Some factors could explain the inconsistency of findings in females such as: less competition in selective processes and lower maturational variability in girls at ages when athletes are usually selected 20,26 .…”

“…In international basketball, RAE was often observed 8,[10][11][12][13] , although such phenomenon is not always observed 14,15 . In the context of Brazilian basketball, the only study with adult athletes did not find RAE in basketball players participating in the 2012 London Olympic Games 16 .…”

Relação entre mês de nascimento e estatura de atletas do mundial de futebol sub 17

“…Esses resultados corroboram os achados de Delorme e Raspaud 24 , que encontraram diferenças na estatura de atletas de basquetebol da categoria sub 17, nascidos no primeiro e segundo quartis da data de nascimento, quando comparados com atletas nascidos no quarto quartil da data de nascimento. Até o presente momento, não foi possível identificar na literatura estudos correlacionando o quartil de nascimento, a estatura e a posição em que o atleta atua em campo para que fosse possível uma comparação dentro da própria modalidade.…”