The Relative Age Effect in Age Group Swimming: Germany compared to Australia

Ilka Staub, Lukas Mundelsee, Tobias Vogt

Publikation: Beitrag in Buch/Bericht/KonferenzbandKonferenzbeitrag - Abstract in KonferenzbandForschungBegutachtung

Abstract

Introduction Relatively older athletes, who were born in the first two quartiles of a year, have an increased probability of being selected and exposed to a higher level of coaching, training and other talent-promoting factors. Therefore, it is considered as one of the errors within the process of talent identification (Wattie, Schorer & Baker, 2015). Research has conceded the prevalence of the relative age effect (RAE) across various sports, e.g. reports on Australian age group swimmers showing consistent RAE for male and female athletes until 15 and 14 years of age (yoa). The effect diminishes at 16 years and turns inverse at 17-18 years of age (Cobley et al., 2017). This investigation determines a magnitude and transient pattern of the RAE according to sex and stroke across German age group swimming. Methods RAE was examined in German top-100 age group rankings (2004-2013) including birth months of three cohorts (born 1995-1993; n=3630) for the age groups 11-18. Chi-Square tests and Cramer’s V estimated effect sizes, Odd’s ratios (OR) and Confidence Intervals (CI, 95%) calculated relative quartile discrepancies. These steps were applied across age groups and according to sex and stroke. Results The RAE is significantly present over all strokes for female swimmers until 17 yoa and for male swimmers until 18 yoa. Effect sizes were medium until 12 yoa for girls and 15 yoa for boys. No inverted effects were visible until 18 yoa. Discussion Compared to previous reports on an Australian cohort, the RAE was prevalent over a longer time period. Therefore, the impact of negative outcomes from RAE appears larger with respect to a similar cohort from Australia. These findings will be discussed, ranging from a less permeable talent detection system in Germany to potentially biased decisions in talent selections by different peers (Hancock, Adler & Côté, 2013). References Cobley, S., Abbott, S., Dogramaci, S., Kable, A., Salter, J., Hintermann, M., & Romann, M. (2017). Transient Relative Age Effects across annual age groups in National level Australian Swimming. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 21(8), 839-845. Hancock, D. J., Adler, A. L. & Côté, J. (2013). A proposed theoretical model to explain relative age effects in sport. European journal of sport science, 13(6), 630-637. Wattie, N., Schorer, J. & Baker, J. (2015). The relative age effect in sport: A developmental systems model. Sports Medicine, 45(1), 83-94.
OriginalspracheDeutsch
TitelBook of abstracts : 24th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science, 3-6 July 2019, Prague - Czech Republic
Herausgeber*innenV. Bunc, E. Tsolakidis
Seitenumfang1
Herausgeber (Verlag)European College of Sport Science
Erscheinungsdatum2019
Seiten178
ISBN (Print)978-3-9818414-2-8
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2019
VeranstaltungAnnual Congress of the European College of Sport Science: Uniting the World through Sport Science - Conference Center, Prague, Tschechien
Dauer: 03.07.201906.07.2019
Konferenznummer: 24
http://ecss-congress.eu/2019/19/index.php

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