Birth Advantages and Relative Age Effects in Sport

Exploring Organizational Structures and Creating Appropriate Settings

Adam Kelly, Jean Côté, Mark Jeffreys, Jennifer Turnnidge, Adam L. Kelly, Jean Côté, Mark Jeffreys, Jennifer Turnnidge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000394887
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias biológicas
• Subtopic: Ciencias del deporte y del ejercicio

Relative age effects (RAEs) refer to the participation, selection, and attainment inequalities in the immediate, short-term, and long-term in sports. Indeed, dozens of studies have identified RAEs across male and female sporting contexts. Despite its widespread prevalence, there is a paucity in the empirical research and practical application of strategies specifically designed to moderate RAEs. Thus, the purpose of this book is to situate RAEs in the context of youth sport structures, lay foundational knowledge concerning the mechanisms that underpin RAEs, and offer alternative group banding strategies aimed at moderating RAEs.

In order to enhance our knowledge on birth advantages and RAEs to create more appropriate settings, key stakeholders, such as coaches, practitioners, administrators, policy makers, and researchers, are required to understand the possible influence of and interaction between birthplace, engagement in activities, ethnicity, genetic profile, parents, socioeconomic status, and relative age. Thus, in addition to RAEs and alternative group banding strategies, Birth Advantages and Relative Age Effects in Sport also examines the role of additional birth advantages and socio-environmental factors that young athletes may experience in organized youth sport.

Drawing from both empirical research and practical examples, this book comprises three parts: (a) organizational structures, (b) group banding strategies, and (c) socio-environmental factors. Overall, this book broadens our understanding of the methodological, contextual, and practical considerations within organizational structures in sport to create more appropriate settings, and strive to make positive, impactful change to lived youth sport experiences.

This book will be of vital reading to academics, researchers, and key stakeholders of sports coaching, athlete development, and youth sport, as well as other related disciplines.

1 Introducing birth advantages and relative age effects in sport

Adam L. Kelly, Jean Côté, Mark Jeffreys, and Jennifer Turnnidge

Introduction

Participation in organized youth sport is associated with a range of positive outcomes (e.g., skill acquisition, psychosocial benefits, physical development, increased levels of exercise in adulthood; Holt & Neely, 2011). In an attempt to facilitate equitable competition and create an age-appropriate learning environment, young athletes are often categorized into (bi)annual-age groups (Baxter-Jones, 1995). However, the complex nature of the athlete development process, coupled with diverse organizational structures, may not always align with these intended outcomes. As an example, based on an interaction between social policy (e.g., cut-off dates applied by organizational structures to organize youth into (bi)annual-age groups), as well as the timing of one’s birth within a given cohort, an individual can be relatively older or younger in comparison to their peers (Musch & Grondin, 2001). Relative age effects (RAEs) refer to the participation, selection, and attainment inequalities in the immediate, short-term, and long-term across sport due to this chronological age group approach (Barnsley, Thompson, & Barnsley, 1985).

Barnsley and colleagues first explored RAEs in sport in 1985. They identified that Canadian ice hockey players born towards the end of the cut-off date (e.g., October to December) were less likely to play in “top-tier” youth and professional teams compared to those born near the beginning (e.g., January to March). Since this preliminary investigation, dozens of studies have identified similar RAEs across male and female youth sport contexts (for reviews, see Cobley, Baker, Wattie, & McKenna, 2009; Smith, Weir, Till, Romann, & Cobley, 2018). Indeed, the growing interest in this topic has resulted in the first research book focused specifically on RAEs in sport (Dixon, Horton, Chittle, & Baker, 2020). Broadly, possible explanations that have been offered for the existence of RAEs include the enhanced physiological and cognitive maturity of relatively older athletes, which allows them to outperform their younger age-matched peers in the immediate and short-term timescales (Wattie, Cobley, & Baker, 2008). Moreover, if relatively older athletes are selected for a team because of their age, they may gain access to more coaching and competition opportunities, which could allow them to become better athletes in the long-term (Furley & Memmert, 2016). On the other hand, studies have shown detrimental effects for relatively younger athletes, such as limited selection opportunities, lower participation, and higher dropout rates (Delorme, Chalabaev, & Raspaud, 2011; Hancock, Ste-Marie, & Young, 2013b).

Despite its widespread prevalence, there appears to be a paucity of empirical research and practical application of strategies specifically designed to moderate RAEs (Kelly, Côté, Turnnidge, & Hancock, in press; Webdale, Baker, Schorer, & Wattie, 2019). Thus, the purpose of this book was to situate RAEs within the broader context of youth sport organizational structures, establish foundational knowledge concerning the mechanisms that underpin RAEs, and offer alternative group banding strategies aimed at moderating birth advantages and RAEs. Concerning the latter, this book explores the practical application of possible approaches, including “playing-up”, “birthday-banding”, the “average team age” method, and “bio-banding”. Since these group banding strategies are very much in their infancy, further aims of this book are to offer methodological considerations for researchers to design, implement, and evaluate such approaches. As such, researchers are encouraged to move beyond the typical exploration of the existence of RAEs and focus their attention on a fresh, theoretically driven approach to better understand the mechanisms of RAEs and design strategies to mediate such effects.

In order to enhance our knowledge on birth advantages and RAEs and to create more appropriate settings, key stakeholders (e.g., coaches, practitioners, administrators, policy makers) and researchers are required to understand the possible influence of and interaction between birthplace, engagement in activities, ethnicity, genetic profile, parents, socioeconomic status, and relative age. Thus, in addition to RAEs and alternative group banding strategies, this book also broadly examines the role of additional birth advantages and socio-environmental factors that young athletes may experience in organized sport (e.g., nature and nurture, relative access to wealth and ethnicity, parents and birthplace effects, competitive engineering).

Overall, the purpose of this book is to broaden our understanding of the methodological, contextual, and practical considerations within organizational structures in sport to create more appropriate settings. Drawing from our respective research institutions, we have assembled a group of authors who have experiential knowledge within their disciplines and are striving to make positive, impactful change to lived youth sport experiences. Sandwiched by this introduction (Chapter 1) and a summary (Chapter 13), this book offers 11 chapters divided into three parts. Broadly, these chapters explore birth advantages and RAEs that are positioned within the context of organizational structures and youth sport settings. The preceding aim of this current chapter was to provide the reader with an overview of these contents. As such, the three parts are summarized independently to offer an outline of each chapter: (a) organizational structures, (b) group banding strategies, and (c) socio-environmental factors.

Organizational structures

Part I sets the stage for this book by reflecting upon the conceptual and methodological foundations of organizational structures. More specifically, it situates birth advantages within the context of youth sport, examines methodological considerations within organizational structure research, and offers a narrative review of RAEs in a sport-specific context to outline its possible mechanisms.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the activities, social dynamics, and settings that affect youth development in sport (Côté, Turnnidge, & Vierimaa, 2016; Côté, Turnnidge, Murata, McGuire, & Martin, in press). Specifically, this chapter describes the physical and competitive structures of sport organizations and communities that shape the activities and social dynamics of youth involved in sport. The authors suggest that the physical environment and competitive structure of sport organizations and communities can create opportunities or shortcomings that can be amplified by the expectations of the adults involved in the youth sport system. Problems and solutions are identified in the form of “appropriate settings” to help sport organizations and communities reduce the birth advantages of certain groups through their policies and rules. The Matthew, Pygmalion, and Galatea effects are used as a conceptual framework to guide sport organizations and communities in reducing birth advantages in youth sport (Hancock, Adler, & Côté, 2013a).

Chapter 3 explores the methodologies that have been used to examine organizational structures (e.g., competitive engineering, group banding strategies, birthplace effects) in sport, with a particular emphasis on RAEs. Specifically, this chapter aims to enhance researchers and practitioners’ understanding of the relation between organizational structures and development, by addressing potential limitations of current methodological approaches and providing future research directions that adopt diverse theoretical positions and innovative research methods. As such, this chapter accounts for a wide range of variables (i.e., processes and outcomes), populations (i.e., males or females; youth or adults; athletes, coaches, or parents), and contexts (i.e., grassroots or high performance) that need to be considered to move the field forward. Indeed, critically examining the methodological approaches to the study of organizational structures in sport may provide researchers and practitioners with a greater understanding of how to bridge the gap between research and practice, as well as how best to foster positive development in sport settings.

Chapter 4 offers an exemplar of “RAEs in action” through a narrative review in rugby union. Since a common practice in youth rugby union is to group players into (bi)annual-age groups using fixed cut-off dates, the implications are often an over-representation of players born at the start of the cut-off date and the under-representation of players born towards the end of the cut-off date. Due to the increasing studies exploring RAEs in rugby union, the aim of this chapter is to synthesize the existing literature to outline the mechanisms that are responsible for generating RAEs within a sport-specific context. As such, this chapter explores: (a) RAEs in male rugby union, (b) youth- to senior-level transitions in male rugby union, (c) RAEs in female rugby union, (d) potential RAE solutions in rugby union, and (e) future research directions. In short, RAEs appear prevalent throughout both male and female rugby union across the globe. Further, the interaction between age, competition level, nationality, and playing position can influence the extent to which RAEs are pronounced. Finally, it seems inconsistencies arise when exploring the youth- to senior-level transition, including “reversal effects” and “knock-on effects”. Recommendations for future research are also provided.

Group banding strategies

Part II examines organizational structures in sport that have actively implemented strategies designed to create settings that are more developmentally appropriate. More specifically, each chapter explores different approaches to grouping athletes, including playing-up, birthday-banding, the average team age method, and bio-banding.

Chapter 5 provides an exploration of “playing-up” in youth soccer. This phenomenon refers to the practice whereby young athletes who outperform their same-aged peers may be offered the opportunity to play-up at higher age levels. While playing-up may facilitate appropriate challenges for high-performing athletes, limited research exists on playing-up and its potential effects on athlete development. This chapter outlines foundational research on playing-up in soccer and presents practical applications and future directions for practitioners and researchers. First, the authors compare playing-up to different methods of grouping youth in sport and education to highlight its potential to facilitate sport-specific skill and psychosocial development. Second, the authors discuss the results of two studies on playing-up in youth soccer. The first study shows how English academy soccer players who played-up exceeded those who did not in terms of several holistic factors (Kelly, Wilson et al., 2020). The second study reveals that Canadian competitive soccer players who played-up perceived their experiences to involve aspects of challenge and progress (Goldman, Turnnidge, Kelly, de Vos, & Côté, 2021). The authors of this chapter conclude with an overview of practical applications for sport organizations and an agenda for future research in this area.

Chapter 6 explores the strategy of “birthday-banding” as a means to moderate RAEs. Put simply, birthday-banding involves an athlete moving up to the next age group on their birthday, whereby they practice and compete against age-matched peers. As a result, during the 12- or 24-month period, they begin as the youngest in their individual (bi)annual-age group before progressing towards being the oldest until their next birthday. This chapter uses the England Squash Talent Pathway as a case study, since they designed and implemented this strategy to remove fixed cut-off dates and selection time points. In previous empirical research carried out by the authors (Kelly, Jackson, Taylor, Jeffreys, & Turnnidge, 2020), it was identified that there were no significant differences between birth quarter distributions in all England Squash cohorts when compared to national norms. The chapter subsequently discusses the potential benefits of birthday-banding as an organizational talent development strategy, as well as how it may offer broader developmental outcomes such as mixed-age activities, social comparisons, and mitigating origins of RAEs. Comparisons with existing RAE solutions, potential limitations, and future directions for birthday-banding research are also discussed.

Chapter 7 addresses the challenge of RAEs by proposing a new grouping strategy with the aim to reduce RAEs; namely the average team age (ATA) method. First, in contrast to the traditional chi-squared goodness-of-fit test to determine RAEs, the ATA and RAE index (RAEi) are introduced. These measurable variables are used to study the underlying mechanisms influencing the relative age bias in youth soccer in the Netherlands (Lawrence, Jonker, & Verbeek, 2019). Results indicate that teams with an average age closer to the beginning of the cut-off date are more likely to win (e.g., 1.51 points per game for relatively older teams vs. 1.32 points per game for relatively younger teams). As such, a competitive advantage appears to increase the average age of teams within the selection year (e.g., a predetermined age group that is eligible to in a certain competition), creating an over-representation of relatively older players. Thus, an alternative grouping strategy is proposed, whereby eligibility is based on the average age of a team rather than the individual age of the athletes competing inside the selection year. This ATA grouping approach operates by setting the average age of the team to create opportunities for both relatively younger and older players to be selected and, potentially, for the reduction of RAEs. Since this grouping policy is yet to be empirically evaluated in practice, this chapter concludes with recommendations for future research.

Chapter 8 offers a review of the concept of “bio-banding” in the context of youth soccer, as well as considerations for researchers and practitioners. Indeed, children and adolescents of the same chronological age can vary extensively in biological maturation. This can have problematic implications for talent identification and development procedures because of the range of attributes associated with early maturity status that ofte...