Relative Age Effect
This leads me to tell you about the Relative Age Effect. Studies have shown that players born at the front end of the year are over-represented in professional football. Why?
I believe that there is a culture of winning within the junior years of football. This leads trainers to select the more mature and more developed players in a bid to win. The consequence of this is that there is an imbalance as to how we view player development as a whole. There is less opportunity given to players born later in the year. Conversely the ones selected for being born early in the year are being misused because they guaranty a win.
Each child needs to be given the same opportunities to grow and develop. We are missing out on potential talent.
- ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ด๐ฒ โ this is the actual date of birth of the child.
- ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ด๐ฒ โ maturity level. Children of the same biological age may be up to 3-4 years apart based on their rate of maturation.
- ๐ง๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ด๐ฒ โ years of practice. Two children with the same chronological and biological age can be poles apart in terms of skills and understanding of the game if one has trained substantially more.
Before placing a child into our programs we try to work out the current stage of development of each child based on the combination of the three different ages. This has proved to be very successful, with children developing to their full potential
Three Ages of Sport
#1 ๐๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ด๐ฒ, #2 ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ด๐ฒ, #3 ๐ง๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ด๐ฒ
