Compartir
Título
The relationship between the relative age effect and performance among athletes in World Handball Championships
Autor
Facultad/Centro
Área de conocimiento
Título de la revista
PLOS ONE
Número de la revista
3
Cita Bibliográfica
Rubia Adl, Bjørndal CT, Sa´nchez-Molina J, Yagu¨e JM, Calvo JL, Maroto-Izquierdo S (2020) The relationship between the relative age effect and performance among athletes in World Handball Championships. PLoS ONE 15(3): e0230133.
Editorial
Yih-Kuen Jan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UNITED STATES
Fecha
2020
Resumen
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 2013/2014, 2015/2016 and 2017/2018
World Handball Championships organised by the International Handball Federation (IHF).
The distribution of the players´ birth dates (by quartile: Q, and semester: S) by categories,
handball playing positions, and membership of continental federations, were analysed for
each of the three two-year periods in which the World Handball Championships took place.
Differences between the observed and expected birth dates were tested using a chi-square
goodness of fit test, and subsequent calculations were tested using odds ratios. The Spear-
man’s correlation coefficient was applied to test the correlation between the relative age of
the athletes and (their) performance parameters. The results revealed a prevalence of the
RAE on both male and female in the U-19 and U-21 categories (p<0.001), and a stabilisation
of the RAE throughout the period analysed (2013/14-2017/2018). The RAE was not found in
the female senior category (2013, 2015 and 2017) or male senior category (2013) (p>0.05).
All playing positions were impacted by the RAE (p<0.001), and especially strong effect sizes
were noted for male pivots (Vc = 0.66/0.68/0.60) and female center backs (Vc = 0.71/0.65/
0.71). In our analysis of the handball continental federations, the RAE was found in all
regions, except Oceania (p>0.05). The RAE also affected athlete performance: the oldest
athletes played more minutes and achieved better performances. The RAE was associated
with the final placement of the teams in each championship category, except in the male
youth category. The findings clearly demonstrated that the RAE has a significant impact on
the selection of male and female athletes to international competitions and the performance
of both men and women in international handball. The potential implications of these find-
ings for policy and practice are discussed.
Materia
Palabras clave
Peer review
SI
URI
DOI
Aparece en las colecciones
- Artículos [5364]
Ficheros en el ítem
Tamaño:
1.036
xmlui.dri2xhtml.METS-1.0.size-megabytes
Formato:
Adobe PDF