Abstract

SAAVEDRA-GARCIA, Miguel; GUTIERREZ-AGUILAR, Óscar; SA-MARQUES, Paulo  and  FERNANDEZ-ROMERO, Juan J.. Relative age effect in Spanish athletics. CPD [online]. 2016, vol.16, n.1, pp.275-286. ISSN 1989-5879.

The influence of the trimester of birth on the athlete 's performance has been widely studied, but always related to a temporary term. What is new about this work is that the effect of relative age (RAE) related to sports results is studied. We focus on the effect of relative age on Spanish athletes (3.313) who have achieved the best records ever, what lets us analyse athletes since 1940. The Chi-square test (χ²) have been used for the compilation of results, which show that this effect is consistent both in male athletics and in female. In male athletics, it exists in every age category, while in female athletics; the effect is much weaker and only exists in absolute category and young category. With regard to competition sectors, results do not show a clear pattern of performance.

Keywords : Chronological age; athletics; decision making; maturation; relative age effect.

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