Research Summaries Research Summary No1 The Relative age Effect

sports coach UK Research Summary 1 © Alan Edwards More than Just Physical Maturity: How Coaches, Parents and Children All Influence the Relative Age Effect The Relative Age Effect is a phenomenon in sport. It describes how top-level sport is often dominated by players born at certain times of the year. Physical maturity is most often cited as the cause, with bigger children receiving the benefits of more attention and playing or practice time. But what if it wasn’t the only culprit? What if parents, coaches and the children themselves were all unconsciously complicit? This is the idea recently put forward by researchers who suggest how three concepts widely used in business and management can help explain how factors beyond physical maturity influence the Relative Age Effect.