Relative age effect in physical attributes and motor fitness at different birth-month quartile

Abstract

In purpose to avoid subjectivity and bias selection, this study would propose to carry out the athlete selection according to their particular birth-month quartile (Q1: Jan-March; Q2: Apr-June, Q3: July-Sept and Q4: Oct-Dec). This study thus combined statistical analysis of Cluster Analysis (CA) and Discriminant Analysis (DA) to determine the relative age effect in physical attributes and motor fitness. CA assigned the children into three groups of high, moderate and low performance. The given groups were considered as predefined classes for DA. Result found that there are discriminated variables that significantly different in each of birth-month quartile. Coaches may consider the proposed parameters as a baseline in decision making of children selection in talent identification program to reduce RAEs.

Keywords: relative age effect; physical attribute; motor fitness; talent identification