Happy birthday? How your birthdate contributes to success or failure due to the “relative age effect”

Have you ever stopped to wonder the difference a day can make? Say, being born December 31 st or January 1 st ? This small 24-hour window could be the difference between competing in elite vs. recreational sport, or being identified as “gifted”, or (mis)diagnosed with a learning disability in school. Many youth development systems (e.g., sport and education) rely on arbitrary cut-off dates to...Read more

Could The Month Of Your Birth Shape Your Sporting Destiny?

Are children born later in the sporting calendar year missing out on selection and development opportunities? Children are frequently grouped by age for school or sport activities in order to control for the effects of intellectual and physical development. As well, youth sport programs use cutoff dates to ensure that children will receive age appropriate instruction and to allow for fair...Read more