How Birth Year Affects Professional Sports Players

By: William G.

 

 

            Have you ever fantasized about being a professional athlete? Well, it helps to be born in the right months: January, February, and March, the first quarter of the year. A research study from bbc.com has shown 75% of teens playing in a u17 European championship final were born in the first quarter of the year. These numbers are abnormally high, but most athletes are born in the first quarter.

“One thing we can do to try and limit this bias or relative age effect (RAE) towards kids born in the other nine months is base teams on weight and size, not age,” New Zealand Rugby says. Another thing we can do to try and restrain the bias of RAE is base all teams on physical development. This is why many teams are allowed players to compete up to a year; this is a suitable start, but teams should allow smaller and less physically mature athletes to play down a year. This boosts their confidence tremendously.

Typically, the main reason kids born in the first quarter of the year are “better” is they mature faster, being faster and stronger than other kids at their age. This means on the 9-10-year-old team the oldest kids could be ten percent older than the youngest, and they are more likely to be picked for the A team, leading to better coaching and education from a younger age.

It’s not all bad for the last quarter kids because they tend to be more advanced for their relative age than everybody else but don’t see it and often get discouraged. This is because they have to work harder and recognize their mistakes faster in order to keep up with the bigger, faster, and stronger kids. A great example of this is Messi. At 5’7, he’s been small all of his life, but due to his mental sharpness and ability to realize his weaknesses and ability to improve he’s now one of the best soccer players ever. His personal accomplishments are 725 goals, 309 assists, 36 team trophies or titles, 77 personal trophies, including the Ballon d’Or, six times, given to the best player in the world that year. He did this all within 910 games. Also, he has an astounding net worth of over 400 million US dollars.  

There are many more biased sports, such as ice hockey and skiing where RAE comes into effect more than figure skating and gymnastics; sports like these are better for fourth-quarter kids because they tend to be more flexible, whereas first-quarter kids tend to mature faster. But there are many benefits of making it pro by being born in the last three months of the year. For example, an amazing 55% of legendary athletes such as Pele, Maradona, Tom Brady, Lebron James, and Micheal Jordan are born in the last quarter of the year.

Now when you see your favorite athlete on TV, or maybe even in person, you might know the struggle or advantages he or she had in their early years, and how they overcame them. So, are you going to sit around doing nothing today, or take full advantage by working harder so your name can be in the list of legends?