Looking at a team's roster you would think there is nothing more than a list of players and their information such as age and height, but look again. Many team rosters have players born in clusters with a range of 3 months. The cutoff dates in leagues brings attention to the phenomenon of relative age. In the Canadian league the cutoff date is January 1st. Looking at the rosters of the teams in the league a overwhelming majority of the players were born in January, February, and March. They all have an edge based upon when they were born. Players who have their birthdays in the beginning of the year will physically be ahead of those who have birthdays at the end of the year. They all are the same age but those who have an earlier birthday have more time to participate in their respective sport.
Although this phenomenon was not brought to may attention until recently it makes sense.I experienced this myself since I have a late birthday, August 28th. My sport of choice was soccer. When I was playing with the kids I was in the same grade in I was always in the bottom of the group being told I needed more time, more practice. When I played with the group below me in school, which was legal because the cut-off date was August 1st, I was at the top of the group. Compared to those in the younger group, I had almost a whole year ahead of them while with the kids I went to school, I was a whole year behind. Knowing what we know now about the rosters and birthdays, I wonder if this travels into other things such as school performance and businesses.
No comments:
Post a Comment