article Open Access (gold) EN 2020-08-21

Sustainable Sport Development: The Influence of Competitive-Grouping and Relative Age on the Performance of Young Triathletes

Alberto Férriz-Valero, Salvador García Martínez, Javier Olaya-Cuartero, Miguel García-Jaén

Sustainability, Vol. 12, Issue 17, pp. 6792–6792 (2020)

University of Alicante, Universidad Isabel I

DOI: 10.3390/su12176792

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Abstract

Competitive-grouping by chronological age is a common organizational strategy in competition which may unintentionally promote relative age effects, for the benefit of older individuals within the same competitive-group, especially in young athletes. This work presents the aim of analyzing differences in young triathletes on their performance within each competitive group. A total of 1243 entries of both sexes, both children—13–14 years old—and cadets—15–17 years old—participated. Firstly, we identified the year in the competitive group and relative-age semester for all the triathletes who competed in a total of six seasons from 2013 to 2018. Secondly, the performance indicator was calculated in all the segments in a triathlon competition for all triathletes. The Kruskal-Wallis Test and U Mann Whitney Test was applied. It was observed that all cadet triathletes born in the first semester of the year (S1, born in January–June) were faster; for both boys and girls. Likewise, it was observed that older triathletes who competed within the same category were faster, but only in males and for both competitive groups: children (p < 0.0083), and cadet (p < 0.0033). In conclusion, families, coaches and sports political agencies need a greater knowledge and understanding of the effects of relative age and competitive grouping to understand the important role of age in the development of sports talent demonstrated in this study.

Topics

Sport Psychology and Performance 1.00 Sports Performance and Training 1.00 Sports injuries and prevention 1.00

Field: Psychology · Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Keywords

Cadet,Athletes,Competitive athletes,Test (biology),Competition (biology),Youth sports,Psychology,Demography,Competitive sport,Age groups

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