摘要：volleyball youth teams are grouped by age range, but in each year, there are differences among individuals which can be explained by the "relative age effect" (RAEs). This effect is an overrepresentation of players who born in the first quarter after the date of cohort, providing them a number of factors that favour their arrival to the performance compared with those born in the last quarter of the cohort date.The aim of the study was to show the "relative age effect" (RAEs), in senior World Cup and S-19 volleyball players.Method: The sample consisted of 1729 birth dates of male players, which are: senior 889 of category and 840 belong to S-19, collected of three world champions in their respective categories.Results: It was observed the existence of RAEs in all the world champions S-19 and senior World Cup 2010. The presence of a relationship with the ultimate performance in competition was similar, as semifinalists for semifinalists or not the RAEs found was the same for both samples (X2, p <0.001 Vsemifinalists = 0.270, V no semifinalists = 0.194) with a small effect both samples.Conclusions: There is RAEs in world champion S-19 but, when players arrive in senior level of national team, this effect decreases.
关键词：Relative age;volleyball;talent development;birth date
