Ever wondered why you see so many professional athletes that are born in the months of January, February and March? Turns out it’s not just a coincidence that some of the greatest of all time were born in these months. Why is this the reason then, are they naturally born as better athletes or is there something more to it?

Presenting the relative age effect — A scientific bias that has been used to explain part of the reason why athlete success has been linked to their date and month of birth.

(Pexels / Chris Peeters)

Before I try to understand the greater relation between athletes and the relative age effect, I need to understand what the relative age effect means to sports. The birthdate effect is another commonly used term to describe evidence found in sports and academics. Studies show that participation is higher for people born earlier in the year compared to the rest of the calendar months than would be expected for the birthdate distribution average.

That might explain the principle of this effect, but if you and I were trying to understand this concept I think it would be better to use simpler terms. Maturity is another general trend (for people born in the early months) that might attribute to a “head start” for youth sports that use age categories or even skill level.

(Pixabay / tigerlily713)

Does that mean that there can’t be anything done in order to try and create a better balance of athletes born later in the calendar year? Turns out professional leagues have caught on to this idea and have moved cut-off dates and deadlines to better reflect the “sports year” rather than the calendar year.

If you know me, you know that I was born in January. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be a professional athlete, but I could notice a slight impact from the relative age effect when I played sports growing up. Of course, being born in January doesn’t mean I have any superpower sport abilities that will make me better than others. However, my maturity level when I was playing baseball and soccer seemed to be slightly higher than most of my teammates, and this led to me being a better player. Not so much a better player in terms of stats and skill level, but just understanding the game and having a better awareness for what needed to be done in order to succeed.

Even though it is only a bias, the relative age effect can explain why we see more January – March athletes in the sports world. So now you know, the next time you see an athlete, ask them their birth month, it could potentially give you some insight on their athletic ability.