Relative age effect in Brazilian handball selections

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Julio Cesar da
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Montes, Flavio Afonso, Weber, Vinicius Muller Reis, Borges, Paulo Henrique, Ramos-Silva, Luiz Fernando, Ronque, Enio Ricardo Vaz
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of Physical Education (Maringá)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/RevEducFis/article/view/48678
• topic: athletes; growth; relative age effect; handball; atletas; crescimento; efeito relativo da idade; handebol

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative age effect (RAE) in Brazilian male handball teams who competed in the world championships in the U-19, U-21, and adult categories. The sample was composed by 160 male handball players, 47 players being on U-19 category, 48 on U-21, and 65 on Adult category. The chronological age, body mass, height, and game position of each athlete were obtained on the International Federation of Handball website. The adopted significance level was of 5%. RAE was observed in all the three following categories U-19 (X2=21.511, P<0.01), U-21 (X2=15.894, P=0.01) and Adults (X2=35.123, P<0.01). Moreover, no RAE was found in re-selection process by sequential category (P= 0.63, U-19 to U-21; P= 0.46, U-21 to Adult). The RAE is found in Brazilian male handball national teams. However, this effect was not found in re-selection process, thus, players have great influence of RAE in U-19 and this remains through subsequent categories.