Abstract
Relative age effects (RAEs) are known to affect likelihood of attaining sporting excellence (Baker, Schorer, & Cobley, 2010). However, research examining the enduring long-term consequences is limited. Cobley, Schorer, and Baker (2008) observed RAEs for soccer coaches, but not for soccer referees. This study examined the RAE among male players in the first German basketball league and determined the longevity of this effect to post athletic careers in basketball. Birth-dates of 142 players, 26 coaches, 32 referees, and 16 commissioners were obtained from the official First German basketball league for the 2009/10 season. Dates were categorized into quartiles according to the calendar date used for annual age-grouping for international basketball. As expected significant RAEs were revealed for players, ?²(3) = 12.99, p < .01, ? = .30. Furthermore, there were descriptive trends observed for the other groups; however, these differences were not statistically significant due to the small samples. Therefore, all post-athletic career groups were combined, which resulted in a significant RAE, ?²(3) = 10.22, p = .02, ? = .37. These results suggest that there could be persistent long-term consequences to the RAEs thought to originate during the early stages of a playing career. As others have indicated (Musch & Grondin, 2001), RAEs are a persistent inequality in high performance sport; one that, unfortunately, is not easily remedied.
