The Relationship Between Relative Age and Tournament Success for 11-Year-Old Male Wrestlers in Turkey

Abstract

Children born in the first months of the same year are physically more advantageous than those born in the last months, and this advantage decreases as the athletes gets older. Athletes born in the last months of the year and unsuccessful may leave their careers at a young age. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between tournament success and birth months in 11-year-old Freestyle and Greco-Roman style wrestlers. It was hypothesized that wrestlers born in the first months of the year would be more successful than those born in the last months. Tournament ranking and birth date information of 327 wrestlers who participated in the Turkey 11-Year-Old Male Freestyle and Greco-Roman Style Wrestling Tournament were used. In order to examine the relationship between athlete success and birth months, Chi-Square analysis was performed by grouping birth months into four quarters of the year. It was observed that the success rankings of both Freestyle and Greco-Roman style wrestlers decreased from the first quarter to the last quarter of the year (Freestyle: χ2 = 42.749, df = 3, p = .000; Greco-Roman style: χ2 = 25.627, df = 3, p = .000). It is thought that birth months should be given importance when grouping at young ages, especially in sports branches such as wrestling, where physical contact is high.