How Athletes’ Birthdays Can Determine Their Success (Sort Of)

One of my boys is born in late November, which means most of the players on his soccer team are nearly a full year older and a grade higher than him, yet the competition is making him better. Is his younger age a positive or a negative?

Author Tim Wigmore explores that topic in an article for FiveThirtyEight with some interesting conclusions. In short, there is an advantage for players who are older on a team, but it seems the advantage comes more in the selection phase. In other words, older players are more likely to get selected for elite teams earlier, but if younger players do get picked, they are more likely to emerge and grow to an elite level.

This passage in particular is good news for my son and any other younger athletes too:

“To survive in the system, relatively younger athletes must develop some other performance advantage, which is likely to be skill and its attributes, such as speed, technique and decision making. During their development, these younger athletes may benefit further in skill acquisition by playing the sport with relatively older athletes.”