Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Feb 11;13(2):53.
doi: 10.3390/sports13020053.

Chaos Caused by Different Cutoff Dates: Relative Age Effects and Redshirting in Collegiate Volleyball in the United States

Grace Redman  1 , Scott Pierce  1 , Adam Leigh Kelly  2
Affiliations

Chaos Caused by Different Cutoff Dates: Relative Age Effects and Redshirting in Collegiate Volleyball in the United States

Grace Redman et al. Sports (Basel). .

Abstract

Relative Age Effects (RAEs) are a phenomenon in athletics related to an over-representation of individuals born closer to an arbitrary cutoff date. Such effects have been shown in many different countries, levels of play, and contexts, although they are yet to be studied in volleyball within the United States, which is the second most popular high school girls' sport and the fastest growing high school and college sport for males. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine RAEs in college volleyball. Publicly available data were collected from the websites of women's Division I program (n = 1253) and men's Division I/II (n = 164). Chi-squared goodness of fit tests were used to compare birth rate distributions. Data accounted for gender, school and club cutoff dates, athletic timing, and redshirt status. Results showed RAEs were strongest in women on-time school group. Interestingly, reverse effects were observed (i.e., an overrepresentation of relatively younger athletes) for delayed school volleyball players, but this expected trend was not observed in the redshirt group. On-time women's club group showed academic timing was a significant contributor towards RAEs, whilst these effects were strongest for the on-time school group in men.

Keywords: NCAA; RAE; athletic timing; collegiate sport; school; training age; university sports club.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Division I Women’s Volleyball’s school cutoff distribution.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Division I/II Men’s Volleyball’s school cutoff distribution.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Division I women’s school cutoff by birth quartile.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Division I women’s club cutoff by birth quartile.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Division I/II men’s school cutoff by birth quartile.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Division I/II men’s club cutoff by birth quartile.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Cobley S., Baker J., Wattie N., McKenna J. Annual Age-Grouping and Athlete Development: A Meta-Analytical Review of Relative Age Effects in Sport. Sports Med. 2009;39:235–256. doi: 10.2165/00007256-200939030-00005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ibáñez S.J., Mazo A., Nascimento J.V.d., García-Rubio J., García-Rubio J. The Relative Age Effect in Under-18 Basketball: Effects on Performance According to Playing Position. PLoS ONE. 2018;13:e0200408. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200408. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kelly A.L., Brown T.W., Reed R., Côté J., Turnnidge J. Relative Age Effects in Male Cricket: A Personal Assets Approach to Explain Immediate, Short-Term, and Long-Term Developmental Outcomes. Sports. 2022;10:39. doi: 10.3390/sports10030039. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jones C., Visek A.J., Barron M.J., Hyman M., Chandran A., Chandran A. Association between Relative Age Effect and Organisational Practices of American Youth Football. J. Sports Sci. 2019;37:1146–1153. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2018.1546545. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wattie N., Schorer J., Baker J. The Relative Age Effect in Sport: A Developmental Systems Model. Sports Med. 2015;45:83–94. doi: 10.1007/s40279-014-0248-9. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources