Pedro L. P. Fontes, Ph.D. Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist
The Relative Age Effect is a term commonly used to describe how children athletes born early in the academic year tend to perform to a higher level than those born later. For example, softball athletes born between May and August are 40% more likely to play college softball compared with players born between September and December. Interestingly, similar differences are observed when we evaluate performance records of our calf crops.