Individual achievement in sport is often constrained by an athlete’s age relative to the peers with whom they participate. A common practice within sport and educational domains is to group youth based on their chronological ages to help promote equal competition, age appropriate instruction, and ensure participant safety. While well intended, such grouping practices can often advantage relatively older children, while disadvantaging those who are relatively younger within the same age cohort. These phenomena are known as Relative Age Effects (RAEs). Relative Age Effects in Sport: International Perspectives includes chapters from internationally recognized scholars who have examined RAEs from different perspectives (e.g., sport, mental health and wellbeing, youth development). This new volume assists in communicating and mobilizing knowledge and research about RAEs, focusing on developing feasible and attractive solutions that capture the attention of practitioners and policy makers from sport governing bodies and creating a resource that is accessible to professionals within the sport and academic communities. Relative Age Effects in Sport: International Perspectives is key reading for academics and researchers in the fields of athlete development, talent identification, coaching education, health and wellbeing, mental health and related disciplines, whilst also of interest to sport industry professionals such as coaches and policy makers.

Relative age effects (RAEs) refer to the participation, selection, and attainment inequalities in the immediate, short-term, and long-term in sports. Indeed, dozens of studies have identified RAEs across male and female sporting contexts. Despite its widespread prevalence, there is a paucity in the empirical research and practical application of strategies specifically designed to moderate RAEs. Thus, the purpose of this book is to situate RAEs in the context of youth sport structures, lay foundational knowledge concerning the mechanisms that underpin RAEs, and offer alternative group banding strategies aimed at moderating RAEs. In order to enhance our knowledge on birth advantages and RAEs to create more appropriate settings, key stakeholders, such as coaches, practitioners, administrators, policy makers, and researchers, are required to understand the possible influence of and interaction between birthplace, engagement in activities, ethnicity, genetic profile, parents, socioeconomic status, and relative age. Thus, in addition to RAEs and alternative group banding strategies, Birth Advantages and Relative Age Effects in Sport also examines the role of additional birth advantages and socio-environmental factors that young athletes may experience in organized youth sport. Drawing from both empirical research and practical examples, this book comprises three parts: (a) organizational structures, (b) group banding strategies, and (c) socio-environmental factors. Overall, this book broadens our understanding of the methodological, contextual, and practical considerations within organizational structures in sport to create more appropriate settings, and strive to make positive, impactful change to lived youth sport experiences. This book will be of vital reading to academics, researchers, and key stakeholders of sports coaching, athlete development, and youth sport, as well as other related disciplines.

The modern day youth sports environment has taken the enjoyment out of athletics for our children. Currently, 70% of kids drop out of organized sports by the age of 13, which has given rise to a generation of overweight, unhealthy young adults. There is a solution. John O’Sullivan shares the secrets of the coaches and parents who have not only raised elite athletes, but have done so by creating an environment that promotes positive core values and teaches life lessons instead of focusing on wins and losses, scholarships, and professional aspirations. Changing the Game gives adults a new paradigm and a game plan for raising happy, high performing children, and provides a national call to action to return youth sports to our kids.

THE SECRETS OF SUPERHUMAN PERFORMANCE Never have the best sportspeople seemed so far removed from the rest of us, their prowess so unfathomable. So how are these extraordinary athletes made? THE BEST reveals how the most incredible sportspeople in the world get to the top and stay there. It is a unique look at the path to sporting greatness; a story of origins, practice, genetics and psychology. Packed with gripping personal stories and interviews with top athletes including Elena Delle Donne, Pete Sampras, Joey Votto, Steph Curry, Kurt Warner and Premier League superstars Marcus Rashford and Jamie Carragher, it explains how the best athletes develop the extraordinary skills that allow them to perform remarkable feats under extreme pressure. THE BEST uncovers startling truths of athletic greatness-including why younger siblings have more chance of becoming elite, which towns produce the most superstars, the role of informal play and the best time to be born in the school year. It goes inside the minds of champions to understand what makes them perform during high-octane competition, how to hit a baseball or tennis ball in under 0.5 seconds, the secrets of how the best train and what makes a great leader. The book appeals to all lovers of sport, anyone with an interest in psychology and excellence, the parents of budding athletes, and fans of books like Freakonomics, Outliers and Range. It is a deconstruction of what it takes to be the best-and how we can all improve in sport and beyond.

Identifying talent in athletes and developing that ability to its fullest potential is a central concern of sport scientists, sports coaches and sports policy makers. This book offers a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge in talent identification and development in sport, from the biological basis of ability to the systems and processes within sport through which that ability is nurtured. Written by a team of leading international experts, the book explores key factors and issues in contemporary sport, including: genetics secondary factors such as birth date, cultural context and population size perceptual motor skill acquisition and expertise sports development policy in-depth case studies, including European soccer, East African running and US pro sports. With an emphasis throughout on practical implications and processes for all those working in sport, the book offers an authoritative evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary systems for identifying and developing talent in sport. This is important reading for any student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in skill acquisition, youth sport, elite sport, sports coaching or sports development.

This book gathers papers presented at the 2019 Movement, Health & Exercise (MoHE) Conference and International Sports Science Conference (ISSC). The theme of this year’s conference was "Enhancing Health and Sports Performance by Design". The content covers (but is not limited to) the following topics: exercise science; human performance; physical activity & health; sports medicine; sports nutrition; management & sports studies; and sports engineering & technology.