SolemnLoon
SolemnLoon t1_iynmqlr wrote
Reply to comment by unblockablemid in [OC] Birth months of FIFA World Cup players. The top three are January, February and March, possibly due to the "Relative age effect" by desfirsit
Yep... I loved that chapter. If the sports leagues are really interested in finding the best players regardless of birthdates, they could do a sliding cutoff that changes 3-6 months every year.
That way the "January" kids would sometimes be the oldest in their group, and would sometimes be the youngest. Depending on how they did it, a kid might either spend two seasons in one age group, or skip an age group altogether.
SolemnLoon t1_iynm9ng wrote
Reply to comment by Anachronism-- in [OC] Birth months of FIFA World Cup players. The top three are January, February and March, possibly due to the "Relative age effect" by desfirsit
It would be easy to enough to adjust for birth year. Instead of just birth month, it would be number of months older than the minimum.
For instance, someone who turns 17 on Sep 1 of their senior year (12th grade) would be considered "0 months" old. The typical range would be 0-12 months if everyone was born in that year, but someone who was held back and turned 18 two months before their senior year started would be "14 months". Your range might be as much as 0-24 instead of 0-12.
SolemnLoon t1_iyo8xun wrote
Reply to comment by timbasile in [OC] Birth months of FIFA World Cup players. The top three are January, February and March, possibly due to the "Relative age effect" by desfirsit
Ahh, that works. And you're right that it's much easier in a solo sport than a team sport. It'd be tough on a coach if every time a kid had a birthday, he moved on to the next team.