Effect of relative age on performance in physical tests of lower limb power and acceleration speed in young athletes of a social project

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to analyze the RAE in performance in physical tests of power of lower limbs and acceleration speed in male individuals of the sub-13 category of a social project. For this purpose, under-13 athletes from a social project in the city of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, were selected by convenience to participate in this study. Twenty-seven individuals were selected and separated into semesters of birth (first and second) or birth quartiles (first, second, third and fourth), according to their dates of birth. The individuals performed, on a single occasion, the horizontal impulsion and 15-meter running tests. Initially, the Chi-Square test was performed to compare the expected and observed distribution in the athletes' birth quartiles and semesters. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to verify data distribution. For data with normal distribution, the comparison between semesters was performed using Student's t test for independent samples. For comparison between quartiles, one-way analysis of variance was used. The distribution observed in semesters or quartiles was compared using the Chi-Square test. The results indicated that the EIR did not influence the physical performance in the horizontal jump and acceleration velocity tests in the evaluated athletes.