[Football] Enock Mwepu & The Relative Age Effect

[Bakero]

In Belgium, to counteract the relative age effect, they run a second group of youth internationals made up of players born later in the year. Yannick Carrasco is said to be one of the beneficiaries of this system.

 

[BNthree]

In pre-covid times academies would do some (not lots admittedly) age banded training where kids of same birth year train together. Mainly to prepare them for European tournaments as English teams in a European kids tournament are nearly always the youngest kids there.

 

[zefarelly]

I share a birthday with Pele. Sadly I am a lousy footballer.


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I share a birthday with one James William Thomas Hill

I am a lousy footballer too.

 

[schmunk]

I share a birthday with one James William Thomas Hill

I am a lousy footballer too.

Chinny reckon

 

[zefarelly]

Chinny reckon

Itchy Beard?

 

[AZ Gull]

I was born 2nd September. Tony Geerts, known to many on NSC called me grandad at Patcham Juniors, not a jolly school nickname I enjoyed. Worse still, expectations were higher than for other kids despite me having no more education than the youngest in the year. Yes, still annoys me more than half a century later!

And opposite end of the scale I was born very end of August so was youngest in my year in every school year I was in. Was expected to be achieving the same things as kids up to pretty much a year older than me. If only I was born a few hours later I'd have had a whole year longer before starting school!

I was born on September 1. I was a pretty bright child, and somehow or other my parents were able to get me in to the year above, so I went through my entire schooling as the youngest in my year (when I should have been the oldest in the year below).

 

[MJsGhost]

I was born on September 1. I was a pretty bright child, and somehow or other my parents were able to get me in to the year above, so I went through my entire schooling as the youngest in my year (when I should have been the oldest in the year below).

Your parents obviously fancied getting shot of you a year early!

My missus' birthday is 29th of August - she was also 8 weeks premature and only 3lb 9oz, so had a lot of catching up to do. Academically she's a whizz, though has always been SHIT a sport (except ballet, but that's not a sport is it).

I'm also late in the school year - had I arrived on time, my birthday would have been at the end of August too, but I was 3 weeks early. I did well enough academically, but probably not as well as I should - I tended to play the joker (childish, moi?!) which is probably explained by being younger than most of my peers. I was also the youngest of three, but with 2 older sisters, didn't have the advantage of being toughened up playing sport with older brothers. I'd be interested to see if there's any pattern to sporting achievement and the existence of older siblings of the same sex to compete against at home.

Back to the OP's topic, it makes a lot of sense when you think of the difference almost a year's development (physical and cognitive) at age 4 or 5 when entering the education system. The personality (and class 'role') they form early on can shape their behaviour and personality for the rest of their life. The older kids (on average) get used to winning at stuff and are more likely to see sport as a thing to really compete in and try to (expect to?) win.

I'd say that a lot of the drop-outs at professional level that occur around the transition from youth to men's football are down to early physical advantages being wiped out. Suddenly the advantages they enjoyed over slow-developers of the same age, or younger lads in the same age group are no longer available and their technical and tactical development may have been held back because they found it easy to use their size instead.

Mind you, I'm probably thinking of more old-school coaching methods and reliance on full-size practice matches rather than the more modern skill drills & games and small-sided games that focus on skill rather than a 10 year old being able to launch a size 5 further than everyone else like in the old days...

More importantly, why am I musing on all this when there's beer to be drunk and a semi final to think about?

 

[Southern Scouse]

So… have we signed this Enoch fella or is this a random chat about ageism? I feels a “Rivers of blood” speech coming on.

 

[Badger Boy]

I don't really understand this thread. Are we suggesting that Enock was NOT born on January 1st?