However, this effect has occurred more times in the field of team sports than in individual sports.
A RAE meta-analysis in 14 sports showed that the number of athletes born in the first quartile (Q1) of the year was greater than those born in the last quartile (Q4) with a minimum proportion of three born in Q1 to two born in Q4. The RAE has been demonstrated in numerous sports disciplines. This phenomenon, known as relative age effect (RAE), could cause that the athletes considered relatively older to have more opportunities to evolve in their sports career and, therefore, get better individual performances due to different factors: biological, social, geographical, etc. Therefore, this kind of sport policy seems not to respect the personal, individual and unique way that every athlete has to grow and evolve over the years.
This rule could cause a disadvantage (unequal sports development) for those born in the last months of the year due to the maturational age being obviated in the talent identification and development (TID) systems. who only found performance differences between genders at the beginning of a pistol training programme.Īccording to the ISSF rules and regulations, shooters are grouped in categories by chronological age (born after January 1).
However, these results contrast with those of Vučković et al. Moreover, policemen performed better than policewomen with guns, and men performed better with 9mm pistols than women. Contrary to these results, men performed better than women in other sports, and specifically in shooting, women fatigue more than men when firing with certain types of rifles. found no differences in military rifle shooting. Similarly, Goldschmied and Kowalczyk found no differences between gender in Olympic rifle events (air rifle and small-bore rifle), and Kemnitz et al. Regarding the shooting performance comparison between men and women, Mon-López, Tejero-González and Calero revealed that men obtain better results in pistol shooting than women however, there were no performance differences between men and women in rifle shooting. However, the need to investigate shooting performance in depth was discussed, not only to analyse global samples but to analyse the subsamples of a range of competition results as other authors have previously suggested. who concluded that the increase in shots did not mean a decrease in women’s sports performance. This change was analysed by Mon-López et al. Recently, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) has changed the shooting sport rules, matching the number of shots between men and women following the IOC committee advice regarding gender equality in sports. Consequently, the performance of precision events is measured by the championship sum of points, with the winner being the shooter who reaches the highest score. Minimum percentages of points/hits are the difference between success and failure for Olympic shooters. Shooting is a precision activity, which needs maximum levels of motor control to hit the target. Thousands of people practice shooting activities in the world as policemen, soldiers, shooters or hunters. Conclusions: The main conclusions of the study are: (1) the men’s pistol performance is better than the women’s even though RAE is not associated to the shooting score in any case (2) men and women performed equally in the general analysis, but their performances were different depending on category and event with no RAE influence. According to the birth trimester, no significant differences were found in the participant’s distribution, nor in performance in any case. Results: The results of the study indicated that men scored higher than women in pistol events and that no performance differences were found in rifle events when the whole group was compared. Performance was analysed by event (rifle and pistol), gender and category (junior and senior), together with RAE and six ranges of ranking positions. Method: The results of 704 shooters who participated in the most recent World Shooting Championship were compared. The main objectives of the study were to compare performances between gender and RAE in precision shooting events.
Moreover, gender performance differences depend on the sport. Background: The sport overrepresentation of early-born athletes within a selection year is called relative age effect (RAE).