Fairness in Sports: How BrainsFirst Tackles the Relative Age Effect and Discovers a Striking Cognitive Insight ⚽

It's a familiar sight in youth sports: the star players at a young age often don't end up being the ones who reach the top as adults. Why does this happen, and how can we make talent identification fairer and more effective? The answer often lies in what's known as the relative age effect.

The Problem with Early Physical Advantages

Coaches and scouts, especially in younger age groups, frequently gravitate towards players born earlier in the selection year. These players typically have a temporary physical edge – they're often bigger, stronger, and faster than their peers born later in the year. Unfortunately, this temporary physical dominance is often mistaken for genuine talent.

Selecting players based on early physical maturity overlooks "late bloomers" – individuals whose true potential emerges later. As young players grow, physical differences tend to even out, especially between the ages of 17 and 21. It's during this period that superior cognitive skills, or a strong "football brain," truly begin to shine through.

This "birth month effect" (geboortemaandeffect) has been extensively studied, even influencing a significant KNVB report that prompted academies to rethink their talent identification strategies. Yet, if you look closely, the lingering effects of age-based selection are still evident.

A BrainsFirst Discovery: The 'Cognitive Compensation Effect'

But now comes a striking insight.

BrainsFirst's historical data, collected from thousands of youth players, reveals a striking pattern: players born in the last quarter of the year (October to December) consistently outperform their earlier-born peers in all BrainsFirst "football brain" skills between the ages of 13 and 16. We call this phenomenon the Cognitive Compensation Effect.

Why does this happen?

When they are young, Q4 players are often smaller and not as strong as their older teammates. To stay competitive and keep up, these players compensate for their physical disadvantage by relying more on their intelligence — developing crucial skills like positional awareness, quick decision-making under pressure, and anticipating play. As these players mature, their physical differences even out, but the mental skills they developed earlier give them a significant competitive edge. This isn't to say Q4 players are inherently smarter; rather, their early physical disadvantage often pushes them to develop these crucial cognitive skills more robustly.

This previously unreported phenomenon, which we term the "Cognitive Compensation Effect", leaves us with an important message: solely focusing on physical attributes in youth players risks letting major talent slip through our fingers. We're currently exploring the positive and negative implications of this effect on decision-making, not just in sports but also in other fields like education, with our partners.

BrainsFirst: Revealing Lasting Potential

BrainsFirst offers a solution by measuring the core cognitive abilities essential for elite performance — independently of a player’s physical development. This approach helps clubs:

• Identify talent objectively: By looking past immediate physical advantages, clubs can spot the genuine potential of a "football brain."
• Discover hidden gems: It gives "late bloomers" a fair chance, helping them unlock their full potential.
• Promote transparency in sports: It ensures a more just selection process where talent is judged on inherent abilities, not just temporary physical strengths.

Ultimately, BrainsFirst empowers the sports world to look beyond the obvious and invest in players with the most promising and sustainable potential.