A Study Of The Relative Age Effect On The Athletic Performance Of Junior Table Tennis Players

The reason why Chinese table tennis has been able to continue its glory and longevity,standing at the top of the world for a long time,cannot be separated from the inheritance of skills from generation to generation,bringing the old to the new again and again.In recent years,the Chinese Table Tennis Association（CTTA）has started to hold the National Youth National Junior Selection Tournament,which is an open competition for the community,schools,clubs and individuals to select outstanding reserve talents,and is an important initiative of the Chinese Association of Table Tennis to discover,cultivate and consolidate reserve talents.This reflects in a certain sense that the current development of competitive sports in China attaches great importance to the cultivation of outstanding athletes,they provide an important guarantee for the injection of fresh blood into China’s table tennis team,ensuring a virtuous cycle of alternation between old and new athletes and fully promoting the comprehensive,coordinated and sustainable development of China’s table tennis career.Currently,China’s youth and children’s table tennis tournaments are mainly divided into age groups to ensure fair competition among athletes in the tournament,but even if athletes born in the same year are placed in the same age group,there is also an age difference of up to 12 months,with relatively earlier born athletes having better physical and cognitive abilities,and this effect often occurs in the youth and children athletes’ early developmental process.Therefore,how to comprehensively and objectively assess the influence of relative age effect in the process of reserve talent development requires table tennis coaches to combine the actual scientific selection to achieve a good and accurate selection of seedlings.In this paper,the literature method,expert interview method,mathematical and statistical method,and comparative analysis method are used to investigate the influence of relative age effect on the sports performance of junior table tennis players,and the results of the study are as follows.（1）The distribution of birth months of the athletes in the 2019-2021 Hubei Junior Table Tennis Championships had the highest percentage of players born in the first quarter,especially the highest number of people born in January,and the distribution of numbers between different quarters had highly significant differences（p<0.01）,which indicated the relative age effect among junior table tennis players.（2）The month of birth of the best athletes in the National Youth National Junior Table Tennis Training Team and the Hubei Junior Table Tennis Championships was significantly skewed in the first quarter,and the chi-square test was performed on the above two sets of data,and it was found that the distribution of the number of athletes in different quarters and months had statistically significant differences（p<0.01）,the relative age of the junior table tennis players and the competition performance had a significant correlation.In terms of gender,male players were more significantly affected by the relative age effect.（3）A univariate correlation analysis of the physical fitness scores of athletes in different age groups in the Hubei Junior Table Tennis Championship revealed that the physical fitness scores of male and female athletes in younger age groups were significantly affected by the relative age effect（p<0.05）,while at higher age levels,there was no significant difference in the physical fitness scores of athletes born in different quarters（p>0.05）.（4）By analyzing the onset of the relative age effect phenomenon in junior table tennis players,it was found that the relative age effect began to be more pronounced in junior table tennis players at the age of 7-8 years,with male players being more significantly affected by the relative age effect.（5）By analyzing the relative age characteristics of junior table tennis players in different age groups,it was found that the relative age effect on the performance of the players tapered off as they grew older.（6）Suggestions were made for the age grouping of junior children’s games at the grassroots level and the early selection of table tennis players.