Sunday, July 02, 2006
Why is it that youth teams consist of so many players that are born in the same months? Apparently, there is a very interesting answer to this question provided by Steve Levitt (Freakonomics). When the season starts there is a deadline to submission of player names. Apparently coaches are far more inclined to choose player that are say, 12.9 years of age as compared to 12.1 years. This inadvertently results in players born in certain months to be more likely to be chosen.
Here is the interesting bit, the additional amount of time that the players that are choosen has, about 11 or so months, is sufficient for them to be able to play far better than their counterparts who do not have the benefit of time. This leads to the conclusion that football like everything else is 1 part talent, 9 parts hard, tough work. This is a self reinforcing cycle, 11 months give you a headstart, join the youth team, with more specialized training and perhaps in 5, 6 years, you will become Zizou or Ronaldo or Beckham.
Of course this is a horrible simplification of reality, and to some extent trivializes the ability of best players in the world. But we should all take heart that hard work at the start, can lead you on a road that you never hoped to dream about.
Till then, enjoy the World Cup. (This blog is hoping that Germany will win. Screw off Brazil.)
2:19 AM
