Performance of Older vs. Younger Siblings
I just came across a very interesting research study that compared hitting and pitching records and career lengths of 312 sets of brothers who become major league baseball players.
Researchers found out that older siblings at non-pitching positions had signficantly higher batting averages and longer career than their younger siblings. However, the differences for pitchers were not statistically signifiant.
These results corroborates other studies that have shown that first borns are more likely than later born siblings to be higher achievers.
In the case of pitching, the authors think that many different factors may be operative for pitchers.
I would be really curious to learn more about the reasons why first borns are more likely to be dominant players and have longer careers.
Any ideas? Feel free to comment below.
Reference:
Abel EL, Kruger ML. Performance of older versus younger brothers: data from major league baseball. Percept Mot Skills. 2007 Dec:105(3 Pt 2):1117-8.
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Comments on Performance of Older vs. Younger Siblings »
That's interesting because I would have guessed just the opposite. I know my youngest is the better athlete and just about every sibling combination I can think of is usually like that. I think the younger one learns by osmosis, just being there.
That's interesting because I would have guessed just the opposite. I know my youngest is the better athlete and just about every sibling combination I can think of is usually like that. I think the younger one learns by osmosis, just being there.
BTW I love your blog!
Hmmm - my experience is just the opposite as well, but I've only paid attention to 10U at this point. It is clear way down in T-Ball who has an older sibling - these kids have been watching their older brother/sister play for years, and they are anxious to be part of the action, and they have a much better grasp of the rules and the game. They tend to start playing ball at a younger age, and at 10U their added experience is readily apparent. I've seen plenty of girls not start playing at all till age 10, but none of those girls have older siblings. The ones that do have older siblings start playing much much sooner.
This is pretty irrelevant, though, when you start looking at players good enough to play major league ball. You're in a different world there, and starting a couple of years sooner probably makes no difference at all. Having an experience advantage at 10U and being a terrific player long after puberty kicks in are wildly different things.
If I had to pull a couple of theories on "why the older sibling do better" out of thin air, these are two that come to mind - 1) The older sibling probably got more one-on-one attention, and lots of Dads favor their firstborn over subsequent kids forever. There's money for lessons for the first one, and that fades away for kid two, three, four, etc. More kids mean more divided attention and more divided resources. 2) There might be an actual physical difference that shows up in the kids. Certainly women are far more likely to have a child with Down's syndrome when they are in their forties. Mom (and Mom's eggs) and Dad are healthier and so are their children when they are younger. Perhaps kids of younger parents might be more likely to be physically superior to kids born later? It's a wild guess, but worth thinking about.
Doyle,
I was discussing something similar w/ a friend of mine just last night. We were debating the true advantages of travel ball at the younger ages. I think that playing in the younger ages gets them to their potential much faster, but by the time they reach high school they often get surpassed by those with greater athletic ability.
My opinion is you let the girls play as much as they want to but don't force them. All of our stars have become starters for their high school teams. They would have whether they played travel ball or not, they simply had that much talent.
Of course, the elite group needs to be showcased, but in general, I think maybe taking Sundays off and going to the beach w/ the kids might be a better way to go at younger ages. I have been thinking a lot about this lately as my youngest is on a 9U team and has time for nothing else really. He is kind of burning out already.
I agree with your last sentiment. We've talked some about playing travel ball, but at this point the whole family is happy with the 30-some rec league games per year plus a few all star tournaments.
We have a house at a lake nearby, and I can assure you of one thing - if in the summer I said to my family, "Hey, no company at the lake this weekend, no jet-skiing, no wake boarding, no playing on the trampoline, and no cookout. We're gonna be playing softball games numbers 130-136 of the season this weekend - sorry", there would be a revolution at the house.
Luckily for me I'm not that gung-ho about it, so we will all be out there with the friends and neighbors, barbecuing and relaxing. Kids have plenty of pressure to grow up too fast already - I'm not adding to at.
Thanks for your comments guys. Very interesting.