Adam L. Kelly, PhD, CSci, is a senior lecturer and course leader for sports coaching and physical education at Birmingham City University. He is a BASES Sport and Exercise Scientist and UEFA A Licenced coach. Broadly, his research interests explore organizational structures in youth sport to better understand the athlete development process and create more appropriate settings.

Jean Côté, PhD, is a professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University, Canada. He is internationally renowned for his research regarding the developmental and psychosocial factors that affect sport and physical activity performance and participation.

Mark Jeffreys, MRes, is the Director of Sport and Physical Activity at Birmingham City University. While at the University of Gloucestershire, he developed and led a range of sports coaching courses. He has also been active in developing structures for sports performance and has coached a range of regional and national teams.

Jennifer Turnnidge, PhD, is a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University, Canada. Her collection of research explores how coach-athlete and peer relationships can promote positive development in sport. Specifically, she examines how coaches' leadership behaviours can influence the quality of youth sport experiences.

Introduction

1. Introducing Birth Advantages and Relative Age Effects in Sport

Part 1: Setting the Stage: Conceptual and Methodological Foundations of Organizational Structures

2. Situating Birth Advantages Within the Youth Sport System

3. Organizational Structures in Sport: Methodological Considerations

4. Relative Age Effects in Rugby Union: A Narrative Review

Part 2: Organizational Structures: Group-banding Strategies in Youth Sport

5."Playing-up" in Youth Soccer

6. Birthday-banding in the England Squash Talent Pathway

7. The Average Team Age Method and its Potential to Reduce Relative Age Effects

8. Bio-banding in Youth Soccer: Considerations for Researchers and Practitioners

Part 3: Creating Appropriate Settings: The Role of Socio-environmental Factors

9. How Nature and Nurture Conspire to Influence Athletic Success

10. Relative Access to Wealth and Ethnicity in Professional Cricket

11.Parents' Roles in Creating Socio-environmental Birth Advantages for Their Children

12.Competitive Engineering in the Youth Sport Context: Theory, Practice, and Future Directions

Summary

13. Organizational Structures: Looking Back and Looking Ahead