The Long-Term Athletic Development (LTAD) Model is basically a set up guidelines for the preparation of athletes starting from a very young age all the way up to elite competition.
In a guest blog article a week ago, Strength Coach Carson Boddicker wrote about this model and broke down the tasks that apply to each age group.
I wanted to lie out each phase and give parents and coaches some specific bullet points to think about with regard to the development of their young athlete.
FUNdamentals
- Boys 6-9/Girls 6-8
- Emphasis on learning fundamental movement skills.
- Training and activities should be FUN and concentrate on the ABC’s (Agility, Balance and Coordination).
- There should be NO specialization in a specific sport and the children should be encouraged to participate in many different sports and activities in order to be well-rounded athletes in the future.
- There is a low emphasis on competition at this age, and a greater emphasis on learning the playing and learning the rules of the game.
Learn To Train
- Boys 9-12/Girls 8-11
- The emphasis in this stage is to learn basic sports skills (while the emphasis in the FUNdamental stage was to learn basic movement skills).
- Refrain from specializing in one single sport during this time period.
- Athletes should be forced to learn how to compete, and not learn how to win in this stage. For that reason, focus the majority of the work on practice (60-70%) and a small amount of the work on actual competition (30-40%).
- Children should be encouraged to participate in general conditioning which may include endurance and flexibility work, as well as basic body weight exercises and movements.
Train To Train
- Boys 12-16/Girls 11-15
- Athletes start to develop more specific sports skills.
- Depending on where the athletes are in their maturation process, the emphasis on aerobic and strength training can be more of a focus in this phase.
- Athletes should focus on practices, which are specific to their sport 60% of the time and compete in the actual sport 40% of the time.
- Periodization should be used to help the athletes develop their sports-specific skills
Train To Compete
- Boys 16-18/Females 15-17
- Athletes may now choose to specialize in a specific sport.
- Training becomes a year round focus and should be individualized to the athletes needs, sport and position.
- Athletes are now proficient in basic movement patterns and sports-specific movement patterns and are now ready to try and use those movement patterns in intense competitive environments.
- Competition becomes more of a focus (60%) while training is geared more towards technical preparation (40%).
- Periodization becomes an important aspect of training and athletes should have various periods of down time, to allow for recovery from the competitive season and to focus on aspects of strength, power, work capacity and performance that may need refining.
Train To Win
- Males 19 and older/Females 18 and older
- This is the elite stage of development, where athletes are completely focused on sports preparation and competition.
- Periodization is critical in this stage to ensure the athletes development; however, breaks should be planned into the program to prevent injury or physical and mental burnout.
Conclusions
Hopefully the LTAD model gives you some things to think about with regard to your children or athletes. I often wonder how many people are thinking about this model when they are coaching young kids.
The other day I saw a man coaching practice for a pee-wee football team. The children where probably not older than the age of 7 (FUNdamentals stage) and he was teaching them some blocking drills and shouting at them. He proceeded to then tell one of the kids how his blocking abilities where the “worst thing he had ever seen”. I have two questions:
- Who allowed this man to coach kids?
- Even though he is probably the parent of one of the kids, what qualifies this man to be a coach? Clearly he doesn’t understand the process lied out above, and clearly he should not be in charge of teaching kids about sports and competition.
Another thing I will say about this model is that parents and coaches need to realize that you can’t skip steps! Each stage is built on the one before it. If you have junior high or freshman athletes who have not learned basic fundamentals, have not developed basic sports skills, and have not developed an appropriate level of fitness, then they are not ready for the next level! They can’t simply jump into the Train To Train phase because they are not ready for it. So, they need to start with the basics and progress from there.
Finally, not every high school athlete is going to reach the elite status. If your child or athlete does not have an interest in attaining sports mastery, you should not force it on them. In the Train To Compete phase, when athletes are thinking about specializing in one sport, those who have no interest at moving onto the next level should remain in recreational sports and enjoy the level of fitness they have developed. It is this level of fitness that they can carry with them through out their entire lives, remaining healthy and active.