Long Term Athletic Development

Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD)... What is it & how does it work?

LTAD is a process by which we slowly develop athletes throughout the stages of their physical & mental growth. Initially, children learn to encorperate daily activity (play) into their lives, slowly learning motor skills & increasing their physical literacy. Over time intructors & coaches integrate fundamental movement patterns (run, squat, lunge, throw, jump, catch, cut/COD, etc.) that can be used in various sporting environments. As young athletes begin to find sports they enjoy and excel at, they begin to train sport skills using their movement skills as a foundation for sport skills. Eventually, athletes trim the sports or physical activities they participate in down to only 1 or 2 sports, however they utilize as many of the movement & sport skills taught to them previously to help them achieve success at their chosen sport. At this point, formal training of one specific sport usually occurs with the athlete training sport skills for as many as 10-20 hours each week. The LTAD Model also provides us with stages for elite athlete & for life after competitive sports. This is a process that takes place over 20+ years.

What makes the LTAD or multi-sport system superior to single sport training?

I believe the biggest factors are the decreased chance of burnout & a larger, stronger foundation of coordination & physical literacy. By participating in a multitude of sports & activities during youth, one can gain movement skills from various sports that require different patterns & strategies of movement to help them succeed. These patterns & strategies can then be incorperated in to different sports & sporting situations to further the process of learning & understanding what movements are more efficient & optimal for each situation. This variety also allows youth athletes to get a break from each sport, try out new sports or activities, develop new skills & strategies, so that they may return fresh, invigorated & ready for the upcoming season.

However, this model clashes with the business of sport, wherein organizations want to keep your young athlete within their program without providing any variation to physical training, physical literacy skills taught & mental skills practiced.

The last thing we want is to burn an young athlete out so that they do not want to play any sports, even for a short period of time. Taking time off from sport & training during these youth & early adolesent years may mean we miss some optimal cycles in which to load the athletes. During these late youth & early adolesent years athletes grow, develop & their bodies change; these are some of the best times to work on skills like speed, power, strength & flexibility. During these phases, young athletes are adaptable to change and therefore can take more load & recover equally as well, giving coaches a window to enhance an athletes general fitness traits.

I wouldn't have such a problem with a single sport model if every organization/team/individual also was provided a strength & conditioning coach who could work with them on balancing out their body, grooving movement mechanics, building a foundation of strength & nurturing mental skills, especially during the offseason. However, this is often not the case; lacrosse players practicing & competing without having learned how to sprint or change directions properly, volleyball players not being able to produce an optimal take off or landing position while jumping... All these issues lead to a higher chance of injury, especially with high repetition.

Speaking of offseasons, many sports no longer even have them, even at youth & adolescent age groups; this is again due to the business of sport(s). When I worked with a midget AAA hockey organization, one the biggest complaints I heard from the coaches was in regards to the poor habits the athletes had picked up playing summer hockey, something I had no idea that even existed at the time. Not taking time off from the sport led many athletes to come back with not only both poor sport skills & strategies they had developed over the summer but also poor strength & flexibility as they had not taken the time to work on these weaknesses during their offseason.

As a sport coach myself, I like to think of the LTAD model as an individual season or macrocycle. During the first part of a season (preseason) we work on general movement skills, conditioning, strength; not only in the wrestling room but also in the weight room. This process can take differing amount of times depending on the makeup of your team but focusing in on these general abilities early often pays off in the end even if it means early season struggles.

We then move into coaching sport skills that utilize the preseason general skills we have practiced (early season). Next, we begin to move into the competition portion of our season which means about 6 tournaments over 3 months. During this time we continue to teach sport skills that we need as a foundation to have success as well as some individualized &/or situation specific skills & strategies throughout the competition season. Meanwhile, in the weight room we are using strategies to continue to build up our work capacity, increase speed & power, while providing rehab for the inevitable bump & bruises incurred over the course of an athletic season.

Lastly comes the championship season; 2 major tournaments 2 weeks apart. In build up to these events we really crank up the intensity & provide more rest & recovery. We do this to keep our aerobic capacity high while using anaerobic methods to do so; think of it as speed & power maintenance. We also provide a larger amount of individualized workouts & sport skills sessions as we know who we are competing against, & are therefore planning accordingly.

Then we compete at Western Championships followed by University Nationals.

Now follow along...

LTAD Stage = Individual Season Stage/Macrocycle

Play = Offseason

Learn to Train = Pre Season

Train to Train = Early Season

Train to Compete = Mid Season

Compete to Win = Championship Season

I'll admit, its not a perfect analogy, but it does simplify things; the LTAD model is simple the biggest training macrocycle you've ever seen.

Simply put, the LTAD allows for the acquisition of more physical & mental skills that can then be utilized for a singular purpose somewhere down the road, all the while, reducing the chances of repetitive stress injuries & strengthening our athletes in multiple planes & movements.

Of course, as I acquire more knowledge & information on this topic my thoughts & opinions about the LTAD are likely to grow & change, & I reserve the right to do so. Don't want to get stuck with any thought process too long, reducing my chances at learning & evolving.