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Long term athletic development (LTAD) is the planned, systematic, and progressive of individual athletes.
Gimmicks seen on social media drive the narrative that if you don’t win now, that there is not chance. This strongly influences parents with their kids athletic development to a point where professionals do not have much flexibility in the private sector but to bend the knee to their demands.
My 5 accurate points with long term athlete athletic development serve as a compass and guide for parents, coaches, athletes, and any practitioner under the umbrella to reinforce as part of their message and practice. Long term athletic development has been shown to reduce the likelihood of injuries, improve performance across multi-sport athletes, and build environments where athletes can prosper at a pace that matches their physical and mental stages. Thinking about long term athletic development as a process that ensures on a greater return on investment is the priority of my message, but specifically I will drive home the following key points.
- Winning now will not guarantee winning in the future
- Understanding where the athlete is in their maturation
- Life is a blender
- Master how to ride the wave
- “Every body” is not like everybody
Winning Now Will Not Guarantee Winning In The Future
The emphasis of the long term development model is exactly that: long-term. If your child is eight years old and maybe stands out from the rest of their peers and competition from their size, it’s beneficial in the moment. Their peers and competition will hit their own puberty stages where their limbs will grow, gain weight, strength, and other physiological traits. Now all of a sudden, the game speed, players, and level of competition has matched up.
There should be no panic if a long term development model has been implemented. Winning is fun, but to expect natural talent to beat hard work and consistency is a fools dream. A long term development model focus on both a physical, technical, tactical, and psychological progression model where the road best traveled is long and slow rather than fast and bumpy.
Understanding Where The Athlete Is In Their Maturation
If you’re a parent or coach, you need to understand that in long term athletic development, there is no rush. There are different skills and attributes that should be practiced and built in each stage of maturation. Understanding where the athlete is in their puberity and what physiological changes they experience is critical in how successful they can be with both their training and competition.
Exercise selection and training volume needs to be at the forefront of long term athletic development. The training density and complexity that a professional athlete at the national or international scale is way too much for a child or young teen to handle. Bones, tendons, ligaments, and muscles are require development and mastery from internal and external pathways.
Life is a Blender
The occupation of a professional athlete is their sport, until that time comes: your athlete has a lot of responsibilities and stressors. Long term athletic development has to to assess the stressors in life not only in the training session, but the overall training program. Cohesion at home, relationships with parents and coaches, socio-economic status, lifestyle choices, time spent with friends, time spent at sport practices, school, tests, stages of puberty, and overall maturation as a person all account for how a person performs.
If an athlete demonstrates frustration from too much stress happening outside a training session, recognize it and adjust the training volume, exercise, or your communication. The greatest value a trainer or coach can have is the quality of intraspection; stepping out of their shoes and into someone else’s in an attempt to sympathize and connect with their athlete or client. In long term athleteic development, you’ll find many opportunities to influence behavior and build consistency.
Master How to “Ride the Wave”
Long term athletic development is a rollercoaster where as a trainer, coach, or parent, you need to master how to “ride the wave.” In surfing, you not only have to be patient, but you also have to learn how to read the current and catch the right moment to paddle out and catch the break that will give you a good ride. Long term athletic development is just like that: finding the right grooves, adjustments, exercises, progressions, communication style, and breakthroughs with your athlete.
Some athletes will respond better to more stressful environments, or firm coaching tones, or need more of a mentor role rather than a superior in their long term athletic development. The ups and downs will come from when they win or lose against their competition, but the biggest message you need to send is that regardless of the outcome, there is always the next one. The only way we learn is to lose or to have difficulty as part of acquiring new skills and abilities: there will be tough days and there will be days where everything clicks – be patient.
“Every body” is Not Like Everybody
It was elluded to in my previous truth behind long term athletic development, but not everyone is built the same. Age, gender, femur lengths, foot sizes, the construction of your hips, injury history, technical profficiencies, aerobic capacities, and other physiological characteristics differentiate all of us. Trying to treat each athlete and expecting each athlete to perform exactly the same is foolish. The factors that fall into that blender, also mentioned earlier, contribute into each athlete’s performance.
Many athletes require some of the same mtoro qualities across the board. The NSCA mentions qualities such as mobility, stability, endurance, coordination, reaction time, strength, power, and techincal proficiency as being priorities. The routes each athlete takes in their long term athletic development can look similar but may require different pathways. Be mindful of this specific truth and you’ll avoid pitfalls such as injuries and lowered motivation from built up frustration.
Conclusion
Overall the long term athletic development model is simply a guide. The truths I’ve laid out should serve as a reality check to parents, coaches, and older teen athletes looking to gain greater understanding. Some of this stuff makes sense when you think about it, but our ego, arrogance, narcissism, and blindness gets in the way. If you’re looking for some more insight into some of the goals and expectaitons in long term athletic development, check out my conversation and podcast episode on Parenting Aces.