Athlete Development…
You hear that a lot,
In magazines, books, on TV.
But what does it really mean?
Does it mean sh@tty power cleans?
just skip to 1:50 or so…
Gasser’s after football practice? <——cause you routinely run 100 yards in a fatigued state during football games.
Pitchers running 5 miles the day after pitching?
Nearly year-long, soccer, baseball, hockey……
Do these things “develop” the athlete?
Does the athlete end up better/ neutral or worse after these things?
Or are they a constant test of where the athlete already is?
This is How We Do It…….a Tribute To Montell Jordan
Kid plays sport
Kid shows a glimpse of aptitude in sport
Kid plays on multiple teams in multiple leagues and travel teams on the weekends
Kid’s skills become better than most kids his age 8-14 yrs old <——which isn’t much of a feat….sorry, it’s just not.
Uneducated Coaches, parents, spectators etc.. begin to use the words promise and potential and future in reference to said child and his/ her sporting aptitude.
Some even go as far as to describe child as “Elite“<——further demonstrating their ignorance.
Don’t think that’s ignorance?
The kid who scores 3 goals a game for his 12 an under team at the JCC?
See how this works….
Elite Means Something:
….as the Soviets put it.
The classification of Master of Sport (elite status) is bestowed only upon those athletes who have achieved at the very least a provincial championship.- I read this in one of my translated Russian texts
So to be elite, you had better be playing your sport at least at the professional, and perhaps D1 collegiate level in the United States. <—–I would say there are a few exceptions here, but you get the point, I hope.
Anything, at any other time is something less than Elite.
So little Johnny is just really good for a 12-year-old.
And this is why our system of athlete development is:
Terrible..
There is no system.
When (to no fault of their own) parents and coaches think Little Buck-a-Roo is the next Pele, they don’t understand biological development, growth, physiology, psychology, sport skill development and the interplay of those on a young athlete child.
They understand doing more of the same.
More games, per week, per day, per month, per year.
And they better follow the “conditioning” program that the current (insert champion in said sport) team follows.
Cause kids, after-all, are just little adults.
More games means more development means little Johnny will:
Be head of the class
popular
Be a quarter back
popular
His mom says he’s a catch
he’s popular
He’s never last picked
He’s got a cheerleader chick
He’ll get a scholarship,
play in the Olympics, drive a Corvette (with the top down and wind blowing through his perfectly quaffed hair) date many supermodels before marrying an actress who is in Maxim’s Hot 100 and allow you to live vicariously through himself.
This is more likely little John -Johns fate
Go ahead, pat yourself on the back as being all around awesome and producing such a fine physical specimen.
Or it could all go Todd and Marv Marinovich on you.
But that’s only what usually happens…..
Lil-Buck-A-Roo only usually burns out…
Only usually eventually breaks
Only usually quits the sport before highschool.
This is the problem with the Survivor System:
Too often we break our athletes long before they ever get a chance to develop into elite.
We throw all our athletes to the wolves (the constant grind of games and competition) and the ones that make it out are our “elite athletes”.
No one ever asks:
How many did we lose along the way?
Why do we think all “elite” athletes develop, recover and adapt at the same rate?
Some guys play in the NFL for 10-15 years..
The average career is around 3.5.
Some guys pitch 200 plus innings throwing 90+mph for decades (Nolan Ryan, that’s who).
While Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Brandon Webb all talented young pitchers…who blew their arms out and never lived up to expectations.
What’s the difference?
“First of all, one of the biggest reasons for all the arm injuries in baseball today is the way young kids are handled by their coaches in grade school and high school, pitching them year-round,” said John by phone from his home in Syracuse. “They’re told if they want to make it, they have to play travel ball — and that results in the over-use of their arms when they’re body is not fully developed. Travel ball has taken over the entire country and parents need to be educated about what this does to these kids’ arms.” – Bill Madden
How Can We Change This:
Scientific research concludes that it takes 8 – 12 years of training for a talented athlete to reach elite level – Larry meadors Ph.D
Grit is Important:
“If a kids had nothing but ice-cream their whole life we gotta mix in a little shit.”– Mike Boyle
Put Better Coaches at the Beginning Stages of Development:
Proper technique and skill development must be taught and supervised by informed and experienced coaches. Also, youth coaches should be educated and qualified to the highest standard and work in an environment that is appropriately managed. At present, the best coaches work with the most advanced athletes while volunteers coach the most critical areas during critical periods of development. Often, the focus of programs and coaches is to promote winning rather than developing proper technical and tactical skills.-Meadors
Play Multiple Sports Until At Least Early High School:
No 14-year-old should be playing 100 baseball, soccer or any sport games in a year.
But a 100 games total of: lacrosse, basketball, baseball and swimming?
That’s a LOT of motor patterns and skills being worked on.
The more skills you have (think actual GPP/ elastic nervous system) the better.
The more elastic your nervous system the more it can bend, stretch, grow and mold new patterns into improved skills.
Mandatory P.E.
Cause that stuff isn’t important.
Yep, in high school, some of the girls will sit on the bleachers and gossip.
Some of the guys would rather go hang out in the computer lab…
I get it.
But that’s not reason enough to cut these programs.
Building movement skills from a very early age is important.
P.E. That Doesn’t Suck:
One of the issues with government-run school based P.E. and why you get so many kids who are disinterested is because it sucks.
Individuals with limited sports and movement skills often stop participating. In turn, this neglect often leads to a decreased interest in any type of physical activity. The result is a failure to learn or develop physical literacy, or proper athletic movement in a sequential and progressive manner. A sedentary lifestyle then follows.- Meadors
It’s often taught by people who have more knowledge about “teaching” than about instructing movement.
Coaches at all levels must be trained and supported so proper skills can be taught, and corrections, if necessary, can be made. – Meadors
So we spend 4 weeks on this sport and 4 weeks on this sport and the next month amounts to:
“Let’s ahhhhh, warmup, stretch it out and we’ll get the basketballs out and shoot around”- High School Gym Teacher
Awesome..
No wonder half the class wants out of gym class.
Development not Competition:
We all know that not keeping score with 10 year old’s is fundamentally stupid…..
cause the kids know who won.
They’re small, not stupid.
But the FOCUS should not be on the score and the winning but instead, I don’t know, getting better, developing skills.
Yeah, you may lose the 10U championship….
Peyton Manning lost the SuperBowl…
By a lot.
And he got over it….
He’s been working his whole LIFE perfecting his game, working on his skills, sacrificing a “normal” life to get there and win that game.
Little Johnny’s been kicking a ball around for 3 years now and his favorite part of the game is when he gets pizza and an ice cream cone afterwards….
Get the point?
We need to focus on development of athleticism and skills.
Frequently, adult programs are imposed on young athletes, thus the basic components of physical literacy or athleticism are not implemented in a sequential manner. As a result, many athletes never reach optimal performance levels. The results of these inadequacies create poor skill movements due to a lack of proper development, poor skill development because of poor teaching skills, and poor sport skill development because of excessive competition.- Meadors
Maybe this means your 12U football team doesn’t look like Tom Osbourne’s Nebraska circa 1996 when running the option.
But your kids know how to break down, cut on the proper leg, use their hips when they throw, catch with their hands not their chest….you know, FUNDAMENTALS.
What it Comes Down To:
We need to institute a system of long-term development.
Other countries have committed to it and it works.
It’s what Germany credits as the main reason they just won the World Cup:
With its commitment to a new development program more than a decade ago, Germany created a deeper pool of homegrown talent that laid the foundation for a win in Rio. The years of planning behind the Germans’ 2014 tournament run demonstrated, once again, the critical connection between a country’s soccer development system and international success. National soccer federations that methodically develop young talent, that teach technical proficiency at a young age, and carefully advance top players through the ranks, put themselves in World Cup contention.-Shira Springer
It’s not by chance.
It’s by creating, molding, developing talent.
Not hoping it shows up after outlasting everyone else.
The Long Term Athlete Development model:
From http://canadiansportforlife.ca/
What it boils down to:
Injury rates are soaring and despite the ridiculous amount of money we spend on athletes, our results, on the world stage, diminishing.
Adopting the LTAD is not only in the best interest of the athletes from a success standpoint but it benefits everyone in terms of improved health, fitness and appreciation (which often stems from success) in sports and physical activities.
About Roy:
