Getting started with Long Term Athlete Development (Ltad)

Anyone who is serious about talent development, has studied coaching at university or upper echelons of their specific sport, is aware of the LTAD and YPD model.

For those less aware, heres the breakdown.

There is a common agreement on the need for structured 'athlete development' programmes for kids who engage in youth sports. Furthermore there is a consensus that appropriate physical and athletic development is beneficial for kids' health, performance and long-term outcomes. Finally, there is a common agreement that the long-term outcomes must take precedence over short-term results. Hence, long term athlete development.

For many years practitioners have attempted to create a blueprint or model for this process of ensuring the most effective athletic transition from youth-senior elite sport.

Until recently, the long-term athlete development (LTAD) 'model', originally pioneered by Istvan Balyi, was the predominant and most widely accepted approach. It was enthusiastically adopted by many national sporting organisations worldwide, and to this day, while alternative models have been proposed, LTAD remains popular within the world of, for example, handball. In fact the Danish Handball Federation, the worlds leading talent development factory for Handball players, are considered huge benefactors of the LTAD model.

So, the route from kids sport - elite senior sport is the goal and LTAD is one of various models implemented to best navigate athletes, coaches, and organisations through this difficult and time consuming process.

The Long-term development model

Now we have cleared up the what and why, lets look at how LtAD works.

From early childhood to maturation, people go through several phases of development, which include pre-puberty, puberty, post-puberty and maturation. For each development phase there is a corresponding stage of athletic training;

Stage 1: The FUNdamental Stage - Age: Males 6-9/Females 6-8 years

Stage 2: The Learning to Train Stage - Age: Males 9-12/Females 8-11 years

Stage 3: The Training to Train Stage - Age: Males 12-16/Females 11-15 years

Stage 4: The Training to Compete Stage - Age: Males 16-18/Females 15-17 years

Stage 5: The Training to Win Stage - Age: Males 18+/Females 17+

Stage 6: The Retirement/Retention Stage

What we're talking about here is the gradual progression of development of young athletes, where coaches teach athletes the game in stages, rather than all at once, coordinating the instruction and programs with the athlete’s motivations and developmental phases.

In short, the stages look like this;

Learn to train - Age: Males 9-12/Females 8-11 years

Learning to train is one of the starting points of a young persons Handball journey. Its here where they are required to learn the basic Handball skills which will form the foundation of their playing capacity in future years. Developing good training habits are vital, where mastering the basic technical Handball skills such as passing, shooting, dribbling, and tackling are key during this pre-pubertal phase.

Train to train - Age: Males 12-16/Females 11-15 years

At this stage players are required to have mastered the basic Handball skills, and where training becomes more targeted to the development of advanced Handball skills. In addition, more time is spent developing the players physical capacity and tactical understanding.

Train to compete - Age: Males 16-18/Females 15-17 years

The match is now more important, so there is an increased focus on mental and tactical tools that will improve the likelihood of performance success in matches. By this point players are required to have mastered the key technical skills, have a certain level of tactical understanding, and physically capable from a fitness and power perspective to carry out their tasks proficiently.

If we are to translate these phases into ‘ordinary youth handball’ where there is no expectation placed on players to become elite Handball players, where players are not willing to practice as much, then it could be seen as the following;

Learn to train

Players must learn what it takes training to be good. Before puberty it is useful to train the handball skills (technique) and practice many times in order to master these skills. It may also be vital to continue developing the ABC’s – Agility, Balance, and Coordination if your players do not yet possess these fundamental physical skills.

Train to train

The young players (who are not necessarily well trained and skilled) also

want quality training and understand their role in the team. They also want to be physically active and feel as if they’ve tested their body. During puberty it is important to continue training the basic handball skills, and introduce some more tactical and cooperation focussed training.

Train to compete

In the oldest youth Handball years, young people will be preparing to transition to senior handball where they will be less protected, and exposed to the greater physical, technical, and tactical demands of senior Handball. It would therefore be useful during this phase, to work on mental and tactical tools such as numerical superiority (6v5) and inferiority (5v6).

---

Disclaimer alert. In the recent period notable publications in the sports science literature have raised questions over the LTAD model as commonly employed. These authors have highlighted flaws in certain aspects of the LTAD framework. Practitioners have since proposed alternative models, including the Youth Physical development (YPD) model.

To some degree there is a trend of rejecting the LTAD model in favour of alternative approaches which have risen to prominence (including the aforementioned YPD model).

On that basis if this area of talent development is one that interests you to implement a structured athlete development model at your club, i'd certainly suggest doing some research.

Hope it helps.

Scott