Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
What is long-term player development?
Over the last couple of years
Long-term Player Development or LTPD has been growing as a concept and philosophy
exponentially. A philosophy born in Canada has made its way around the world
and is now back. Canada Sport for Life, the implementation arm of the Canadian
government has been in place since 2005, the Canadian Soccer Association
published their first strategy book on LTPD in 2007 and now in 2013 we are
finally making inroads. Over the last couple of months LTPD has been reduced to
the concept of no scores and standings by the media – a myopic view looking for
ratings in my point of view. The topic of no scores and standings will be
discussed in a later blog as this is about LTPD and that whole topic is only
one tiny aspect of it.
Long-term Player Development is mandated
by the Canadian Government through the Canadian Sport for Life. 54 of 55
National Sporting Organisations have a Long-term Athlete Development Implementation
Plan, all at varying stages of implementation. Long-term Athlete Development (LTAD) as depicted by Canada Sport for life is a seven-stage training, competition, and recovery
pathway guiding an individual’s experience in sport and physical activity from
infancy through all phases of adulthood. LTAD is athlete centered, coach
driven, and administration, sport science, and sponsor supported. Sequential
stages in the LTAD pathway provide developmentally appropriate programs for all
ages to increase participation and optimize performance. Human
development from birth to adulthood is a continuous process and so key to LTAD is a holistic approach that considers
mental, cognitive and emotional development in addition to physical
development, so each athlete develops as a complete person. Based on CS4L
principles, LTAD, in a sport-specific context, promotes system alignment and
integration between sport club, provincial/territorial and national sport
organizations.
Why do we need the LTAD model? Because participation in recreational sport and physical
activity has been declining and physical education programs in schools are being
marginalized. Because the international performances of Canadian athletes have been
declining in some sports. Because other sports are having trouble identifying
and developing the next generation of international athletes. Because NOT matching skills and activities
to a stage of development has serious negative consequences, and Canadians and
the Canadian sport system have been suffering from them for some time. To
mention just a few of them:
- Children don’t have fun;
- They develop bad habits because of the over-emphasis on winning
- Their skill development is poor;
- They don’t reach their optimal performance level;
- Many burn out and drop out of sport
Simply put, a Long Term Player
Development (LTPD) model is a framework to maximize a player’s potential and
long term involvement in sport over the course of their life. It is not just
about the elite player. Last year I spoke with a 15 year old recreational player
and asked them about LTPD, and his answer was quite simple: “I wish I had this
when I was younger, then I might be a better player now and enjoy the game more”.
I play in an adult rec league myself and I get similar talk from my teammates.
Looking back on it myself I would say it’s the physical element to LTPD that I
missed succumbing to an overuse injury and ending my good playing days.
LTPD generally follows a four
corner approach – technical/tactical, physical, social and psychological. As a
club, as coaches and as parents it is our role to provide a clear path for
children entering sport to not only develop as players of a given sport but
develop people, characters, our future generations. I recommend listening to
Beyonce’s song ‘I am here’ as sung at the UN, which can be found on our YouTube
Channel NTsoccerTV (http://www.youtube.com/user/NTSoccerTV).
The words of this song are powerful echoing our purpose, our desire to make a
difference when here. LTPD is our guide, our philosophy to make that difference
for the children and players we have the pleasure of working with.
Resources
- For
more details on the national model of Long-Term Athlete (player)
Development, visit the Canadian Sport
for Life website.
- For
more details on the Canada Soccer's Wellness to World Cup Long-Term Player
Development (LTPD) model, visit the Canadian Soccer Association
website.
- For
more details on the Ontario Soccer's Long-Term Player Development (LTPD)
plan, visit the Ontario Soccer Association
website.
- A
message from Ontario Soccer to parents and caregivers on LTPD - Parents Long Term Player
Development Message
- Get
an overview of the Wellness to World Cup model
with the matrix (pdf).
- Curious
about the recommendation to eliminate league standings in youth soccer
under LTPD? Read this leaflet(pdf).
- Learn
more about the seven stages of Wellness to World Cup in the
brochure (pdf).
- For
in-depth presentation of the model, browse through the Wellness to World Cup - Volume
1 manual (pdf).
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