Tag Archive: LTAD

1. Beware of the Mom Taper

   6th October 2014 3:03 pm 4 Comments

   “Jodie can’t make training tonight because she is exhausted and worried about her homework deadlines”

   A phone call, text or email late in the day from the Mum, and your plans for the night’s training session are scuppered. This is extremely frustrating as a coach. It happened to me 3 times last week alone.

   In all the talk about periodisation, planning and competition preparation, the likes of Tudor Bompa and Vladimir Issurin have neglected to include the impact of the “Mom Taper”.

   I have scoured the research and documents surrounding the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model by Balyi, Cote et al and I have yet to find the “Mom Taper” mentioned.

   For all the theory in the world, I am interested in what is happening on the ground. As a coach who has worked with teenage athletes and their parents for over 10 years, I have tried and failed to implement long term plans. But why does the Mom Taper trump my plans? 

   Put yourself in Mum’s shoes.

   First off, it is important to remember that the young athlete is the Mum’s son or daughter.  They will always be their child. We as coaches are temporary influences (hopefully positive) in their lives. The longest I have coached any single athlete is 7 years.

   I repeat, the young athlete is the Mum’s child first and foremost.

   Most Mum’s I know want the best for their child. They are busy trying to juggle work, managing the home and being the taxi driver for 2 or 3 children going to multiple venues on different nights. 

   They are under pressure to attend every single training session, drive to the competitions, help with homework and somehow pay for all the kit, fees and fuel. They are surviving week to week, and have little time to sit down and think ahead.

   (I have to switch my phone off on Sundays, because I get a flurry of texts from about 8pm to 10pm as the Mums finally get a chance to sit down and look at the week ahead!)

   This results in;

   • fixture overload
   • training conflicts
   • falling behind on homework assignments
   • poor eating habits
   • lack of rest.

   This then leads to a short time crisis of homework panic or illness. 

   Is it any wonder the Mum cancels training?

    (This is different from the “I don’t want Jodie getting sweaty doing exercise” version of the Mom taper:it’s impossible to taper off a taper. I have little tolerance for that!)

    4 ways coaches can help prevent this problem

   1. Realise that the world is bigger than our sport and our sessions. Ask the Mum and the athlete what else is happening in their lives.
   2. Sit down and plan 4 weeks at a time with the Mum and athlete. This is essential and is the Number 1 reason why the athletes I work with predominantly avoid injury. This is an eye opener for coach. parent and athlete alike. (Use these free 4 weekly planners)
   3. Be adaptable: know your athletes and adjust the sessions according to how they look and feel. They may need 10 minutes of play time and “mucking about” to get rid of the calculus residing in their brain from an exam that afternoon.
   4. Perhaps most importantly, and hard to do, have a real honesty check about the necessity of the sessions. Do our cricketers need winter nets? Is that athlete centred, or is it cricket coach’s income stream centred? Do we have to have 6 hours of selection games on a Sunday in the rain, let alone 4 Sundays in a row. How much value is being added here?

   Summary

   It is easy to criticise Mums about last minute cancellations, but we as coaches need to recognise the landscape we live in (Living and coaching in Devon, I understand the amount of driving that is required too). I find that advance communication helps all parties. 

   Further reading:

   • Training the young athlete
   • Is my child overtraining?
   • Planning your training: block periodisation for young athletes.

   Hat tip to Chris Webb for the term “Mom Taper”.

2. Coaching the Millennials

   2:51 pm 4 Comments

   Generation Y Me?

   Sometimes known as Generation Y, this group of people are the ones coming into the workplace since the Millennium.

   A bit different from the Generation X “slackers”, the Millennials have been hot housed, nurtured and been led to believe that they can achieve anything.

   Massively full of self confidence (or something) they have yet to fail at anything in their life. They expect to be able to run their social life through work or through their sport.

   Well, welcome to sport. Failure is a part of it, as is hard work, as is realism.  If you are unaccustomed to failing and working at something to improve, then the first time you get a B-  or are unable to get it right straight away- it is a massive shock. 

   Two things happen here- they quit, or someone else is to blame. The problem with super high self esteem is that in order to protect it, you can apportion blame elsewhere. This is a poor starting place for performance improvement.

   The other side is mixing the social life into work and sport- well it is alright being best friends with everyone in the squad, but you are competing for places with them.

   The Millennials in team sports appear to be more worried about the social than the performance- and I am talking about funded players here. 

   My 3 tips are:

   1. Be a bit more forgiving in attitude: introduce adversity training gradually. 
   2. Allow time for social engagement at the start and end of the session.
   3. Set guidelines on how to interact with each other: no phones in the session or at meal times!

   However, this is still a work in progress!

   Further reading:

   Getting teenagers to take charge of their sporting preparation

3. Strength training for young people

   22nd September 2014 8:56 am 2 Comments

   “You never see an oak tree with huge branches and a tiny trunk”

   

   Strong trunk

   Kathryn “Wiggs” Catto on a last week’s level 1 coaching strength and conditioning for sport course.

   This was her way of describing to young teenage boys the necessity of developing strength in a safe and progressive manner.

   Unfortunately in the rush to “look good nekked” a lot of bad advice is heeded by these boys.

   

   Top heavy

   In the desperate attempt to develop limb size (rather than strength) the training programme negelects the fundamental needs of the developing body.

   “No one ever died of weak biceps”

   Roy Parsloe: lecturer on my A level p.e. course in 1991.

   Why on earth would we put a preacher curl into a school gym? The kids spend all day sat down in classrooms as it is.

   If you train sat down or lying down, then your entire trunk area is made redundant. We then have a situation where people need to work on their “core stability“.

   

   Pull ups are better

   This lady may be trying to “tone” her arms, compared to the boys who would be trying to “get hench“, but they are all sat down.

   Every dumbbell exercise and 90% of the bodyweight exercises I demonstrated on the course were done standing up or in prone support. This limits the overall weight you can lift, but it is our ability to apply strength on the field that is important.

   The young person has to learn how to control their own body weight in different planes of movement and at varying speeds before picking up a weight. The quick fix is to sit or lie down (and have a mate pick up the weight and pass it to them) but there are no benches or chairs on the rugby pitch.

   Thanks to all the candidates who threw themselves with abandon into the practical sessions and the classroom discussions.

   I hope I managed to stimulate some thoughts into how they go back and work with all their players: solid foundations and sound programming beat fads and short cuts every time.

   Further reading:

   • Top 8 tips on how to move like an athlete
   • How can I reduce the chance of my players getting injured? 

4. 11 questions every aspiring athlete should ask themselves

   29th May 2014 8:16 am 6 Comments

   “If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner.

   You know what a winner is? A winner is somebody who has given his best effort, who has tried the hardest they possibly can, who has utilized every ounce of energy and strength within them to accomplish something.

   It doesn’t mean that they accomplished it or failed, it means that they’ve given it their best. That’s a winner.” 

   Walter Payton NFL Running Back

   In the current climate of “because I’m worth it” generation of young athletes who expect a lot, but maybe don’t realise the work involved here are 11 questions every athlete should ask themselves.

   1. Do you have a goal or a wish? Lots of athletes have idle day dreams, but taking the time to write down your goals and set up a plan is crucial.
   2. Do you have self -discipline? That is the discipline to make every training session, to do the little things well, consistently. The discipline to follow a plan even if you are tired or busy.
   3. Do you get quality sleep? Sleep is the foundation from which you can recover. It is also an indicator that there is balance in your life: too much stress, poor diet, or poor lifestyle can all impact on sleep quality.
   4. Do you fuel yourself properly? After sleep, this is an easy way of distinguishing between those who are serious about performance and the also-rans. The 3 step approach to fuelling properly will ensure consistency.
   5. Do you have the 4 cornerstones of training in place? It is easy to do what we are comfortable with, or what seems most urgent. However, you need to have all 4 cornerstones in place to be most effective.
   6. Are you mindful: of others, of your body, of your strengths and weaknesses? Mindfulness allows you to focus on one area at a time. It will help boost your immune system and reduce blood pressure. Being mindful in training means you are less likely to get injured and more likely to improve.
   7.  Do you train to gain an edge? It is often easy to get the big things in place, but the little things accumulate over time and soon add up. If you are doing them daily, then you will be gaining an edge over your opponents who are resting.
   8. Do your sessions have purpose? Or are they organised despair? There is a big difference between doing “stuff” that gets you tired and training with a purpose so that you get better.
   9. Are you getting stronger? Strength in some form underpins all athletic movement: posture, stability, power, balance and pure strength all require a strength training plan of some form.
   10. Do you challenge your technique? “Skill is technique under pressure” so do you seek to improve and develop your technique in different circumstances and environments? It is easy to be good when training at your own club: very different in the maelstrom of away fixtures under pressure.
   11. Have you given it your all? This may be hard to quantify, and you can only give the best that you are capable of at that time.  If you look in the mirror at the end of the day and say “I had a little bit left” then how will you be able to cope when that choice is taken away from you? Sometimes you have to empty your tank and train beyond your reserves.

   Walter Payton is an NFL legend, who knows if you are going to be as good as him? But , as an aspiring athlete, if you answer Yes to all of these questions, then you are well on the way to making the most of your ability.

   (Pictured are Dan James, Jenny McGeever and Tom Baylis: 3 of our current athletes who answer these questions).

   Further reading

   What is Athletic Development?

5. The Talent ID Bun Fight

   15th May 2014 9:15 am 19 Comments

   “I feel pressurised as a parent to choose between sports for my daughters”.

   Said a concerned Mum at a recent workshop. She is far from alone. Talent identification has been misused by sports as an excuse for working kids too early and too hard.

   Well meaning, but concerned, parents are being asked to ferry their children from “selection camp” to “regional centre” to “talent pathway nuclei” (O.K. I made that last one up).

   They are often told that if their child fails to attend, then their sporting career is over.... at 14! Is that true?

   Research consistently shows that elite sports performers come from a diverse sporting background, and only specialised at around 15-16 years old (1). Most often they are late maturers.

   NGBS are trying to select “talent” at 13-14 years old and keep them in their own pathway. They recognise that there is massive competition between sports, this is especially true with female athletes who are good at both Netball and Hockey.

   But “talent” really is hard to identify until after puberty and some maturation- about 16 years old. What NGBS are selecting is often “early maturers” or “early birth date” children. This is a temporary advantage that is eliminated when the children get to be 17-19 years old.

   Selection is also reliant on “devoted parents“: simply those parents who can survive the Corinthian task of organising the logistics of attending all these sessions.

   Examples of the madness

   Hockey says that players need to come up through its “Single System“. This requires endless camps and selection days, with selectors looking at who made it on the squad last year, rather than who is the current best player.

   This means a desperate rush to get onto the Under-16s squad so that you are “in the system”.

   Anyone on the Under 18s squad is supposed to sign up to the AASE programme which requires extra sessions in Bristol every week.

   Is that necessary for kids who are already studying for 3-4 A levels? They hardly need to be part of an apprenticeship.

   Netball players in Devon have to choose between training in Bath or Truro (2 hours drive each way) every week if they want to progress.

   One 15 year old I coach told Netball South West that she was struggling to get her homework done in GCSE year, she was told “do your homework in the car”.

   Another Netballer was told “to move to a school closer to the Talent and Performance Centre in Bath” ! Who are these people? Do they have any touch with reality?

   Talent Development Model or Pay per Hour Model?

   

   Too young to specialise

   Cricket players are told to take part in “Winter nets” to stay in the county squad. The fact that year round training of a high impact activity increases the risk of spinal injury like Pars defects seems to be an afterthought.

   Tennis is in it’s own mad race to the bottom. 

   One “Talent ID” session in Exeter was looking at 5 year olds and whether they had a chopper grip serve: 5 years old! Is that talent or a learned activity? 

   I see some local 13 year olds doing 30 hours of tennis a week! This is hardly necessary at this age: what it does is line the pockets of coaches.

   It is a pay per hour model (thanks to Brendan Chaplin for pointing this out to me).

   It is recommended that young athletes have 2-3 months off from their sport each year to prevent burnout (1).

   They could use this time to play another sport, and allow their bodies to grow, develop and recover from the one sided dominant nature of tennis or cricket or golf.

   More importantly, they could play in the park with their mates. Middle class parents especially may be hampering their child’s development through over formalising the process. Kids who spend more than hours a week than their age in organised sports are at greater injury risk (4).

   But how would the coach earn money in that case?

   Unfortunately, I rarely see a good looking athlete with a tennis racquet or cricket bat. Instead, I see a lot of early specialisers who lack all round physical skills that will help their Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD) (research articles on that link).

   Note to Parents

   Your child’s health and well being is paramount. All else is secondary to that. Whilst you may be under pressure to make a decision that affects your child’s selection in the next month, be aware that there is no evidence that early specialisation has any benefit.

   In fact, early specialisation is fraught with danger: risk of overuse, injury and burnout (3). Remember that the NGBS are trying to capture your child early for their benefit: they need numbers, and they are worried about another sport getting them!

   The model shown below shows 3 different strands of Talent development and the potential outcomes (thanks to Professor Jean Côté for sharing).

   Here are the key points you may wish to consider:

   1. Early participation is great, early specialisation less so.
   2. Your child needs an off season from their sport: every year.
   3. Motor skill learning is dependent on “trial and error” and “free play“. The body learns better when the brain is free from too much technical instruction. Kick about games in the local park are essential.
   4. Variety of sport and activity is crucial: water, land, jumping, bat and ball, bike, horse, board, individual, team. Get your child to taste everything: informally at first.
   5. Competition is great: but led by kids, rather than an adult imposed top down model. Let them win and lose the street “British Bulldog Championships” and come home with scraped knees. Better than the under -12s regional 11 a side “must win” football tournament led by parents..
   6. Play, play, play: a minimum ratio of 1 hour of play for every hour of organised activity is recommended to reduce injury risk (4).

   If your child is being forced to choose: take a deep breath and gain a sense of perspective. Having fun and some down time is important for their development. It is a long term approach.

   Further reading

   • Training young athletes
   • Is my child overtraining?

   References

   1. P. Ford, M. De Ste Croix, R. Lloyd, R. Meyers, M. Moosavi, J. Oliver, K. Till, and C. Williams, “The Long-Term Athlete Development model: Physiological evidence and application”, Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 29, pp. 389-402, 2011
   2. Brenner, J. S. (2007). Overuse injuries, overtraining, and burnout in child and adolescent athletes. Pediatrics, 119, 1242-1245.
   3. Position Statement from the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM,2014).
   4. American Academy of Pediatrics. “Sports specialization, hours spent in organized sports may predict young athlete injury.” ScienceDaily, 28 October 2013

6. Developing young athletes: Jonah Barrington

   12th May 2014 2:57 pm 1 Comment

   “Kids are brittle and fickle”

   Jonah Barrington, squash legend. I worked with Jonah for 5 years when I was Head of Athletic Development at Millfield school.

   He was always a great sounding board on things to do with coaching, squash and life.

   He gave a heartfelt presentation to all of the coaches at the school, and I have just uncovered the notes I took. Here are some of his insights:

   Growing Up

   Jonah was born in a small village in Cornwall. There were no organised activities, so the kids sorted themselves out.

   He then went to a small school in Ireland from ages 5-9,. There he had one good teacher (with whom he is still in contact 60+ years later) who got the best out of the youngsters.

   Jonah then moved to a private school in England which was a disaster.He was small and nervous playing rugby, but forced into it. He never played again.Jonah uses this experience to help identify with young kids who may falter at the first opportunity.

   It is important that coaches recognise this and provide further opportunities for success.

   “Adults too often impose adult thinking/ training on children. We always need to be conscious we are dealing with young people.“

   Build confidence in youngsters

   Jonah used Kevin Pietersen as an example of a senior International player who has publicly lost confidence.

   If it happens to adults of his ability, then it must happen to children: even faster, even more often.

   “We need to build it up.”

   Jonah loves his sport, and he tries to impart this passion and enthusiasm to the youngsters.

   “Kindness is a part of it. It is important that you like young people.”

   (Compare that to a 21 year old coach who told me hated kids, but coached them because “that’s where the money is”!)

   Coaching Integrity

   Jonah stressed that coaches need to be seen to be fair. They provide fun and enjoyment. However, there is a correlation between fun and discipline. But, “sport is not the classroom, so it shouldn’t be an extension of the classroom.”

   Kids do respond to being organised: otherwise you have mayhem!. Sport does involvbe winning or losing.

   “By nurturing the kids and their competitive instincts, we can provide a supportive and enjoyable journey for all.”

   I really enjoyed working with Jonah, we could have an open, frank (and sometimes heated) discussion about what we were doing. We both knew that we had the kids’ best interests at heart. One of the reasons why he has been successful as a coach.

   • Fitness training for squash
   • Playing squash in the USA

7. Talent ID- The Australian Myth: Paula Jardine

   1st March 2013 10:26 am 5 Comments

   

   Physiology tests don’t identify talent.

   The idea that physical abilities tests can predict talent is now so pervasive that I’m beginning to lose track of the number of times I’m asked by athletes who’ve completed physiology tests what sports the tests suggest they’d be good at.

   When I explain that the tests are intended to help them assess their own fitness and identify areas they can work on to improve their performance they’re often a little disappointed. If only it were so easy to identify future stars this way but despite the spin, the reality is that it certainly isn’t.

   The Australians were the first to try to identify athletes this way an initiative that began with their rowing programme in 1988.  More than 20 years later the much talked about Talent Search programme has produced results that are far more modest than the hype suggests — just over a half dozen female Olympic athletes and 3 Olympic medals which represents about 1 percent of Australia’s medal haul.

   Even these results were dependent on a bit of luck as the first two Talent ID athletes to compete in an Olympic Games for Australia (rower Megan Still and cyclist Alayna Burns) were in fact almost not selected for their respective programmes.

   Learning from the Eastern Bloc

   This type of Talent ID testing is widely thought to be a Westernised adaptation of the methods used in the Eastern Bloc to select elite athletes.

   The Eastern Bloc didn’t rely on one off tests at all – they tracked athletes physical development over many years and were more interested in the trajectory that their training and results were taking.       (Excelsior ADC athletes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes).

   What the tests generally do is deselect individuals who don’t fit an idealised model of what an athlete in a particular sport looks like. Had the height criteria been rigorously applied in the case of British Olympic rowing medallist Annie Vernon she would never have been selected.  Promoted as a Talent ID find Vernon had been active in the sport for over 3 years by the time she was identified and fast tracked.

   Most sports already have problems with selection bias at junior age group level skewing the talent pool as is evidenced by the relative age effect and the over representation of early maturing athletes in selective junior programmes.

   As physical abilities tests are being used with increasing frequency in our schools to identify “the gifted and talented” with the intention of providing additional resources to support their development it is highly likely to compound the problem of selection bias as those administering the tests look at the numbers without taking age or biological maturity into consideration when making supposedly scientific assessments of someone’s innate abilities.

   Talent ID testing has a limited use as a gimmicky way to recruit athletes for some sports but there’s a real danger that as it becomes more pervasive it could have the unintended consequence of eroding rather than expanding the talent pool when those labelled gifted at an early age turn out not to be.

   Paula Jardine: South West Talent Manager, University of Bath.

   Further reading:

   • The talent id bun fight 
   • Long term athlete development (LTAD) resource pack

8. Principles of Athletic Development : GAIN review 1

   12th August 2011 9:53 am 1 Comment

   “Are you making athletes better or tired or more predisposed to injury?”

   This was one of the key questions we were asked on the GAIN 2011 conference in Houston, Texas in June.

   It is easy to make Athletes tired, it is easy to do STUFF, but making them better and knowing why you are doing things is difficult.

   This is the 1^st of 5 blogs that will review some of the things covered over the 5 day conference. It is a summation of my reflections and thoughts since then: hence the delay.

   The conference was held over 5 days, with practical sessions starting at 0630 and seminars finishing at 2100. There were about 60 people attending, from several different countries (mostly USA) with a variety of backgrounds: Physiotherapists, track and field coaches, cricket coaches, Physical Education specialists (not Games teachers) Strength and Conditioning Coaches and Athletic Trainers.

   This varied gene pool led to interesting points of view and was a welcome change from spending a weekend with tubby S&C coaches carrying fat shakes around.

   Principles of Athletic Development

   This was the subject of the first afternoon, led by Vern Gambetta. Here we looked at what our role is as a Coach.

   If you have not read his book on Athletic Development, then I recommend it. The principle is that the body is a whole and we must remember why we are training at all times.

   • The Stuff we do must connect: training sessions, body parts, exercises with what happens in competition.
   •  As a Coach we have to “ Design and implement an effective practical training or rehab programme that produces measurable and visible results in the required time frame.”

    Physical Literacy in the 21^st Century

    Kelvin Giles looked at the current state of “athletes” now. If you do some of the S&C courses out there at the moment, you would think that every one walks into a gym ready to back squat twice their body weight, and snatch body weight: and that is all they need to succeed. However, the current young person is so physically deconditioned due to lifestyle, the lack of P.E in schools and too much sport specific training, this is a dream world.

   One of the problems is that “we live in a world where sport science at all of the pie. It has generated random number gatherers.”  All the physiological monitoring has failed to monitor the mechanical load. (Think of the bleep test with acceleration, deceleration, restarting, change of direction).

   • The athletes need to have the ability to endure agility and accelerate, decelerate.
   • 70% of ACL injuries are non-contact. If the athlete has been conditioning properly, we can reduce that chance.
   • Some programmes include a lot of lying down “core work”. Why? They lie down when they leave your session?
   • “Never load a poor movement, and certainly never consistently do it.”

   This was a bit of confirmation bias on my part, as all the work we have been doing with the SWT and TASS athletes over the last 4 years has led myself and Paula Jardine to conclude that most young athletes can not do basic movements well. Let alone efficiently, let alone under pressure or stress.

   Next: Strength and power concepts  with Jim Radcliffe

   Further reading:

   • Where to help your child become fitter.
   • How this helps the young athletes at the Excelsior Athletic Development Club
   • Learn to coach these principles on our Athletic Development Coaching Course

9. Motor skills development- spatial awareness and catching.

   23rd September 2010 9:44 am 1 Comment

   I am using a block of Autumn training as a motor skill development with endurance training period.

   I am using tennis ball drills: catching, dribbling, turning, evasion and throwing for one set of development.

   The other set is using the 4 limbs to perform different tasks whilst standing and then moving in different directions.

   Most of the athletes can do 2 different things simultaneously, but not many 3.

   Throwing 2 tennis balls up, turning 360 degrees and catching both is quite a challenge.

   Standing on one leg, with one arm punching, one arm circling and the other foot drawing an imaginary triangle is also tricky.

   This combination seems to work as both a warm up and preparation for new skill acquisition.  It is also fun (not to be underestimated).

   This type of work is what I am doing now with the  Excelsior Athletic Development Club