ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT PATHWAY

Contents

1.0 Background.......................................................................................................................... 1.1 Strength and Power.................................................................................................... 1.2 Hypertrophy............................................................................................................... 1.3 Speed and Agility....................................................................................................... 1.4 Mobility...................................................................................................................... 1.5 Metabolic Conditioning.............................................................................................. 1.6 Athlete Education.......................................................................................................

2.0 Culford School’s Athletic Development Pathway............................................................

3.0 Concluding Comments........................................................................................................

4.0 References............................................................................................................................

Definitions

Childhood represents the developmental period of life from the end of infancy to adolescence. Adolescence refers to the period of life between childhood and adulthood.

Maturity/Maturation refers to the highly variable timing of progressive change in the human body from childhood to adulthood.

Training age represents the number of years an individual has been involved in a structured and supervised training programme.

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Prepared by James Earle MSc, BSc (Hons), ASCC

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1.0 Background

Culford School’s long term athletic development pathway outlines a systematic approach for enhancing and maximising the physical capabilities throughout childhood. It takes into consideration the maturation of the child rather than chronological age, which can be estimated by identifying peak height velocity. By objectively measuring rates of change, it allows the child to be trained according to biological status. Typically, males mature around 14 years whereas females mature around 12 years. Various models into long term athlete development (LTAD) exist, which we have collated to ensure an optimal journey, specific to the pupils and environment at Culford School.

Our aim is to develop dynamic, innovative, flexible and resilient young athletes, promote an athletic journey that will educate on health and performance and enable students to reach their full physical and mental sporting capabilities by the time they leave Culford. This article will discuss in detail the train-ability and suitable methods of training during childhood and adolescence.

Sports can be classified into early or late specialisation, ultimately categorised based on the average age of success. However, with advancements in technology, sports science and training methods, it is evident athlete’s careers are prolonged; such that polarized classification is becoming more unclear. Professional careers of elite athletes are now frequently spanning over 20 years, demonstrating there is no short-cut to success. Therefore, it is important young aspiring athletes understand the journey of athletic development and practice in order to avoid the misguiding short-cuts to success.

Research has shown naturally occurring physiological windows of opportunity for accelerated development of biomotor qualities. This is caused by age-related developments in neural properties by improved intramuscular and inter-muscular coordination and maturity-related developments in hormones (androgen concentrations), muscle fibre type and architectural development of musculotendon units (Figure 1). The youth physical development model by Lloyd and Oliver (2014), shown on pages 5 and 6 (Figure 2 and 3), describes an overview of total physical development and emphasises periods of training for certain fitness components.

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Figure 2. Physical development model for males, Lloyd and Oliver (2014). The larger font and bold text indicates importance. Light shading refers to pre-adolescent periods of adaptation whereas dark shading refers to adolescent periods of adaptation.

As males and females mature at different rates there are two models, both have a similar format. Children begin their athletic journey by learning basic movement qualities through play, this is often referred to as the fundamentals. As the child grows and physically develops, training acquires a low level of structure as they learn how to train. Around this time, it is possible to estimate maturation and peak height velocity (Mirwald et al. 2002), where it is possible to identify early or late developers – an important measure to help talent identification and understand selection, as better performers may have a physical advantage purely because they have matured early.

Training is becoming more structured, technical and focused with pupils training for physical and performance outcomes. This is a key development period as we begin to observe the maturity-related hormonal and muscle architecture adaptations. It is also where children are expected to show an understanding and independence to good training habits such as a training log, warm up, cool down and stretches. At this point children have been exposed to athletic training for approximately 6 years and are growing in confidence, knowledge of training and performance – training is well structured and directed towards competitions. The final stages of athletic development are then directed to succeeding in their chosen sport and/or long-term health where students have the skills to train anywhere in the world.

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Figure 3. Physical development model for females, Lloyd and Oliver (2014).

The larger font and bold text indicates importance. Light shading refers to preadolescent periods of adaptation whereas dark shading refers to adolescent periods of adaptation. As shown, females reach maturity earlier than males.

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1.1 Strength and Power

Are you strong enough for the demands of your sport?

The above statement prompts much discussion, as sports performances can often mask inefficient technique and movement. The human body will always discover a path of least resistance to achieve the required outcome goal. Despite previous concerns, it is now widely accepted that children can participate in strength training when supervised and prescribed appropriately. There is no evidence to suggest resistance training will impact linear growth or final adult height and in fact the mechanical stresses can be beneficial to bone formation. In addition, preparatory conditioning has been suggested to have been able to prevent 50% of chronic overuse injuries in children.

A certain level of strength is needed to sprint, jump, hop, throw, skip and kick proficiently; 70% of the variance in these motor skills in children 7-12 years is attributed to muscular strength. It is not uncommon to see children who have difficulties hopping and jumping, which in turn leads to biomechanical errors in movement that can lead to injury. As mentioned earlier, strength gains during preadolescence are primarily neural rather than from hypertrophic factors (until maturation). This means enhanced physical development is largely attributed to improvements in muscle and joint coordination rather than increases in muscle mass. Subsequently, an effective athletic development training programme is not designed using a body-building structure. The skills of movement are learned no differently to reading and writing and a base level of muscular strength and power is required to move efficiently.

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1.2 Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy has a small place in the LTAD due to many improvements in pre-adolescent and adolescent physical development underpinned by neuromuscular development. Nevertheless, post peak height velocity and maturation, some athletes need to increase muscle mass in order to protect joints or to compete at the level of sport they play i.e. rugby. Consequently, after maturation, periods of strength training may be interspersed with bouts of hypertrophy training.

1.3 Speed and Agility

The ability to change direction quickly with balance is a key physical quality that determines many sporting outcomes. Prepubescent and adolescent children can benefit hugely from sprint and plyometric training due to their neural plasticity. It is also an optimal time to teach running and change of direction technique which is frequently revisited during peak height velocity as limb length changes. Many sporting situations require high quality changes of direction and a reaction to a stimulus. Motor skills in speed and agility are often developed in small constraint games and closed drills, until technical competency is stable post maturation where drills become more chaotic and open.

1.4 Mobility

Efficient movement for sport requires strong, stable and flexible muscles and joints. During peak height velocity and maturation, boys more so than girls show reduced levels in flexibility. Girls can demonstrate accelerated improvements due to changes in hip angles and joint laxity. It is recommended, preadolescence and adolescence serve as an opportunity to develop mobility and post adolescence to adulthood should focus on the maintenance of these optimal levels.

1.5 Metabolic Conditioning

Prepubertal children are metabolically quite similar to well-trained endurance runners in muscle fatigability, recovery rates and energy contribution from aerobic and anaerobic energy sources. This is because children lack the ability to produce energy via anaerobic metabolism and are unable to produce lactate. At the onset of maturation these physiological “advantages” are gradually lost unless trained. Metabolic conditioning is an important component of fitness as poor aerobic levels increase the risk of injury at higher training workloads. At Culford, pupils are exposed to a lot of aerobic fitness from organised sports and games. Therefore, metabolic conditioning will never be a main focus in field or court based sports but will always be a low constant trained fitness component.

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1.6 Athlete Education

At Culford, pupils are encouraged to understand their athletic development providing them with ownership and an athlete identity. Sports scholars receive seminars from internal and external speakers on various topics surrounding performance such as nutrition, athlete health, goal setting and mental skills. Pupils are given opportunities to demonstrate understanding and freedom to impact their training by writing home programmes with supervision from their coach.

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A pupil’s journey will include theoretical and practical sessions of all the above components that support sports performance (Figure 4). Pupils will undertake a progressive athletic and educational journey as illustrated in Figure 5. Each individual will begin their journey at Level 1. With training and coaches discretion, the individual progresses through the levels whereby training volume, intensity, speed, difficulty and individualisation all increase. The journey is not a graduation process but is fluid where individuals may drift between levels.

2.0 Culford School’s Athletic Development Pathway

Each child will encompass a fulfilling and educational athletic journey where the individual will have to develop suitable movement competencies for different sporting scenarios.

Figure 4. The education and physical journey which Culford pupils will have exposure to and the development of various biomotor skills.

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Figure 5. Each stage is a level according to the training difficulty. Progression through the levels is not black and white, rather a movement flow, and dependant on the athletic development of the individual. Everyone new to the programme or with a low training age must begin their journey learning the fundamentals of movement.

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1. Fundamentals

2. Intensity & Volume

3. Intensity, Volume & Velocity

4. Elite, University & life beyond Culford

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As the pupil advances through the programme, dependant on their goals and ambitions, training commitment will increase. Table 1 details suggested training hours.

Table 1. Suggested strength and conditioning training hours for a high performance Culford Sport Scholar. However, this is dependent on numerous factors and should be discussed with a coach before a programme is agreed.

Stage of Development Training Level Athlete Development Hours

Train to Win Level 4 8-10+

Train to Compete Level 3 & 4 6-8+

Train to Train Level 2 & 3 4-7

Learn to Train Level 1 & 2 2-3

Fundamentals Level 1 1

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3.0 Concluding Comments

Culford’s long term athlete pathway looks to develop robust, strong, educated young athletes with excellent movement and perception skills. The pathway describes how different components of fitness are trained around maturation rather than chronological age and explains the rationale behind training to ensure optimal physical adaptation. It also explains pupils training journey and how this progressively becomes more structured through childhood to adulthood.

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4.0 References

1. Arsenal Academy FC. 2. Canadian Institute of Sport. 3. Faigenbaum et al. (2013) Youth Resistance Training: Past practices, new perspectives and future directions. Pediatric Exercise Science. 4. Lloyd and Oliver (2012) The youth physical development model: A new approach to long-term athletic development. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 5. Lloyd et al. (2014) Position statement on youth resistance training: The 2014 International Consensus. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 6. Miwarld et al. (2002) An assessment of maturity from anthropometric measurements. Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise. 7. Ratel and Blazevich (2017) Are prepubertal children metabolically comparable to well-trained adult endurance athletes? Sports Medicine.8. Sherar et al. (2005) Prediction of adult height using maturity based cumulative height velocity curves. Journal of Pediatrics.

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Culford School, Bury St Edmunds,Suffolk IP28 6TX

+44 (0)1284 728615

culford.co.uk

Culford School is a Registered Charity.

Independent boarding & day school for boys and girls aged 1-18.