Long Term Athlete Development

Some months age the British Judo Association began to develop a long-term athlete development (LTAD) plan which will provide a framework for the advancement of judokas from earliest stages through to World Class Performance levels.

This project is being facilitated by Dr Lisa McIver in consultation with Dr Istvan Balyi, a world class expert on the development of high performance athletes. Istvan is currently working with Sport England on the LTAD plans of twelve British sports.

The two ways in which young judoka can improve their performance are training and growth development. LTAD is about achieving optimal training, competition and recovery throughout an athlete’s career, particularly in relation to the important growth stages in young people.

The main aims of the LTAD plan are to outline to coaches, parents and administrators and the judo community in Britain what a long term approach to training and preparation means. The LTAD plan will give detailed training and preparation guidelines that will be of assistance to judo providers in planning their programmes.

An LTAD approach is about encouraging all judokas, whatever their talents and motivation, to achieve their full potential. This can only be achieved if the most appropriate and effective environments can be created in our clubs.

A number of scientists have reported that there are critical periods in the life of a young person during which the effects of training can be maximised. This has led to the concept that young people should be exposed to specific types of training during periods of rapid growth and that the types of training should change with the patterns of growth. It is proposed that judo adopt a six phase model of LTAD which closely relates to those periods of trainability.

FUNdamentals – (male 6-10, female 6-10 years) this stage should be structured and FUN with the emphasis on developing basic movement literacy and fundamental movement skills.

Learning to Train Phase I – (male 10-12, female 10-11/12 years) during this stage young judokas should learn how to train and develop the basic skills of judo. This stage coincides with peak motor co-ordination and so there should be emphasis on skill development.

Learning to Train Phase II – (male 12-14, female 11-13 years) this is a continuation of learning to train phase I so there should be a continuation of training and developing the basic skills of judo along with emphasis on aerobic conditioning and greater individualisation of fitness and tactical training.

Training to Train - (male 14-16, female 13-14 years) there should be a continued emphasis on physical conditioning with the focus on maintaining high volume workloads but with increasing intensity.

Training to Compete - (male 16-18, female 14-17 years) again there should be continued importance on physical conditioning with the focus on developing maximum strength gains through the use of free weights.

Training to Win - (male 18+, female 17+ years) this is the final stage of athlete preparation and the emphasis should be on specialisation and performance enhancement.

Once the basic framework of the plan has been drafted a copy will be sent to clubs and selected individuals for positive feedback. If you are interested in contributing, then please send your thoughts, comments and ideas to Dr Lisa McIver at lisamciver@blueyonder.co.uk or to LTAD plan c/o British Judo Association, Suite B, Loughborough Technology Park, Epinal Way, Loughborough LE11 3GE.

Istvan Balyi

In April 2003, Dr Istvan Balyi, one of the world's leading experts on the development of sporting talent, spoke at the National Sports Development Seminar in Nottingham on the theme of Long Term Athlete Development and building what he calls a "win-win" sports system. 

Dr Balyi outlined his views, backed by scientific research, that Britain, like many other counties, is not realising its full sporting potential. He will argue that not only are we missing opportunities to develop winning sports stars of the future but that we are also not providing appropriate opportunities for all children to be "turned on" to physical activity at an early age that will lead to a life-long interest and involvement in sport.

Dr Balyi is a sports consultant who has worked over the last thirty years with both Winter/Summer and individual/team sports in Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Europe and Canada. In his keynote speech he outlined the work he is currently undertaking in a ground breaking pilot programme with six sports (Tennis, Rugby Union, Swimming, Netball, Cricket and Women's Football) in developing their long-term athlete development systems and programmes.

This initiative, which is supported and co-ordinated by Sport England and linked to the work of sportscoach UK, will be extended to other sports during 2003.

His conclusion is that at present a lot of young sporting potential is not being fully realised and to remedy the situation there needs to be a major re-think as to how young people are introduced to sport both from the point of view of practice/training, competition, coaching and the support programme from clubs, parents and volunteers.

Dr Balyi commented: You can make or break an athlete/player between the crucial ages of 9-14. There is often a major problem with children under-training and over-competing where sports superimpose adult competition programmes on children. Parents, teachers and coaches need to understand that children are not miniature adults. If you don't get their training and development programme right during these critical years, you will lose these youngsters and never get them back. You can throw all the money you want to the elite sport system when trying to win medals, but unless you get this earlier critical period right, this country will lose out.

Dr Balyi advocates that to make the most of a nations sporting talents there is a fundamental issue that needs to be recognised. Unless children between 5-8years are introduced to a fun-based programme of movement education (what he terms as the ABCs of movement), followed by a progressive and stimulating multi-sports programme of skill based learning (what he terms as the ABCs of athleticism) future participation in sports specific activities/training in the adolescence and adult years means that individuals often are not capable of reaching their true potential.

The National Sports Development Seminar, in addition to Dr Balyi keynote address, also features presentations and workshops lead by Swimming who have made rapid progress in the last year having made a strong commitment to putting into practice a programme of Long Term Athlete Development