Blog | sports coach UK

Blog | sports coach UK

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).