Long Term Athlete Development

Scientific research has identified that it takes 10,000hrs or 10 years for talented athletes to achieve sporting excellence.

Two ways in which our young swimmers can improve their performance are :

a) Training

b) Growth & development.

Taking these two points into consideration swimmers & coaches should follow the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) guidelines. These guidelines are about giving the athlete the correct amount of training, competition & recovery throughout their career. This is very important when the athlete starts growing & developing because if the long term wasn't followed the athlete's performance may plateau and in some cases their performances may get worse. If a short term training plan has been followed it is often too late to reverse and can lead to the athlete dropping out before they have achieved their potential.

There are five main stages in the LTAD framework which are based around the human growth & development and these have been adapted to swimming. Young people all follow the same growth pattern although this may be at slightly different ages. Peoples growth & development would occur without training but the training can enhance the changes that are taking place.

Scientists have found that there are certain times in an athlete's growth & development where the effects of training can be maximised. This is where the five main stages of the LTAD come into play. These five stages are :

a) FUNdamental – basic movement literacy

b) Swimskills – building technique

c) Training to train – building the engine

d) Training to compete – optimising the engine

e) Training to win – maximising the engine

Stage 1 - FUNdamentals

This stage is all about developing the basic movements which can be categorised as :

ABCs - Agility, Balance, Coordination, Speed

RJT - Running, Jumping, Throwing

KGBs - Kinesthetics, Gliding, Buoyancy, Striking with the body

CKs - Catching, Kicking, Striking with an implement

These should be developed using FUN & games through programmes that are well structured and monitored frequently.

Stage 2 - Swimskills: Building technique

In this stage the young swimmers learn how to develop the skills of the sport and learn how to train. They will also learn the importance of:

a) Warm up/cool down

b) Stretching

c) Hydration & nutrition

d) Recovery

e) Relaxation & focusing.

This stage is used to develop the skill & techniques required. The emphasis should be on training but competition should be introduced to test the skills that have been developed.

It is said that if a young swimmer misses this stage they will never reach their full potential and also one of the main reasons why swimmers plateau in later stages is down to competing too much at this stage and not optimising the training.

For this stage the ages are for girls - 8-11yrs, for boys 9-12yrs.

 

Stage 3 - Training to train - Building the engine

During this stage we concentrate on endurance to help build up the swimmers aerobic capacity. The aim is to develop the heart & lungs and this is done through long distances. We aim to encourage young swimmers to train & compete in the longer distances to build a good endurance level. Training should still be the main focus and should be high volume low intensity. This requires more time to be put into training hence more hours in the pool.

Training should try to include exercises that will develop suppleness for the swimmers such as "Swiss ball/medicine ball exercises" and later bring in strength exercises. It's also the time to educate the swimmers on warm up/cool down, stretching, how & when to taper and peak, mental preparations and the importance of pre-competition, competition & post competition routines.

Again, if the right amount of time isn't spent on this stage the swimmer may not reach their full potential.

This stage is the adolescence years.

Stage 4 - Training to compete - optimising the engine.

This stage continues the journey of improving physical conditioning through high intensity workouts but increasing the intensity. Swimmers should develop individual strengths and work on weaknesses based around specific strokes over various distances or work on certain distances across all strokes.

Weights can be introduced to increase strength but the emphasis should be on correct lifting technique along with maintaining suppleness and increasing core strength.

Stage 5 - Training to win - maximising the engine.

The final stage of development where the swimmer concentrates on producing the best possible performance in their chosen events. Swimmers are trained to peak for certain competitions and events, so the training becomes more individual for the swimmer and their chosen events.

As previous stage continued development in body strength. core strength and suppleness is essential.

Adulthood.

More detailed information can be found on the ASA/British Swimming website.

http://www.swimming.org/britishswimming/