Part One: A Critical framework for Long Term Athletic development

A three-part series dedicated to the discussion of long-term athletic development for athletes and coaches.  Athletes and new lifters are often being pushed too hard, too fast.  What actually goes into training, coaching, and developing an athlete or lifter from young/novice trainee to a superstar?

People often ask me why I became a strength and conditioning coach.  Now, I could answer that question one of two ways.  One, I could simply state that I wanted to help people.  Two, I could tell them the real answer, being, I was an athlete who specialized early, which then brought on the feelings of constantly being burnt out and always being injured.  This led me to ending my basketball playing career in college way sooner than I had ever hoped.  Truth be told, I wanted to help athletes and others from all walks not make the same mistakes that I made when I was a high-level athlete.

The story is all too familiar these days.  Athletes all over the place are specializing in sports at a younger and younger age by the year, all the while coaches and parents may be one of several driving factors to do so.  Gone are the days where each season would bring a new sport to compete in.  Now, there are indoor and outdoor leagues, clinics, practices, and training for the athlete to compete year-round.  Along with this comes the fear that if the athlete doesn’t compete in said sport year-round like the rest of the kids, then they will ultimately fall behind.  The associated risks with this is the constant repetitiveness and volume of the same movement patterns and loading year-round to a body that is still developing.  This leads an athlete to developing imbalances from being over-developed in one area and under-developed in another, which then ultimately leads to injury.  Take a youth baseball pitcher for example.  The pitcher is standing on the mound throwing for X amount of games, practices, and training sessions each week.  Instead of for a season of a few months and then giving the shoulder and elbow time to recover while moving to a different sport or rest. Instead, this is being done for 12 months on the year.  Often times, without any other sport or strength training to accommodate.  This is a big reason why according to Dr. James Andrews, the amount of Tommy John and shoulder surgeries performed on 13-19 year olds has increased seven-fold since 2000.  Now, 13-19 year olds are the most common age range these surgeries are being performed on.  All of which are injuries brought upon by overuse.  Now, this can happen with any sport and injury, however overall, early specialization can lead to the creation of avoidable imbalances and overloading which may lead to injury, overuse, or burn out.

This article is not to fear monger you as an athlete, coach, parent, or new fitness enthusiast.  This series is only serving to help shed a greater amount of light on the concept of long-term athletic development (LTAD).  LTAD refers to the progressive development of on- and off-field skill, strength, speed, and movement over time in order to enhance performance and growth, and mitigate risk of injury.

What Goes into Long-Term Athletic Development?
1.       Movement Patterning and Movement Variability
Before we learn how to walk, we crawl.  Before we learn how to jump, we squat.  The same goes for any advanced skill.  While we are always so focused on the end game and never appreciate the processes that actually get us to the end result.  Athletes, some parents, and some coaches always want to push or jump straight to fancy, intense training.  Could we jump straight to little Johnny throwing a bar on his back or performing turbo x3000 (there isn’t actually an exercise with that name, but if there was, I’m sure it would be awesome)?  Yes.  Will that get us to a good point?  Probably not.

One of the primary roles for a strength and conditioning coach is to teach their athlete how to efficiently move, position, and load in order to increase strength, speed, deceleration, and reduce risk of injury.  Movement patterning allows us to develop the gross motor skills required to transfer success to the field or court.  Part two of this series will discuss how to optimally develop, periodize, and vary movement for long-term success.

2.       Energy Systems Development
 
If you have reported to the first day of practice for any sport, I am sure you know or remember what it feels like to rapidly perform all out sprints or suicides until you’re on the verge of puking.  Not only does this type of approach not help the athlete develop their conditioning the right way, it can also quickly lead to fatigue and injury. 
 
Our energy systems work like a house.  At each level of our house we have different energy systems at play in order to match the varying demands of the sports intensity or pace.  If we have certain energy systems overpowering others, our house will collapse.  In part two we will discuss how to optimally develop and train our aerobic, lactic, and alactic systems to maximize conditioning and performance in the sense of LTAD.
 
3.       Strength
 
Strength is a big part of the LTAD equation.  Strength ultimately allows us to express and absorb force.  The stronger one becomes, the faster, more agile, and healthy they can be.  Part two of this series will discuss how to train to maximally develop strength.
 
4.       Mobility and Stability
 
Maintaining mobility and stability as an athlete grows and adapts is crucial in order limit the risk of injury as age and competition level increases.  As an athlete expresses a feature, skill, or movement within their sport, there is always a level of mobility and stability required to carry the said action.  Mobility and stability keeps our joints and tissue healthy. 
 
5.       Nutrition
 
Nutrition is all about fueling the body properly and enough in order to recover and ultimately adapt from the stresses of training, practice, and competition.  Wilt Chamberlain used to drink Sprite on the sidelines.  Sadly, if we want to have long-term success, we can’t all be like Wilt. 
 
6.       Recovery
 
More is not always better.  If we want to be able to see adaptations from training, we need to be able to recover.  If recovery is bad, then the risk of overtraining, fatigue, and injury increases.  In order to maximize recovery, we need factors such as sleep hygiene, nutrition, and stress reduction techniques to work together to optimally control the total amount of stress being placed on the body. 
 
Make sure to check out part two of this series to learn how to maximize the development of movement patterning and variability, energy systems, and strength for long-term success.  In part three we will cover the best practices for developing mobility and stability, nutritional health, and recovery for LTAD.