Part Two: 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. Part two covers the importance of developing movement, energy systems, and strength for long-term athletic development.

As a review, long-term athletic development (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 decrease risk of injury.  If you read part one of this series, we discussed the overarching principle of why LTAD is advantageous for coaches, athletes, and parents.  Four key principles of long-term athletic development are movement patterning and variability, energy systems development, strength development, and managing stress, all of which will be discussed here in part two. 

Movement Patterning and Variability
Within the discussion of movement patterning, we are talking about the learning and development of gross motor skills to be able to efficiently move, position, and load to transfer success from the training floor to the field and/or court.  What this ultimately means is that stacking “cool”, advanced exercises on top of dysfunctions or having an imbalance between sport, strength and conditioning, and overall stress will leave us with a sub-optimal foundation to develop from.  There should and always be a foundation for the athlete to successfully grow from.  What does that foundation look like?  A movement foundation consisting of developing the prime movement patterns: squat, hinge, horizontal press/pull, vertical press/pull, ground base core work, and locomotion as it pertains to sport. 

• The Squat and Hinge: Athletes should possess the ability to properly squat and hinge at an adequate level in order to optimally develop sport specific qualities.  Teaching an athlete how to effectively squat and hinge shows them how to load their primary movers in the likes of running, cutting, jumping, and landing.    Effectively building the squat and hinge patterns will strengthen the hips while also teaching foot/ankle and core stability.  The goblet box squat, pull throughs, and glute bridges are great movements to initially build the squat and hinge pattern of an athlete.  Building these patterns will help an athlete create a base from which they can develop long-term growth in multi-directional speed, agility, and jumping.  The below movement variations are also great for not developing any bad habits that could lead to injury down the road.
  
  
• Horizontal/Vertical Pressing and Pulling: Developing the ability to press and pull horizontally and vertically will not only strengthen the back and shoulders, but ultimately help build stability around the shoulder and develop scapulohumeral mechanics.  Think healthier shoulders with good strength, more stability, and mobility.  Movements such as the half-kneeling row and press variations are great introductory movements to build from.
  
  
• Ground Base Core Work: The purpose of the core is to be able to stabilize the trunk and pelvis, provide distal mobility, and allow the production and transfer of forces from the lower to upper body.  Ground based core work is a great starting point for giving the athlete a feedback loop for where neutral is and for teaching stiffness.  An exercise such as the dead bug is great to teach the athlete how to find neutral spine, create anterior core stiffness, and resist rotation and extension.
  
  

• Locomotion: When it comes to locomotion we are looking at the development of mechanics involved in running, acceleration, deceleration, jumping, and landing.  All of these in the beginning have a lot to do with posture.  It’s nothing hot or fancy, but highly effective.  Speed posturing drills such as wall pistons, arm swings, slant board starts, and others are great tools to teach and reinforce correcting posturing when it comes to creating angles and body positions to enhance speed.  Posture gets the athlete into the right position in order for the body to produce movement effectively.  Here, we are attacking with the thought process of owning positioning before getting fancy. In the end, the goal is to get the athlete being able to recognize and replicate foundational patterns learned in training to their competition.  The more efficiently this happens, the better the athlete will be at getting in and out of positions effectively which ultimately will lead to a faster, powerful, more agile, healthier athlete.  Before jumping to the fanciest, most complex drill or exercise, master the basics. 

Movement Variability
It is also imperative to provide the athlete with as much movement variability in comparison to their sport at times.  If an athlete is constantly overloaded in the transverse plane with rotation, for example a baseball player, then give them some work in the sagittal and frontal planes.  This concept can hold true especially during the in-season for an athlete.  I wouldn't want to necessarily overload them with what they're already receiving enough input from. Acquiring other skills and variability will decrease risk of injury, improve strength, and reduce stagnation.

Energy Systems Development
Let’s be honest.  The pyramids were not built from the top down.  Neither are our energy systems.  Therefore, athletes should condition themselves the right way in order to effectively build their energy systems. No more running athletes into the ground with countless suicides or sprints on the first day of practice or at the end of every practice.  If you were ever an athlete, I am sure you remember what that felt like.  Ultimately, there is a better way to build a more efficient athlete.  Here are three nuggets when it comes to developing the energy systems of an athlete:

• Specificity is king.  Each sport has different demands as it relates to pace, intensity, and duration of the activity.  That means, specificity is key when it comes to conditioning an athlete.  Ultimately, the body will adapt to the stimulus of training it is being provided.  If you constantly bombard athletes with high intensity sprinting year round, then they are going to be really good going for 10 seconds or so, but not too good past that point.  If they’re a baseball player or 100m sprinter, then this might not be too big of a deal.  However, if they are playing basketball or soccer, this probably wouldn’t bode too well.  Therefore, always crushing an athlete just because the old-school thought of “more is better”, will leave the athlete with lackluster development and performance.

 

• The aerobic system allows the athlete to work more efficiently at all ranges.  Even if the sport doesn’t require a lot of long duration, low intensity aerobic effort, it still remains crucial to have a good aerobic foundation underneath.  Having a good aerobic foundation allows the athlete to compete at high intensity levels for longer bouts, have better heart rate recovery in between high intensity bursts in order to reload, replenish substrates used for energy production, and become more resistant to fatigue and injury. 
  
  

Each sport lies somewhere on the “Power/Capacity” continuum, meaning, each sport relies on different amounts of power output and capacity or duration.  For example, Football and Baseball are high on the power side and low on the capacity/duration side, all the while, Soccer would certainly have power involved but be high on the capacity/duration side of the continuum.  Therefore, capacity based athletes should spend most of their time in practice or training fine tuning their aerobic system with some higher intensity power work mixed in time from time.  On the flip side, for power based athletes, an aerobic foundation needs to be built earlier in the season or off-season before working on developing the higher intensity energy systems such as the glycolytic or ATP-PC systems to develop power.  Overall, the message is we can’t just go balls to the wall with athletes all the time.  There needs to be structure and variability in order for the athlete to develop and not wear down.  Having the energy systems all working well with one another will help the athlete be able to develop and train at higher levels as they age and progress. 

Strength Development
Most youth athletes spend all of their time crushing skill work, speed work, skill work, speed work, skill work, skill work, skill work.  Can you see where I am going with this?

Young athletes spend the majority of their time forming skills in practice and competition, leaving them with minimal exposure to strength development to go with it.  The stronger an athlete can get in comparison to their body weight, the more potential they have to be able to be faster by applying and absorbing force better and the healthier they can ultimately be.  The health component being critical here.  Strength training helps athletes maximize force production, improve their capacity to withstand forces, and reduce stress/load related and soft tissue injuries.

Now, if an athlete is still in early development stages or is an older athlete who doesn’t have a training background/foundation, heavier loading should be reserved for once a solid foundation is formed.  Athletes at these ages are still learning how to move without drunkenly tripping over their shoelaces.  Therefore, the majority of loading should be done with the intent of developing a foundation of strength and movement to build upon.  A big thing young athletes don’t know how to do, is create stiffness and appropriate joint angles in order to adequately apply and handle force.  The strength and speed development work performed should do exactly that, reinforce good movement, teach how to create stiffness, and apply/absorb force.

Low level strength and speed exercises that were previously mentioned are a great starting spot that can pay huge dividends in the long run.  Even high-level athletes can and should mix in this type of work on the regular in order to maintain good, habitual movement.  In the grand scheme of things, if the goal is to develop the athlete overall, then a foundation of strength and speed should be built within the proper limits to eventually build them into an all-star. The athletes who skip this important strength development work, skip to advanced training too soon, or train randomly are the ones that end up missing the bigger picture.

Managing Stress
With sport now being a year round endeavor and athletes certain to experience loading  from competition, practice, and training, managing stress is a critical factor in athlete success.  Managing intensity and volume across competition, practice, and training should be optimized in order to ensure adaptation and avoid overtraining or eventual burnout.  Planning high-low periods, off periods, and dedicating time to well-organized strength and conditioning can help ensure long term stress management.  Other key factors such as nutrition and sleep hygiene are also vital for athlete development.

What’s to Come
Part three will cover the importance of mobility, stability, nutrition, sleep hygiene, recovery, and how they all fit into the equation of long-term athletic development.