LTAD
Long Term Athlete Development
Badminton for Life: Long-Term Athlete Development
What is it?
Long-term athlete development, or LTAD, is a system originally designed by Canadian Sport Centre’s LTAD Expert Group, which has recently been adopted by Badminton Canada to produce internationally successful athletes. Many sport organizations in Canada and around the world are already using similarly designed LTAD systems.
“The LTAD Framework is a sport development framework that is built on the basis of human growth and development. It is a system of training, competition and recovery based on the developmental age or maturity level rather than the chronological age of an individual.” - Badminton for Life: Long-Term Athlete Development
Why do we need LTAD?
Currently, the badminton development system of Badminton Canada is varied and inconsistent. The ‘Badminton for Life: Long-Term Athlete Development’ booklet states that “Coaches and parents have a variety of philosophies when it comes to the optimum way to develop athletes. It is quite common for the emphasis to be on outcome (winning) as opposed to the [the] process (skill development)...” Badminton LTAD offers structured and healthy means to develop internationally dominant athletes.
How will it do this?
The LTAD system that Badminton Canada has released is comprehensive and detailed. Essentially, it provides a guideline and long term path for athletes of all skill levels. More specifically, though, it emphasizes when and what kind of exercises athletes should be doing at different stages of their physical maturity, as opposed to their age.
There exist eight major stages:
1 Active Start (M, F 0-6) – Teaches fundamental movements and makes physical activity a fun, daily routine.
2 FUNdamentals (M 6-9, F 6-8) – Begins teaching the ABCs and overall skill development, including badminton-specific skills.
3 Learn to Train (M 9-12, F 8-11) – Develops fundamental badminton skills and physical literacy.
4 Train to Train (M 12-16, F 11-15) – Focuses on major fitness development with an emphasis on aerobic development at the onset of the growth spurt.
5 Train to Compete (M 16-19, F 15-18) – Enhances performance based on the discipline preference (singles, doubles or mixed) of the individual.
6 Learn to Win (M 19-23, F 18-21) – Refines previously developed capacities and heightens experience and confidence in national and international competitions.
7 Train to Win (M 23+, F 21+) – Maximizes all previously established capacities, thereby maximizing performance.
8 Active for Life (M, F any age) – Transitions high performance athletes into a participation role and encourages everyone – whether competitive or recreational athletes – to remain active for life.
The 10 Year Rule
The 10 year rule states that it takes a minimum of ten years and 10, 000 hours of training for talented athletes to reach elite levels for any sport. Taking this into consideration, the LTAD plan hi-lites that Canadian Olympic badminton athletes are peaking too late, and accordingly, are not making it to the podium at international events. To remedy this, there exist a number of advanced stages, which become more specific as the athlete progresses: FUNdamentals stage, specialization, developmental age (which is dependent on the physical maturity of the athlete), trainability, physical, mental, cognitive and emotional development, periodization, calendar planning for competition, system alignment and integration, and continuous improvement.
Okay, LTAD sounds like a pretty good idea for Badminton Canada. Is there anything else I should know?
Yes! In addition to all the information above, the Life: Long-Term Athlete Development manual also goes over topics such as developing well rounded and healthy athletes, perfecting skills and staying active with badminton for life. We strongly recommend you take some time and read through the manual.
More information about the LTAD can be found at the Coaching Manitoba Resource Centre.