EDITOR’S NOTE:
This latest offering is a bit of a departure as the content came from some notes that I put together in preparation for a recent podcast interview on some questions relating to talent development that were provided in advance. The podcast should be airing soon (details to follow via the usual social media channels once the release date is confirmed) but on the day the conversation ended up exploring a variety of topics including some other areas, so we did not manage to cover everything that we planned to. In lieu of that, I decided to take the opportunity to provide a full response on each of the four themes originally identified by the host. I have kept the Q&A format and the responses are in the first person, as they are also my opinions based on reflections from my professional journey to date, as well as much reading on these topics.
What are the key principles of youth athlete development and how do we best structure this?
Beyond the disputes on the specifics of the LTAD model, I think the term ‘Long-Term Athlete Development’ describes each of the most salient principles.
So the first principle is thinking long-term. To give the example of a national development programme, we should not be unduly concerned about winning junior-level competitions. Our approach should rather reflect the ultimate mission, which is to produce athletes who are capable of winning on the world stage as a senior. Competition success and ranking as a junior does not reliably predict success at under-20 and senior level. In other words, winning junior tournaments is not a reliable indicator of an athlete’s potential to perform and win as a senior. Aside from the questionable relevance, chasing short term wins can easily detract and distract from the mission. Absolutely we want to see positive progression in competition performances and improvements in times, distances etc., but this should not bias our programming or how we engage with the athlete.
The second key principle is that the process should be centred on the athlete. We must treat each performer as an individual. The onus should be their goals, their role in the process and the plan must reflect where they are on their individual trajectory. The whole thing is about them, for them and in due course by them. A spirit of stewardship is therefore helpful - wherever they end up and whatever they end up doing, our objective is that they leave the pathway (whenever that might be) better equipped than when they entered. Equally, doing the work is up to them and they are responsible for their own level of commitment and how they invest themselves each day. So athlete-centred also means we must continually emphasis their role in the process and the responsibilities that come with that.
The final principle is that we should maintain a development focus. Circling back to the first point, the focus should remain on the ongoing process, paying less attention to short-term outcomes. If we take care of the process, the outcomes will follow (knowing it is the extended timelines that matter). To that end, both training and competition should focus on the opportunities to learn and develop. Beyond planning and programming, this also needs to be reflected in our words and our actions as coaches.
How do we identify, nurture and develop talented youth athletes and what are some of the common issues you encounter in this process?
To deal with the first part, the reality is our ability to identify talent early on is very poor. Kids demonstrate promise at different times and in different ways - in some cases this may happen late in the teenage years or even early 20s. Talent is something that emerges and until individual growth and maturation curves stabilise and converge in late adolescence we have no reliable basis for comparing one athlete to another in their peer group, especially when it comes to physical performance measures. Skills provide a better indication. Character traits are also less skewed by development curves, but even there every young performer is a work in progress. In general we are too confident in our ability to spot talent and worse still too quick to dismiss kids we deem to be not gifted. The bottom line is we don’t know with any real certainty what a young performer might be capable of. Some of the greatest performers in sport were not on anybody’s radar until very late in their development.
Talent it is also elusive. On the question of how do we nurture talent, during the journey our role is to create the conditions to ignite, nurture and protect the flame. Often it is a coach who plays a decisive role in the trajectory of a young performer - essentially providing the spark. With regards to nurturing the flame, we should be wary about throwing too much at them too soon when they start to show promise. It is striking that those who are recruited to talent development pathways earliest tend to fall by the wayside. We would be better advised to give them some space to let them figure things out. Likewise, the quickest way to stunt a kid’s development is to single them out as special or talented. Being labelled as talented or special harms motivation and impedes growth. Part of protecting the flame is keeping an eye on what is fueling the young performer. Extrinsic rewards and external validation over time tend to poison the intrinsic motivation to train and compete for the simple joy and satisfaction of doing so.
From a developmental point of view, we need to be very careful what we reward. As the grown ups, we need to be mindful of what we are communicating to young performers with our actions and interactions. What we reward and how we act will naturally shape young performers’ attitudes and behaviours.
In particular, if the process is about learning, we need to afford the opportunity to explore and engage in trial and error. How we respond to mistakes is critical in shaping performers’ attitudes in terms of how they appraise particular situations and choose to proceed. Naturally performers will not be inclined to try things if the risks of failing are that they might lose their status as ‘special’ or incur our wrath and disappointment. Likewise, if we speak about having a process-focus, we need to conduct ourselves accordingly, especially during a competition and in the immediate aftermath. In other words, if we have identified a particular learning or development goal for a competition then that should determine the interactions during and following. If we are more caught up in whether they won or lost then our words ring hollow and our actions will lead them to the opposite conclusion (i.e. the result is everything after all).
Long story short, what we should reward is effort and attention. We must also strive to incentivise learning at all times. Conversely we should not reward athletic gifts or potential - those gifts were not earned (unless they chose their parents) and they have not achieved anything yet.
In relation to long term athlete development, how do we approach training for youth athletes in a way that enhances sports performance and injury risk mitigation whilst also keeping this process fun and engaging?
Improving performance and mitigating injury risk are effectively two sides of the same coin. Training is geared to increasing capacity at each link in the chain as well as fitness and the ability to hold form under fatigue. Through a combination of training and skill development we are also seeking to improve capability so that the young athlete becomes capable and skilled at moving in ways that are mechanically effective. If the forces involved are going in the right direction and are distributed properly they not only perform better but there is less wear and tear.
The fun part is an interesting question. There is joy that comes from moving, exploring and discovering what your body is capable of doing. Sessions can be fun without it becoming a kids camp where they are just running and playing about without any real purpose. There needs to be a degree of structure to steer adaptation and achieve defined outcomes. Both the content of the session and how the kids engage with it must have a sense of purpose. Equally we want to ensure that those attending are active for as much of the session as possible rather than standing around or being talked at. Engagement and motivation comes by providing challenge. Kids derive satisfaction from getting better, becoming stronger and acquiring new skills. Those feelings of satisfaction and sense of progress fosters continuing engagement.
One of the keys when working with young performers is to emphasise discovery and instill a sense of curiosity. We can give them a couple of clues, set some parameters, let them have a go and then help guide them to figure it out. Naturally the more competent you get the more enjoyable the activity becomes. You also want youngsters to be continually learning in each session - the more they learn and the better they understand the sport, the more the various facets of skills and layers of the game reveal themselves to the performer.
There is a natural fascination that comes from observing skilled athletes and high level sport that captures attention. Having older and better athletes in the environment to model skills and behaviours is always helpful. The pursuit of mastery has no endpoint and is an endless source of motivation. As the young performer gets better and starts to enjoy success it is also good for them to be schooled every now by a superior competitor to get a glimpse and a reminder of how many more levels there are.
Do you have any practical advice for parents and coaches working with talented youth athletes?
There is so much here that I am actually in the process of writing a book on the topic. Parents have such a pivotal role. They are effectively an extension of the coaching team. It makes sense that we need to equip parents of young performers to navigate these duties and avoid the pitfalls. We should also recognise that parents also assume the role of agent and high performance director. It follows we also need to arm them with the necessary understanding to choose the right environment for the young performer and be discerning when enlisting other specialist support.
In almost every case, parents act with the best of intentions. When their actions end up being counterproductive this is simply due to being unaware of the unintended second order effects and in fairness much of it is not intuitive!
Parents are naturally hugely influential figures in the young person’s life and so how they conduct themselves in the context of the sport has a profound effect on the young performer. Then there is the additional challenge of balancing the role of parent with their sport parenting duties. Keeping some separation between sport and life outside sport is crucial, especially when it comes to the relationship between the performer and their parents.
Parents gravitate towards youth sports as a healthy and productive outlet for kids to invest their time and energy. Parental support is critical to providing kids the opportunities to play sport - even something as fundamental as providing the transport to attend practices! Enthusiastic and supportive parents are a huge asset; however there is a need to allow some autonomy and ownership. That said, providing too much to support can lead young performers to delegate responsibility. When parents become too involved this can also present other problems, especially as young performers enter adolescence and are starting to find their way in the world. In some ways it is better to err on the side of doing too little than too much!
One of the reasons why parents like sport so much is that it provides lessons and development opportunities that benefit young performers in other areas of their life (notably school). Just as parents are a de facto extension of the coaching team, a trusted coach serves as an extension of the parenting effort. All parties should have a clear set of ground rules and establish their expectations going in. It is however necessary that the coaches are given permission to hold young performers to those standards. Parents have a crucial role in supporting this effort. They must allow the young performer to be challenged and to be disciplined when they fail to meet the minimum standards agreed. This is vital to maintaining an environment that allows performers to flourish.
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