http://ucoach.com/elearning/mod/page/view.php?id=321
Notes.
- Athlete development model (ADM)
- coaches are dealing with changing individuals, especially young athletes
- ADM is an awareness of the progression and development of young athletes
- Generic vs event specific model – how does the model apply to my athlete?
- Biological development – maturational process
- Training
- Conditioning
- Training and Competition requirements
- Chronological age vs developmental age (physical, psychological state of athlete)
- is the athlete emotionally/psychologically ready for the type of training
- is the athlete physically developed enough for the type of training
- Coach/athlete relationship will mature/differ over time
- Stages
- Pre-puberty
- Puberty – changes in hormones
- Post puberty
- Adulthood
- Key figure is the rate of change of growth
- Different between male/female
- Alactic – changes little over age
- Lactic – changes over time, doesn’t mature fully until after puberty
- Aerobic – dominant in young athletes and switches on more quickly
- Biomechanical Energy Return
- Muscle Cross Sectional Area (CSA) – related to force muscle can produce, puberty allows increase of muscle mass (more in males than females – testosterone). As girls mature earlier it may be possible to start strength training earlier
- Neural Recruitment – can the brain control the muscles? Best trained before puberty.
- Tendon and bone – muscles do not exist in isolation – bones, muscles and tendons grow at different rates
- Can challenge females earlier
- Female talent may appear earlier, but may not extend
- Growth in hip width can effect knee angles in female
- Coordination
- Pre-puberty – easier to train coordination
- Puberty – mass gets bigger and moves towards extremities, limbs get longer, coordination can decrease and may need re-learning
- Post-puberty – refine skills, more event specific
- Mobility
- Often compromised around Peak Height Velocity (PHV)/puberty
- Due to unequal growth in bone, tendon and muscle growth
- Mobility reduces and may not return to earlier levels
Training considerations
- Choose training regimes based on developmental age
- Alactic changes little over time – can be used to progressively challenge athletes, train speed all the time, explosive nature of training is acceptable
- Lactate – training may not be appropriate for pre-puberty athletes, concentrate on skill activity – learn to express force in most efficient way – balance fatigue vs coordination
- Aerobic – pre-puberty training may not be as efficient as high-intensity training for skills acquisition
- Better to concentrate on skills acquisition as this may have a better effect for later in life.
- High intensity work (10secs fast, rest repeated) will develop aerobic
- Use variety of approaches
- Biomechanical energy return
- Leg as spring storing and releasing energy (free energy if efficient)
- Learn to develop energy return through coordination and improved strength as CSA increases
- CSA – females develop CSA earlier than males – muscle hypertrophy – females will not develop as big muscles as males (testosterone levels are different) – increased hypertrophy will tend to leas to women becoming leaner
- Neural recruitment – develop better pre-puberty, but body shapes change at puberty, so re-visit after puberty. Refinement at adulthood, use body weight but focus towards event specialism
- Tendons – repeated and progressive general base load pre puberty, in adulthood move to specialised high load
- Bones – bones change dependant on stimulus, so use range of developement, link between bone density post-puberty and osteoporosis in later life, direct link to nutrition, must have enough calcium etc. Strength training develops bone density, may use this effectively in young athletes , diversity is important
- Coordination
- General coordination, running, jumping, throwing, strength shapes pre-puberty. Begin to do some event specific coordination, then post puberty reinforce general coordination and then begin to refine for specific events
- Learn to run when you are young (example of rugby players not learning to run – applies to orienteers too)
- Girls have issues with pelvic width, specifically knee and ankles and with increased body mass with increase body fat, muscles have to work harder to move mass
- Girls coordination lag may put them off their event before their coordination catches back up
- Mobility
- during growth phase use fundamental movement patterns to maintain mobility, e.g. squats, drills etc.
Training and Competition Requirements
- Sports focus – moves from multi-activity through multi-event, event group to event specialisation
- Training frequency – increases from 2/3 to twice a day 5/6 days a week
- Total physical activity – 12+ hours per week up to 21, then specific training only
- (All a bit obvious and video goes on a bit too long)
- Still possible to train world class athletes without the best facilities
Conditioning
- Start with technical work rather than loaded work, then progress loads
- Conditioning orientation – multi-lateral, progressing to unilateral then bi lateral , early emphasis on single leg movements, later emphasis on bi-lateral to allow greater power acquisition (don’t drop uni-lateral)
- Loading focus – mainly bodyweight, through comfort loading, then progressive and performance
Summary
- Younger athletes focus on skills rather than energy systems and general coordination
- Event group stage, athlete going through growth spurts, so beware, especially females
- One chance with an athlete