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Junior Development >>
Long-Term Athlete Development
JD: Long-Term Athlete Development
Why were the 200m and 400m races dropped from the list of events for
9 and 10 year olds and the 200m Hurdles for 11 year olds?
This policy is based on a motion presented to and passed at the
Annual General Meeting of BC Athletics in January, 2007. It was proposed
by coaches who have been involved in the development of the Long-Term
Athlete Development (LTAD) model proposed by Sport Canada and being
considered by practically every national and provincial sports
organization in Canada.
The rationale for dropping high intensity activities for young
athletes was given by the movers of the 2007 motion to the AGM. See
below for rationale presented with the motion. Click
here to see a table from the LTAD model (GIF image, 185
KB) that shows what activities should be done at various ages.
The basic premise is that periods of high intensity activity of
longer than 10 seconds is injurious to the long term physical
development of young athletes. Thus, the dropping of the 200m and 400m
races for 9 and 10 year olds and the 200m hurdles for 11 year olds. 60m
races were added for the 9, 10 and 11 year olds to replace the 200m
races. This allows these athletes to get exposure to sprinting
techniques without over extending them.
If one Googles the term “Long-Term Athlete Development”, one will
get 13000 hits. If one examines the first 100 or so hits, one will find
a whole range of sports in Canada who are busy adapting the LTAD program
to their sport. Athletics Canada has been doing so. During the next 18
months, a committee of BC Athletics will be looking at how the LTAD will
be implemented for athletics in British Columbia. It will try to balance
the competitive nature of athletics with the consideration of the long
term development of young athletes, particularly those aspects that may
be detrimental to their later development as competitive athletes
For those of you who want more information on the LTAD you can access
a variety of sites:
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BACKGROUND FOR BC ATHLETICS AGM RESOLUTIONS
2007
In order to better serve the needs of the children of Junior
Development age (9-14 years), I proposed a series of resolutions that
would tie the events offered to this age group to the Long Term Athlete
Development goals outlined in LTAD documents since 1996.
The resolutions were tabled for consideration of the Junior
Development and Senior Committees of BC Athletics. These resolutions
will be resubmitted at the 2006 BC Athletics AGM.
In order to supply the committees with more information about the
impact of LTAD on event selection, I’ve copied a number of excerpts
from the paper “COACHING CHILDREN IN SPORT, Principles and Practice”
edited by Martin Lee. This document pulls together the most recent
information on the subject.
Chapter 6. Children’s physiological responses to exercise by
Neil Armstrong and Joanne Weisman. The following are about
Energy Systems, in particular the Anaerobic Lactic (lactacid) Energy
System:
“Clear differences in lactate responses to exercise exist between
children and adults. Both the muscle lactate and blood lactate
concentrations of children are lower than adults at all submaximal
exercise intensities. The maximal post-exercise blood lactate levels
of children rise with age and the maximal muscle lactate concentration
is much lower in the child than the adult.”
“However, there is clear evidence that even mid to late
adolescents who are sexually mature respond to exercise with lower
blood lactate levels than adults.”
“…although there is consistent evidence to suggest that the
enzyme profile of children’s muscle is geared towards providing
energy from oxidative (aerobic) rather than glycolytic (anaerobic)
sources.”
“Age and maturational differences are more pronounced in
activities demanding the generation of energy anaerobically and children
are at a severe functional disadvantage compared with adults when
performing strenuous (supramaximal) activities of between 10sec and
60sec duration.”
The following from the same chapter is about speed:
“The muscular concentration of high energy phosphates (ATP and
CP) is very similar in children and adults and they are used at much
the same rate during intensive exercise. Children should therefore
be as well equipped as adults to compete in events of very short
duration.”
In Chapter 15.4 the authors state:
“The available evidence suggests that lactacid training with
children is probably of little value until late adolescence.”
In Chapter 15.8 Conclusion:
“Children are adequately equipped to handle activities which
require short but intensive exertion (phosphagen system) or more
prolonged periods of moderate exertion (aerobic system). They are not
well equipped to cope with training which demands a significant
contribution from the lactacid system. Training of the lactacid system
should generally be left until after the peak of the growth spurt has
been reached.”
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