The Dream

C'mon, admit it. Very few adults around the world - yourself included - have experienced those precious childhood years without having wide-eyed visions of playing on a favorite professional sport big-league team. At one time or another, this ethereal dream seemed as likely and as real as the pungent smell of linseed oil generously slathered on the webbing and pocket of a baseball glove. Most kids embark on their fantasy sports adventure as a genetically-programmed rite of passage and take that scary first step - almost as soon as they can take their very first step - by signing up for the local “little-league” program. 

No sooner has the player smacked his first T-ball "shot heard 'round the world" and his loving parents vicariously fall prey to the entreaties of an “elite” coach promising college recruitment at the end of the rainbow. Lulled by the elite coach’s soft but commanding sideline rendition of a Lombardi half-time speech, clichés and all, his vocal inflections signal gravitas and evoke the possibility that college, and maybe even professional ball may be well within reach for your kid. And the best part is all you have to do - for only tens of thousands of dollars over the next ten years - is invest the family’s hard-earned income in club membership fees. These fees virtually guarantee that your 8-year old lad will have an opportunity to display his talent at “recruiting tournaments” under the coach’s expert tutelage. Yes, your youngster can reach the Promised Land and get recruited, just like those kids prominently listed on the home page of the teams’ registration website. But the tyke must adhere to the proscribed gospel as written by Dear Elite Coach. 

The Nightmare

Ok, then, so, please explain how this slam-dunk metaphysical certainty too often turns into an odyssey that frequently comes to a screeching, unceremonious halt well-before the anticipated expiration date? Well, that's because the facts and statistics overwhelmingly dispute the above narrative and its' conclusions. While a few athletes do indeed survive the gauntlet of elite youth sports - reaching the mountain top known as the "college of their choice" - extensive research affirms that 69+% of youth athletes "retire" from sport participation by the time they reach 11 years old.  Of course, this type of retirement is of a completely different variety - sans the fanfare and remuneration - and replete with disappointment, sadness, and emotional distress. In essence, the whole experience is too often an unmitigated disaster.

Whether the cause is burnout, or injury, or improper placement, or misery, discouragement, or genetic lag (late developer), too many youth athletes are pushed out the back door never to step into a sport environment again. And the numbers are staggering, Simple math indicates that the "pro/elite" training model - and its entrenched conventional wisdom - is based on false premises and illusions that deny athletes of all stripes an opportunity for lifetime sport participation, development, fun and engagement. The pro model paradoxically discourages generations of potential superstars from the path of success because of the (late stage) development of their physiological and emotional attributes. At its very core, the pro/elite model is wrong-headed and no more than an abysmal failure for youth athletes below the age of 15.

For most youth athletes, pro/elite training is an improper, ineffective and inappropriate choice for coordinated athletic activity.  And even for those athletes with high-level, early stage skills, the pro/elite model compounds development issues and problems by ripping these athletes from recreation programs designed to build physical literacy, skill, competency, and enjoyment. By psychologically forcing youth athletes to specialize in one sport, and ignoring phased developmental needs, the system produces underprepared and undercommitted athletes for higher-order competitive levels. 

The Reality

There is no such thing as an elite 10-year old athlete. I repeat: There is no such thing as an elite 10-year old athlete. Pushing a youth athlete into an "elite" program and branding him/her as such does not make it so. And that is because there are no shortcuts to athletic success. It takes time; in the proper environment; under favorable conditions; with consistent exposure to calibrated methodologies along with physiological maturation; skills immersion; and superior coaching. Scientific research concludes that it takes 8-12 years of training for a talented athlete to reach elite levels under proper guidance and training protocols. Ironically, it also takes over a decade to produce a well-rounded competent quality youth coach who understands how to develop proper skills in children. Unfortunately, the current sports culture misleads parents. Too many remain unresponsive, intolerant and resistant to the emerging science, refusing to accept that movement skills that improve athleticism are immeasurably more important than high-profile competitions where winning and championships rule the day. Please note: College coaches do not care what the win/loss record of the elite team may be nor how many championships your 12-year old may have won. These are not recruiting factors or criteria. 

There are alternative models of youth player development that value high-touch activities, self-organized play, self-directed decision-making, unimpeded risk-taking and fun. These programs are largely predicated on the following principles of the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model:

• Early sampling of multiple sports; 
• Unstructured free play;
• Small-sided games;
• Enjoyment-based activity (i.e. fun);
• Increased ratio of practices to competition;
• Physical literacy; 
• Peer relationships; 
• Widened funnels of sport entry and continued participation;
• Late developers.

Popular for decades in many European countries and elsewhere, the shift to a Long-Term Athlete Development approach in the U.S. demands the education of parents, coaches, and sport program organizations. LTAD's priorities, emphases and foci are always athlete-centric. Therefore, coaching education is one of the first points of attack when implementing these programs. The "best" coaches tend to gravitate toward working with the most advanced athletes, while inexperienced, unknowledgeable volunteers feebly attempt to inculcate foundational knowledge and content at arguably one of the most critical moments in a youth's athletic development. The "Daddy Ball Effect" results in regression to the mean where the emphasis on competition and winning supersedes and displaces the essential foundational aspects of technique, movement, and attitude. Daddy may mean well, but he can do a lot of damage in the absence of genuine coaching skill and sport knowledge.

The Possibilities

The Athletiq Youth Development Foundation (AYDF) is a non-profit organization that provides programs and services that support and maximize the individualized goals and dreams of youth athletes by applying the principles of the long-term athlete development model.  AYDF accomplishes its objectives by convening, coordinating and collaborating with diverse, nonpartisan thought leaders, innovators, scholars and influential members of the sports community to address some of the most complex problems facing youth athletes while building a lasting and collaborative relationship with each athlete. One aspect of our mission is to create a framework and subsequent curriculum that embraces and leverages the LTAD principles and enhances opportunities for youth athletes to optimize their athletic skills and capabilities.

The model relies on the concepts, precepts, theory, logic and experience of the Long-Term Athlete Development Model by focusing on the specific and unique needs, interests, capabilities and competencies of each individual youth athlete. AYD shapes its model by providing a point of reference for coaches, administrators, parents and sport scientists related to athlete participation patterns and performance-orientated pathways in sport and physical activity. The model, which transcends any particular sport and can be applied in virtually any sport setting, provides an executable structure with requisite details to improve the quality of sport participation and physical activity. 

The Athletiq Youth Development Model is based on three action-biased operating principles (OP) that intuitively and experientially reflect the patterns, behaviors and performance characteristics of successful athletes. These principles are:

Build a Physical Base

Any properly developed and implemented LTAD program is based on building a base for developmental progression of movements and skills. Mastery before progression is the fundamental precept in advancing to more difficult and complex movements. Because gross motor skills must be developed before fine motor skills, the youth athlete should demonstrate age appropriate competency of movement components before attempting more complex object control skills.

Know Your Stage of Development

The AYD model is a multi-stage framework. It guides participation, training, competition and recovery pathways in sport and physical activity and can be applied from infancy through all stages of adulthood. Effective implementation of the model expects that administrators, coaches, and parents know each stage of development; interprets each athletes developmental progress;  and recognizes the trajectory from one stage to next based on the athlete's development rather than just arbitrary group assignment based on chronological age.

Manage the Attributes

In the AYD Model, each stage is organized and delivered according to a set of factors (Training Attractor Attributes or TAA's). Each TAA is relevant to the specific circumstances and developmental needs and requirements of the athlete at that stage. These considerations are what separates "cookie-cutter" training programs from the detailed specifications of our LTAD-based curriculum. Our multi-stage model, like LTAD, is built upon a number of considerations such as physical literacy, specialization, periodization, and age, as examples.

As architects of an alternative system of player development based on the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model, we are re-imagining, re-designing and re-engineering the structure, approach and content of curricula, programs and activities of youth athlete development. It is not uncommon to mistake a clear view for a short distance, so we constantly sync up the long-term context of player development where high-touch environments, speed in play, precise decision-making, friendly fun, and unimpeded risk-taking take precedence over constant criticism. AYD's objective is to reduce if not eliminate the inveterate and inimical characteristics of the pro/elite model that drive premature disengagement so that true athletic potential may be recognized, achieved and enjoyed over the course of an athlete’s lifetime.