Going Long
A PRIMER ON LONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT By Dave Peszek
Didier Cuche: A great example of long-term athlete development.
Long-term athlete development — What’s wrong with
where we’ve been going? We might take some lessons from
other teams. “For starters, many athletes spend too much time
traveling, competing and recovering from competition and not
enough time preparing for it,” write the authors at USA Hockey’s website. “Second, there is too heavy a focus on the result
rather than the performance. This attitude leads to long-term
failure, as coaches forgo the development of skills to focus on
specific game tactics. And third, too many athletes are specializing too early on. An early focus on just one or two sports often leads to injuries, burnout and capping athletic potential.”
The solution, I believe, lies in the concept and application of
long term athletic development (LTAD) principles.
The concept of LTAD is not new, nor is it new to the sport of
alpine ski racing. But its visibility in our sport at all levels has
been growing, thanks to USSA’s sport education program,
the development of the Alpine Training System (ATS) model,
ongoing education efforts at the club level, and outside sources
of inspiration such as, hockey, soccer, swimming and other
nations.
