The latest science in the sports world is showing us that traditional approaches to sport in Canada have served to reduce participation numbers, led to poor results, and even caused injury. A lot of our youth are missing out on key factors at the right developmental age. This causes all kinds of issues on each end of the spectrum, like lack of confidence that might cause a youth to avoid sports, to athletes going sport-specific too early and causing serious injuries from overtraining.
Sport Medicine Clinics see too many injuries that happen because youth go into a specific sport too young. This causes imbalances and overtraining of specific muscles to that sport that could damage them for life. This is why the Canadian Sport for Life (“un-organization” of experts from sport, health, recreation, government and academia who are employed independently of CS4L yet work cooperatively to promote its goals) has developed the LTAD model – Long-Term Athletic Development:
“A developmental pathway whereby athletes follow optimal training, competition, and recovery regimens from childhood through all phases of adulthood. The vision behind Canadian Sport for Life is to reshape how we support sport and train athletes at all levels in Canada.”
The LTAD model combines the best research in today’s sport science with the best practices in coaching and training from around the world. They have developed a program that has seven stages that support training, competition and recovery programs based on developmental age (the physical, mental and emotional maturation of the individual, rather than chronological age). The stages ensure that our youth are getting the right physical literacy and fundamental skills at the right development stage to create a confident diverse athlete. They build a strong foundation that can be carried over to any sport.
At Supreme Courts, we fully support this model and are putting it into practice in our Multi-Sport
PD days, camps and specifically in our after-school programs starting this fall. We will have all stages of the LTAD so that our athletes can grow with us and build the foundation they need to develop their specific sport.
If you would like more information about how we can help build your future athletes, please call us at 226-667-9900, or email tara@supremecourts.ca.
www.supremecourtsvolleyball.com
Story and photo submitted by: Supreme Courts
