Long-Term
Athlete Development
Peter D. McCraw
IMG Academies – Bollettieri Tennis Academy
What
does it take to create a junior or a professional champion? The answer is
complex, but one factor that has been generally overlooked in tennis
coaching is what we call long-term athletic development. To maximize a
player’s potential, coaching methodology should be based on a long-term
philosophy. This philosophy takes into account the development of the
athlete over time, not just short term competitive results. Long-term
development is the basis for training in Olympic sports. Unfortunately, as
in so many areas of coaching, tennis is lagging far behind when it comes
to recognizing or implementing this critical principle.
It takes eight to twelve years of training for an athlete to reach
elite levels. That's three hours practice a day for ten years.
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The Ten-year or 10,000 Hour Rule
Scientific
research has concluded that it takes eight to twelve years of training for
an athlete to reach elite levels. This is called the ten-year or 10,000
hour rule. For the athlete, coach, and parents, this translates into
slightly more than three hours of deliberate practice a day, for a period
of ten years.
Unfortunately,
too many coaches still approach training with an attitude best
characterized as “win by Friday”. Too often, the long-term interests
of a player is sacrificed for short-term tournament results and
rankings. Typically, coaches with this attitude develop players who
are over-coached but under-developed. Many successful players trained with
this approach reach the 16s or 18s age divisions without a clearly defined
style of play, or with significant technical, tactical, mental, or
physical limitations. At this point it’s too late to reverse the damage.
The players’ potential growth has been stunted.
A
specific and well-planned training regime ensures optimum development
throughout an athlete’s career. This means developing every aspect of
the game and helping a player meld his skills into a personal playing
style. A long term development plan also gives coaches the ability to
control another critical factor in training: the stress-recovery cycle. If
the stress-recovery cycle is not properly understood and addressed it can
lead to overtraining, burn out, and major injuries. Ultimately success
comes from training and performing well over the long-term rather than
winning in the short-term.
Between the ages of 9 - 12 children should be encouraged to
participate in a wide variety of
sports.
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Training Requirements of
Different Sports
In
principle, sports can be classified as either early specialization or late
specialization sports. Early specialization sports include
gymnastics, figure skating, diving, and swimming. These sports
require early recruitment of athletes and early specialized training. Late specialization sports include golf, racquet sports, all ball
games, cycling, and combative sports. These require the opposite approach.
Here a generalized approach to early training is
key. The early emphasis should be on the development of general,
fundamental motor skills.
Because
tennis is a late specialization sport, we do not recommend coaches,
parents, and children adopt an early specialization regime prior to the age
of ten. The ages of 9 to 12, often called ‘Golden Age,’
are one of the most important periods of motor development for children. It is during this
period that children are developmentally ready to acquire the
fundamental movement skills that are the cornerstones of all athletic
development.
The
FUNdamental stage should be well structured and fun!
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These
fundamental skills include running, hopping, bounding, throwing, and
jumping. The introduction of the ABC’s of athleticism (agility, balance,
coordination, speed) during this period lay the foundation for later
years. The basic fundamental skills must be practiced and mastered
before higher level sport specific skills can be successfully learned,
hence, at a young age we encourage participation in a wide variety of
sports.
The
emphasis on motor skill development in a positive, supportive, and fun
environment will yield athletes who have a better trainability for
long-term tennis specific development. Research indicates that if
fundamental motor skill training is not developed between the ages of
9-12, the loss of motor skill development cannot be recaptured at a later
time.
To
compensate for possible early shortcomings of athlete preparation, we
place significant emphasis on planning, periodization, pediatric exercise
physiology, growth & maturation, motor learning, and sport psychology
in the later stages of development (see below).
The 4
Stage Model of Long-Term Athlete Development
 Because
tennis is a late specialization sport, we adopt a four stage training
model which consists of:
1 - FUNdamental stage
2 - Training to Train stage
3 - Training To Compete stage
4 - Training to Win stage
Stage 1
– FUNdamental StageTM
- Age 5
to 10 years.
.jpg)
The
FUNdamental stage is well structured and fun! The emphasis is on the
overall development of an athletes physical capacities, and fundamental
movement skills (The ABC’s - Agility, Balance, Coordination and
Speed).
Participation
in as many sports as possible is encouraged. Speed, power, and
endurance are developed using FUN games. Correct running, jumping,
and throwing techniques are taught.
The use
of ‘own body weight’ games, medicine ball and Swiss ball exercises are
encouraged and athletes are introduced to the simple rules and ethics of
sports. No Periodization takes place, but all programs are
structured and monitored.
.jpg) Stage
2 – Training To Train StageTM
Age
·
Male: 10 to 14
·
Female: 10 to 13
During
the Training to Train stage, young athletes learn how to train and learn
the basic tennis skills as well as technical/tactical skills, and ancillary capacities such as: warming up
and cooling down, stretching, hydration and nutrition, recovery and
regeneration, relaxation and focusing, taper and peaking for competition.
During
competition athletes’ play to win and to do their best, however, the
focus of training is on learning the basics as opposed to competing at
this stage. Training and competition ratios are optimized because too many
competitions will waste valuable training time. Conversely, not enough
competition will inhibit the practice of technical skills and the ability
to face the physical and mental challenges presented during competition.
A 75%
training to 25% competition ratio is recommended by experts during the
Training to Train stage, however, these percentages will vary according to
a players individual needs.
There are no short cuts to development a champion like an Andre
Agassi.
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The
underlying attitude of the coach, parent and player during this stage is
to focus on the process (training and performing to one’s actual best
capacity) rather than the outcome (winning). We believe that
athletes undertaking this type of preparation are better prepared for
competition in both the short and long-term, than athletes who focus
solely on the rankings and tournament wins during these years.
It is
important to note that the 25% competition ratio refers to actual
tournament play. Players in this stage still compete daily, in the
form of practice matches and competitive games and drills. We adopt
a single periodized framework with one major competition for every 10 to
23 weeks of development. By the age of 13-14, two distinctive
competitive seasons are planned and implemented.
The
Training to Train stage addresses the critical period of physical and
skill development. If an athlete misses this stage of training,
they may never reach their full potential. The reason we see so many
athletes plateau during the later stage of their careers is primarily due
to an over emphasis on competition instead of training during this
critical period in their athletic development.
Stage 3
– Training To Compete StageTM
.jpg)
Age
·
Male: 14 to 18
·
Female: 13 to 17
During
the Training to Compete stage, high intensity, tennis specific training is
provided to athletes year round. Athletes learn how to perform all
of the learned skills under a variety of competitive conditions and are
exposed to all possible competitive conditions during training. Special emphasis is placed on optimum preparation by modeling training and
competition.
Fitness
programs, recovery programs, psychological preparation and technical
development are individually tailored to a greater degree. These
activities are organized above and beyond group preparation to address
each player’s individual weaknesses. This phase of development is
introduced after the goals and objectives of the Training to Train stage
have been achieved. The training to competition ratio now changes to
50:50. However, this will vary according to sport and individual
specific needs. During this phase, we adopt a double periodized
framework with 2 competitive seasons for every 14-16 weeks of development.
For ages 17-18, a triple periodization framework allows players to
compete at the highest level and still address their developmental needs.
.jpg) Stage
4 – Training To Win StageTM
Age
·
Male: 18+
·
Female: 17+
This is
the final stage of athletic preparation. All of the athletes
physical, technical, tactical, mental, and ancillary capacities are now
fully established with the focus of training shifting to the optimization
of performance. Athletes are trained to peak for major competitions.
Training to competition ratio in this stage is 25:75, with the 75%
competition ratio including competition specific training activities. A multiple periodized framework (3 or more competitive seasons) is adopted
for an athlete’s playing calendar.
When it
is all said and done, there are no short cuts to long-term athlete
development. Optimizing the technical, tactical, mental and physical
development of our athletes is the best investment we can make in their
future as tennis players and as outstanding citizens in the community long
after they leave our care.
Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about this article by emailing us
here at TennisONE.
Peter D. McCraw
High
Performance Development Coach
IMG Academies – Bollettieri Tennis Academy
Bradenton, Florida, USA.
He is a member of the USPTA and a Specialist in
Competitive Player Development.
He holds a Post Graduate Degree in Human Movement
from Deakin University – Australia.
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