Printer-friendly version

Canadian Sport for Life is a movement to increase sport’s contribution in Canadian society recognizing sport as an important part of everyone’s life by promoting each child’s healthy and logical development in a sport or physical activity.

By visiting www.canadiansportforlife.ca you’ll find information explaining the importance of sport for all ages and stages by giving children the skills that they need to develop Physical Literacy for both healthy life long enjoyment and for sporting success. Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, an athlete or coach you’ll find details which will help you deliver quality programs.

The first 4 stages, with their respective approximate age ranges, are generally appropriate for all late-specialization sports. In the Training to Compete and Training to Win stages, age ranges vary from sport to sport.

1. The 10 key factors influencing LTAD
2. The 10-Year Rule
3. The FUNdamentals
4. Specialization
5. Developmental Age
6. Trainability
7. Physical, Mental, Cognitive, and Emotional Development
8. Periodization
9. Calendar Planning for Competition
10. System Alignment and Integration   
11. Continuous Improvement

Active Start Age

• FUN and part of daily life
• Fitness and movement skills development
• Focus on learning proper movement skills such as running, jumping, wheeling, twisting, kicking, throwing, and catching
• Not sedentary for more than 60 minutes except when sleeping
• Some organized physical activity
• Exploration of risk and limits in safe environments
• Active movement environment combined with well-structured gymnastics and swimming programs
• Daily physical activity

FUNdamentals Age

• Overall movement skills
• FUN and participation
• General, overall development
• Integrated mental, cognitive, and emotional development
• ABC’s of Athleticism: agility, balance, coordination, and speed
• ABC’s of Athletics: running, jumping, wheeling, and throwing
• Medicine ball, Swiss ball, own body strength exercises
• Introduce simple rules of ethics of sport Screening for talent
• No periodization, but well-structured programs
• Daily physical activity  

Learn to Train Stage

• Overall sport skills development
• Major skill learning stage: all basic sport skills should be learned before entering Training to Train
• Integrated mental, cognitive, and emotional development
• Introduction to mental preparation
• Medicine ball, Swiss ball, own body strength exercise Introduce ancillary capacities
• Talent Identification
• Single or double periodization
• Sport-specific training 3 times week; participation in other sports 3 times a week

Train to Train Stage

• Sport-specific skill development
• Major fitness development stage: aerobic and strength
• The onset of Peak Height Velocity (PHV) and PHV are the reference points
• Integrated mental, cognitive, and emotional development
• Develop mental preparation
• Introduce free weights
• Develop ancillary capacities
• Frequent musculoskeletal evaluations during PHV
• Selection
• Single or double periodization
• Sport-specific training 6-9 times per week including complementary sports  

Train to Compete Stage

• Sport, event, position-specific physical conditioning
• Sport, event, position-specific technical tactical preparation
• Sport, event, position-specific technical and playing skills under competitive conditions
• Integrated mental, cognitive, and emotional development
• Advanced mental preparation
• Optimize ancillary capacities
• Specialization
• Single, double, or triple periodization
• Sport-specific technical, tactical and fitness training 9-12 times per week  

Training to Win Stage

• Ages are sport-specific based on international normative data
• Maintenance or improvement of physical capacities
• Further development of technical, tactical, and playing skills
• Modelling all possible aspects of training and performance
• Frequent prophylactic breaks Maximize ancillary capacities
• High Performance
• Single, double, triple, or multiple periodization
• Sport-specific technical, tactical, and fitness training 9-15 times per week  

Active for Life Stage

• Minimum of 60 minutes moderate daily activity or 30 minutes of intense activity for adults
• Transfer from one sport to another
• Move from highly competitive sport to lifelong competitive sport through age group competition
• Move from competitive sport to recreational activities Move to sport careers or volunteering
• There is a better opportunity to be Active for Life if physical literacy is achieved before the Training to Train stage

The 10-Year Rule

Scientific research has concluded that it takes a minimum of 10 years and 10,000 hours of training for a talented athlete to reach elite levels. For athlete and coach, this translates into slightly more than 3 hours of training or competition daily for 10 years.

This factor is supported by The Path to Excellence, which provides a comprehensive view of the development of U.S. Olympians who competed between 1984 and 1998. The results reveal that:

• U.S. Olympians begin their sport participation at the average age of 12.0 for males and 11.5 for females.
• Most Olympians reported a 12- to 13-year period of talent development from their sport introduction to making an Olympic team.
• Olympic medalists were younger — 1.3 to 3.6 years — during the first 5 stages of development than non-medalists, suggesting that medalists were receiving motor skill development and training at an earlier age. However, caution must be taken not to fall into the trap of early specialization in late specialization sports.