The LTAD model – Long-Term Athlete Development – describes how athletes develop over the years. Not in terms of competitions or performances, but in phases of growth, maturation and learning ability. The idea: train what suits the phase someone is in, not what suits the coach's program or the competition format.
The model starts with ActiveStart – playing, moving, having fun – followed by FUNdamentals, in which children learn all kinds of basic skills such as running, jumping, throwing and catching. Then follows Learn to Train, the phase in which children learn to train and increasingly move in a sport-specific manner.
From there the split begins: some athletes continue training for fun, health and social contact – they move on to Active for LifeOthers consciously choose the performance-oriented route and continue to Train to Train (refine technique, get better), Train to Compete (perform in competitions) and eventually Train to Win (all in the service of top sport). That is the tip of the pyramid. Olympic, professional, full-time. The top of the top.
The phase Active for Life is intended for anyone who is no longer on their way to the top, but still wants to continue exercising.
And let's face it, that goes for almost everyone.
Because look around you. Most athletes train two, at most three times a week. A match in the weekend. Sometimes you are in a first team or a talent group, but you just pay membership fees, buy your own shoes and wash your own socks.
That is not a top sport.
That's sport.
And that's absolutely fine.
Yet we often pretend that we are involved in top-level sports.
We make decisions that we feel are appropriate: we make selections, put players on the bench, want to go for the championship, and so on.
The vocabulary of top-level sport – in a context that does not really fit it.
But maybe we should turn that around.
Maybe Active for Life no way out, but the main road.
The place where sports begin and often remain. Where you train to stay fit, to improve, to be together, or just because you like to smash, score or sweat.
And yes, you pay for it.
You train hard.
You're participating.
You belong.
You play sports. Not to win. But to keep doing it.
Active for Life.
