Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Model, Stage 4 'Training to Train'

We often see a lot of debate on, whether talent is natural or it's sheer hard work of that individual to be the best in the business. The fact that matters the most is that, it's a 'process' no matter if she is a natural or if he spends extra time on perfecting his moves to gain that competitive advantage whenever and where-ever required. Even the naturals spend time and drain energy in strategizing and implementation in various situations (debatable) whereas, the hard-workers tend to develop an instinctive response since they have been practicing specific moves for a longer duration giving them leverage over the opponent (debatable).

We have been discussing different stages in my previous articles starting from, Belief having an early start for better results, which moves on to developing FUNdamentals helping the child to be aware of ABC'S of athleticism with the major area of focus being the FUN element, and then moving on to Learning the Art of Training in order to be more specific controlling the outcome to eliminate risk of burnouts, overtraining and over-competing.

Terry Bradshaw rightly said (Bradshaw. T, 2019),

“When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.”

The next set challenges for your child is to learn the craft of training to train where the child is ready to amalgamate sport-specific skills and acquired tactics. Youths may play to win and do their best, but they still need to focus more time on skill training and physical development over competition. It is ideal for coaches to start identification of 'talent' specific to late specialization sport at this stage.

But the coaches have to be very cautious about every child's maturity rate as they might discover certain capabilities which may be beneficial in other sport helping in development and structural functioning of the concept named 'Talent Pool', where specific talent can be transferred for further introduction and re-development with respect to needs and wants of that particular sport as Talent Transfer is directly related to the concept of creation of pools of talent.

In a very personal sense, it is very important for a child to feel the importance of that activity in their lives, if it doesn't there is a huge risk of losing that talent in this stage where we are going deeper into the concept of skill development which will also reveal the tactical sense of the athlete to be more competitive and furthermore is a full-time career opportunity. Train to Train mechanism tends to develop talent by promoting fundamental values such as Fun, Fairness, and respect as this defines the personality of an individual both on and off the competitive arena.

Heywood Broun said (Broun. H, 2019),

Sports do not build character, they reveal it.

In reality, it is very much acceptable for an athlete to walk-off, choosing an alternate career option because of parental pressure to perform and coaches pressuring the young athletes with extensive focus on skill development and fitness without being individualistic about the fact whether, the athlete is mature enough to be able to cope-up because of the body type, rate of development and other various factors which also result in 'burn-outs' in sporting terms.

As parents with a tremendous sense of understanding in this digital age and information available easily via various platforms, it is our responsibility to ensure the balance of competition and training with immense focus on FUN elements to avoid the attribute of giving up on the sport because of multiple factors. It is our responsibility to support the aspiring champions both physically and psychology with 70% training and 30% competition as discussed in my previous article Learning the Art of Training and being an athlete, it is our responsibility to control the outcome and live with it.

Turing 11-year-old, felt like a dramatic experience while I recall those moments now being a 28-year-old as it was all about early morning cricket-camp at the school, then rushing down for prayers at the assembly and standing out in the line for dirty shoes after the assembly. All that fun in the classroom playing note-book cricket or paper-football, till it was time to get back home and get ready in the evening again for cricket-coaching with all that running to get warmed-up, funny stretches while your friends make fun of each other because of awkward positions and eventually the coach's punishment with 3-5 extra rounds for not maintaining discipline on the ground, totally depending on this mood or maybe asking us to throw-down to the senior players.

Net-sessions thrice a week was the best part with few of your friends on the bowling end and you thrashing them with few lucky shots, that reaction seems priceless with all the confidence we get after that shot developing a sense of trust within ourselves to thrive for more and get better and better every day while your coach/mentor giving tips and tricks to gain match sense and take responsibility of your actions which may win your team a match or end up being on the losing side which is equally important to learn the harsh reality of any sport.

If facing that harsh reality alongside the sweet success, you tend to develop the curiosity to know more and do better also performing at the competitive stage considering all extreme conditions, it is critical for stakeholders who are involved directly and in-directly for talent development, to ensure the training mechanism and principles are delivered through the stage know to be TRAINING TO COMPETE, stage-five of Long Term Athlete Development Program (LTAD) Model.

Please Note:

This article was published on my LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-craft-training-train-hitesh-harry-mangtani/