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ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT
A GUIDE FOR THE
SCOTTISH BORDERS
SWIMMING COMMUNITY
By Alex Jordan, Borders Performance Swimming Coach
swim
www.bslt.org.uk
INTRODUCTION
This educational document has been produced with
one major goal in mind... to explain the importance
of increased training frequency to convince Borders
swimmers to train more often. As Borders Performance
Swimming Coach it is my remit to provide help
and advice to clubs and their members with a view
to improving the competitive standard of Borders
swimmers.
The British Swimming Long Term Athlete Development
Framework sets out guidelines for the work swimmers
are required to do to eventually become capable, senior
athletes. This includes guidelines on training volumes and
frequencies as well as the various activities that should
be performed at critical periods throughout a swimmers
development. Long Term Athlete Development
(LTAD) models also provide a training guide to help
prevent: interference with growth and normal physical,
psychological and emotional development; overtraining
and undertraining; injury; over-competing; and underperformance in the short, and especially, long term. Long
term planning is so important for the competitive future
of athletes that there are now very few national governing
bodies of sport throughout the world without an LTAD
model in place.
The LTAD approach was designed to help prepare
athletes to reach elite levels, but is equally valid for a
healthy lifelong participation in sport. Youngsters must
be adequately prepared for a life in sport (many people
enjoy working hard to improve, even without aspirations
to be elite performers). Children may play in school teams
but, in adulthood, many discover new pursuits to better
fit their lifestyles. The commonality is that sport lovers
should have the confidence and skills to move between
sports. LTAD provides a model to work from. *
It is quite obvious to coaches when a swimmer must be moved down a level due to their stage of development &/
or standard of performance. However, the decision to move a swimmer up a level should not be taken lightly and the
serious consideration of a number of factors is required.
Clubs with swimmers training more frequently and
completing higher volumes, within recommended
ranges, will almost always produce more
competitive swimmers over the long term. This
seems obvious but there are still many swimmers
with competitive aspirations who do not complete
enough training. There simply is no substitute for
hard work and commitment.
LEVEL ONE
Meeting recommended training frequencies, and the
development of technique and skills in a fun environment,
takes precedence over workload in this group level.
The LTAD model recommends that children in Level One
participate in general sport activities five to six times
per week. This should include land work and multisport activity. Put simply, participation in a wide range of
sporting activities is recommended in order for children to
develop a wide range of skills and abilities for the future.
From the suggested five to six general sport sessions
it is recommended that Borders swimmers complete
three of those sessions in the pool. One of the reasons
for recommending a higher proportion of swimming over
other sports is that a greater proportion of time is
COMPETITION
Overemphasising competition in the early phases of
training will always cause shortcomings in athletic abilities
later in an athletes career I Balyi and A Hamilton.
Dr Istvan Balyi, quoted above, is considered by many to
be the worlds leading expert on LTAD and all/most of
the content in the British Swimming LTAD Framework is
supported by his work. Dr Balyi warns that the biggest
negative impact on performance is over competing.
British Swimmings former Performance Director, Bill
Sweetenham, stated that he believed British
swimmers raced too much and trained too
little. We must ensure this does not
occur here in the Borders. While
the situation in Britain may have
improved since Sweetenhams
tenure, some are of the opinion
that it can still do with much
improvement.
Competition is a good
servant but a poor master!
Figure 1
Losing is not coming second. Its getting out of the water knowing you could have done better.
For myself, I have won every race Ive been in.
Ian Thorpe
If I am nothing without a gold medal, then I will be nothing with it.
Kirstie Marshall, aerial skier & multiple world cup medallist
Comparison between Early Specialisation versus General Development (Harre, 1982), DDR.
SUMMARY
To increase their chances of long term competitive
success, swimmers should consistently complete
the training volumes recommended by British
Swimming;