LTAD long-term athlete development 2006 VOLLEYBALL FOR LIFE: LONG-TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT FOR VOLLEYBALL IN CANADA LTADVOLLEYBALL Copyright © 2006 by Volleyball Canada All rights reserved – no part of this book may be reporduced in any form without the permission in writing from the publisher. Mimeographing or reproducing mechanically in any other way passages from this book without permission of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law. Volleyball Canada 5510 Canotek Road, Suite 202 Gloucester, Ontario K1J 9J5 [email protected] • www.volleyball.ca November, 2006 ISBN # 978-0-920412-27-5 Printed in Canada Photo credits: Rusty Barton, Darren Calabrese, Ingrid Green, Patrick Michel, André Ringuette, Larry Skelly, Volleyball Canada 2 Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Table of Contents Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6 Why Do We Need Long-Term Athlete Development? .......................................................... 7 What is Long-Term Athlete Development? ........................................................................... 8 The Developmental Stages of the Volleyball Player ........................................................... 13 Beach and Indoor Volleyball ............................................................................................... 22 Discipline Integration .......................................................................................................... 22 The Way Forward ............................................................................................................... 25 Beach Volleyball ................................................................................................................. 27 Athletes ............... 28 Coaches ............. 30 Training ............... 32 Competition ........ 34 Sport Science ..... 35 Stakeholders ....... 36 Indoor Volleyball ................................................................................................................. 39 Athletes ............... 40 Coaches ............. 42 Training ............... 44 Competition ........ 46 Sport Science ..... 49 Stakeholders ....... 50 Athletes With A Disability – The Standing Volleyball Discipline .......................................... 53 Athletes With A Disability – Unique Considerations ............................................................................54 Implementation ................................................................................................................... 58 Summary ............................................................................................................................ 59 Appendix – Volleyball LTAD System Alignment Beach Males ............................................ 60 Appendix – Volleyball LTAD System Alignment Beach Females ........................................ 61 Appendix – Volleyball LTAD System Alignment Indoor Males ............................................ 62 Appendix – Volleyball LTAD System Alignment Indoor Females ........................................ 63 Selected Bibliography ......................................................................................................... 64 VOLLEYBALL CANADA 3 LTADVOLLEYBALL Acknowledgments This overview of the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) strategy for volleyball was produced by a working group that included Julien Boucher Technical Director, Volleyball Quebec Ed Drakich Technical Director, Volleyball Canada Laurie Eisler Head Coach, Women’s Volleyball – The University of Alberta Glenn Hoag Head Coach, Canadian National Team – Men’s Volleyball Dustin Reid Technical Director, Ontario Volleyball Joanne Ross Volleyball Canada National Team Athlete Council Orest Stanko Chair – Volleyball Canada Beach High Performance Committee LTAD Advisor Richard Way Writer Doug Anton, Former Technical Director – Volleyball Canada Editing Orest Stanko Document Design Greg Smith, Volleyball Canada Document Layout Doug Anton 4 Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) We thank those individuals who contributed their ideas and comments. In particular, those individuals who participated in the various LTAD workshops where key LTAD discussions took place. Ian Allen Stephen Gallant Terry Mosher Randy Anderson Finton Gaudette Brian Neuman Istvan Balyi Brian Gavlas Sylvain Noël John Barrett Paul Gratton Aaron Nutting Dr. J. Pierre Baudin Chris Green Melissa Oates Monette Boudreau- Greg Guenther Rick Oatway Carroll Keith Hansen Cathy O’Doherty Ken Bentley Mark Heese Brian O’Reilly Rejean Bertrand Linda Henderson Dan Ota John Blacher Leslie Irie Dave Preston Kevin Boyles Russ Jackson Doug Reimer Dave Carey Greg Jarvis Donna Sales Dr. Charles Cardinal Tom Jones Keith Sanheim Martin Carle Suzanne Judd Dr. Lorne Sawula Jean Pierre Chancy Bruce Kent Jim Schreyer John Child Georges Laplante Caroline Sharp JP Cody Vincent Larivée Shawn Smith James Cress Stephen Leggitt Derek Strictland Cheryl Crozier Conrad Leinemann Mark Tennant Alain D’Amboise Anne-Marie Lemieux Kathy Tough Terry Danyluk Marie-Andre Lessard Talbot Walton Stelio DeRocco Larry MacKay Brenda Willis Kristine Drakich Rae Ann Mitchell Greg Williscroft Guylaine Dumont Margo Malowney Cara Winacott Rod Durrant John May Hugh Wong Wally Dyba Rob Meckling Terry Gagnon Merv Mosher VOLLEYBALL CANADA 5 LTADVOLLEYBALL Introduction In Canada the sport of volleyball is popular at medals (1996 bronze in beach, 2000 silver in all levels from elementary school to recreational the Paralympics). Still, the goal in six years is both indoors and on the beach. There are literally to qualify all teams and win two medals while hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are continuing to support and adhere to the same playing volleyball. Despite the large participant athlete development model. base the popularity of the indoor version of our sport has not translated into any signifi cant Volleyball is not unique in its inability to achieve results internationally. In the beach discipline, we consistent, international success. There are have achieved some success and primarily by many other sports in Canada that are also the men’s team of Heese and Child who won a struggling. This reality prompted Sport Canada bronze medal at the Atlanta Games in 1996, and to undertake a thorough review of the Canadian who have consistently maintained a Top 20 world sports landscape to determine what we need to ranking. Moreover, current competitive results do in order to achieve our objectives as a sporting strongly suggest that we are continuing to lose nation. The bottom-line is, if we want to achieve ground to other countries. different results we need to change. Volleyball Canada’s current strategic plan The Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers of identifi ed the following objectives for our high Sport identifi ed Long-Term Athlete Development performance teams: (LTAD) as the framework for sport development in Canada. Ministers agreed to proceed with the • qualify the maximum number of teams for both implementation of this new approach to sport and the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. physical activity in consultation with National, • win at least two medals. Provincial and Territorial Sport Organizations. Through the improvement of physical literacy Since indoor volleyball was included in the (fundamental skills such as throwing, running and Olympic Games in 1964 we have had 22 Olympic jumping), the LTAD model will help develop a life- qualifying opportunities, but have only qualifi ed a long involvement of Canadians in physical activity total of 6 times—with no podium fi nishes. Other and sport participation as well as producing future volleyball disciplines have fared a little better, athletes. yet we have managed to win only two Olympic The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. “ —Benjamin Franklin In December of 2004, over 60 of the most LTAD represents a systematic,” integrated system prominent and experienced volleyball coaches, that is built around developing athletes and players and administrators in Canada gathered identifying appropriate levels of competition at in Toronto to discuss the current state of our each stage. LTAD is about “volleyball for life”. sport, the desired state and what we need to do in order to achieve the desired state. Following Finally, and possibly most importantly, we as a this meeting, Volleyball Canada in partnership volleyball community need to accept a collective with Sport Canada made a strategic decision to responsibility for the development, growth, embrace and implement the LTAD model. successes and failures of our National Teams. We need to take greater interest and pride in our high LTAD offers a pragmatic and scientifi c approach performance athletes and recognize that we all to developing our athletes. To date, competition have an important role to play in their success. was not defi ned for volleyball it “just happened”. 6 Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Why Do We Need Long-Term Athlete Development? uccessful athletes who want to continue ● Developing athletes tend to under-train and to do well must continue to learn and over-compete. Simprove. If their development stops, ● Adult training and competition programs are they will get left behind. The same is true of the imposed on developing