Autoregulation in Long-Term Athletic Development: Meeting Athletes Where They Are

Coaches working with the youth population manage so many uncontrollable variables. Growth and maturation is maybe the most difficult variable to manage but it can have the biggest impact on development. We can all remember examples from our own childhood. The early maturing athlete who often dominates in younger ages. Or the late maturing athlete, the “late bloomer”, who can continue to grow into their early twenties.

A legendary example is NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman. After high school, he was only 5'9" and didn’t make his varsity basketball team. When he enrolled at Cooke County Junior College he had already experienced a massive late growth spurt, shooting up to 6'7" between ages 19–20.

The non-linear nature of development is reinforced by the NSCA’s 10 pillars of long-term athletic development (LTAD). When building our program I heavily relied on the NSCA’s 10 pillars of long-term athletic development (LTAD) as guiding principles. Take a look at the principles listed below (Lloyd et al., 2016):

1. Long-term athletic development pathways should accommodate for the highly individualized and non-linear nature of the growth and development of youth

2. Youth of all ages, abilities, and aspirations should engage in long-term athletic development programs that promote both physical fitness and psychosocial wellbeing.

3. All youth should be encouraged to enhance physical fitness from early childhood, with a primary focus on motor skill and muscular strength development. 

4. Long-term athletic development pathways should encourage an early sampling approach for youth that promotes and enhances a broad range of motor skills. 

5. Health and wellbeing of the child should always be the central tenet of long-term athletic development programs. 

6. Youth should participate in physical conditioning that helps reduce the risk of injury to ensure their on-going participation in long-term athletic development programs. 

7. Long-term athletic development programs should provide all youth with a range of training modes to enhance both health- and skill-related components of fitness. 

8. Practitioners should use relevant monitoring and assessment tools as part of a long-term physical development strategy.

9. Practitioners working with youth should systematically progress and individualize training programs for successful long-term athletic development. 

10. Qualified professionals and sound pedagogical approaches are fundamental to the success of long-term athletic development programs. 

After studying the principles, and working to apply them, I came to believe we needed a program that could adapt and adjust daily, at the same speed as our athletes. Without a systematic way to account for daily readiness we were doing them a disservice. 

Growth and maturation make the situation especially unique. Physical growth and hormonal changes combined with more common everyday stressors (lack of sleep, poor hydration, lack of calories) greatly impact daily readiness. To safely maximize long term development, performance coaches and sport coaches have to find a unique way to account for overall readiness. 

One of our solutions is to apply autoregulation principles to our programming. Autoregulation is the process of adjusting training intensity and volume in response to an athlete’s performance on a given day (Mann, 2013). It is critical to the success of long term athletic development models. 

One of the most practical autoregulatory systems is the Autoregulatory Progressive Resistance Exercise (APRE) method. APRE adjusts training loads based on performance in earlier sets. If an athlete exceeds the prescribed reps, the weight increases. If they fall short, the weight decreases (Mann, 2013). This allows for real-time progression without needing constant testing or guesswork. 
Testing and guesswork is not something you have time for at any level, but especially the youth level. 

A more rigid traditional training plan risks undertraining athletes who are ready for more or overtraining those who are battling the stressors of life combined with growth/maturation. By adapting day-to-day, coaches can ensure athletes continue to improve while minimizing injury risk. 
Coaches often focus on the risk of overtraining but I am equally worried about under-training athletes. 

Integrating autoregulation into LTAD respects the non-linear journey of athletic development. By combining NSCA’s principles with tools like APRE, coaches can create adaptable, effective programs that foster long-term success for every athlete. 

Ultimately these concepts are what led me to developing The 8/5/3 Method. We train hard, full body, three days a week. We choose full body workouts to hit movements more often, allow for
more recovery, and it is the most adaptable program from a scheduling perspective. Most importantly, on the last set of every primary exercise we prescribe an as many as possible (AMAP) set. The AMAP set allows for the athlete to do their best, whatever it is that day. We use this set to update their training max and continue on. 

Pulling from APRE frameworks, and guided by the NSAC LTAD Principles, we built a constantly adapting program. A program that can keep up with the life of a young person. Our focus is constituency and the long term development of all qualities. 

For an in depth look at The 8/5/3 Method I encourage you to take a look at the ebook manual. The manual walks you through the origins, research and application of our methods. This program was developed in the trenches. The outcome was a scalable system that solves problems and allows coaches to do what they do best, coach!
 
Thanks for taking an interest in how we approach youth development. If I can be of any assistance to you or your athletes please feel free to reach out!

References 
● Lloyd, R. S., et al. (2016). National Strength and Conditioning Association position statement on long-term athletic development. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 30(6), 1491–1509. 
● Mann, B. J. (2013). Developing Explosive Athletes: Use of Velocity Based Training in Training Athletes. Coaches Choice.

Phil Reichhoff is the Assistant Athletic Director; Director of Fitness and Performance at Cape Henry Collegiate in VA.