PGA Adopts American Development Model

One of the topics that really caught my attention at our recent PGA Southern Chapter Semi-Annual Meeting was the PGA of America’s adoption of what’s known as the American Development Model (ADM) and specifically, a new program called PGA.Coach. It’s part of an industry-wide partnership to transform how the sport of golf is coached.

So what is the American Development Model and how does it impact the future of golf coaching in this country? Well, I’ll tell you. Below is a summary of the first three modules of the 12-part program available to PGA Members online:

The American Development Model (ADM)
The American Development Model has been around since the mid-90s and borrows frameworks from the Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model. Its theories are partially based on science and partially based on practical application of those theories. What started out as a four-stage model of training evolved into a seven-stage model by 2005.

“The American Development Model is trying to fix some aspects of sport that aren’t working right right now. In the United Sates, we happen to be one of the most physically illiterate countries in the developed world,” says Dr. Brian Hainline, Chief Medical Officer of the NCAA. “And that carries with it risk of obesity, alcoholism, drug abuse, dropout from school, and dropout from sport.”

The modification and widespread interest in the LTAD model was the result of a poor finish in the 2004 Olympics by the Canadian Team. Then in 2013, participation rates, childhood obesity, and a projected shorter lifespan of the current generation was reported by The Aspen Institute’s Project Play, and the United States quickly got on board. According to the report, for the first time in history, a generation of kids may live five years less than their parents. The result of those findings was the decision of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and its national governing bodies to create the ADM. It has since been successfully applied to USA Hockey, the USOC, USA Basketball, and USA Lacrosse.

ADM was designed by sports scientists to help support a lifetime affinity to sports and to develop athletes to their greatest potential. These principles align physical and psychological development to stages, delivering appropriate skills and exercises at the appropriate times. Creating positive experiences early, for all athletes, will keep more players engaged and will retain more golfers. Introducing the right aspects of play in a structure that’s fun, engaging, and progressively challenging also allows golfers of all ages to experience the challenges and joys of the sport.

The ADM is comprised of four key elements: a statement, a visual model, National Governing Bodies’ programming, and resources. The PGA has adopted the ADM to change how golf professionals introduce young players to the game, and ultimately its goal is to develop golfers for life.

At its core, the ADM is based upon guidelines and principles to make sure we’re approaching training in an age appropriate way. Implementing this model is critical if we want to succeed in growing participation in sports in the U.S., develop fundamentals that transfer between sports, provide an appropriate avenue to fulfill an individual’s sport pathway, and create a generation that loves sports and physical activity while transferring that passion to the next generation.

The success of the program will be defined by increased participation rates and longevity in sports. The most important factors for retention after a player is introduced to the game are quality coaching at all levels, flexible practice times, age and developmental appropriate training, cost of training, and level of competition.

The ADM aims to fix some aspects of sports that need to be much more effective than they are now. Reducing childhood obesity, risk of injury from early use and overuse, and even helping kids become leaders off the course are possible results of this approach.

ADM is athlete-centered, whereas sports programs have traditionally implemented training that makes sense to adults. USA Hockey was an early adopter of the ADM Model to put the kid first:

 

End of an Era
The era of specialization is ending in favor of a movement to develop the athlete as a whole through playing multiple sports. The key is specializing later and playing multiple sports early when athleticism can be developed. Typically, the opposite has been the case. Kids are playing multiple sports at older ages and specializing too young or are playing the same sport year-round. This has led to burnout and worse, overuse injuries. Benefits of this model include delaying or preventing early burnout, introducing young players to a sport they can play for a lifetime, increasing the ceiling on athletic potential, and decreasing the potential for injury.

Implementing fundamental movement skills such as running, jumping, hopping, and throwing that transfer between sports eventually translate into developing better athletes. The ADM takes a broader approach to encourage multi-sport participation. Developing better, more agile athletes who can play sports longer leads to more winning on and off the course.

“We need to start focusing on the kid and what’s good for them as opposed to getting them into a sport and trying to grind them into the ground and create the next superstar,” says Nashville Predators Coach Peter Laviolette. “Let kids be kids. Let them have fun at what they’re doing. And that’s what this is. It’s an age appropriate development program for children.”

PGA.Coach
PGA.Coach is an allied Association effort of the PGA and LPGA Tours, the USGA, The First Tee, the USOC, and the PGA of America to train young golfers and keep experienced ones involved in the game for a lifetime. Growing a pipeline of boys and girls who play the game of golf leads to both growing the game and business of golf.

“It helps people understand where they are on that timeline in their golf journey, what professional they should go to to seek out their instruction for that particular portion of that, and then how they can retain and continue on,” says PGA of America President Suzy Waley.

Ten LTAD factors influenced the creation of five key principles guiding the American Development Model. The five key principles of the ADM became the seven stages of training for sports like golf in the U.S. Those key principles are:

Key Principle No. 1: Developmentally Appropriate Activities Emphasizing Motor and Foundational Skills
Physical literacy is a collection of basic movement and sports skills like running, jumping, skipping, catching, throwing, and kicking. It breaks down big movements into smaller movement skills. The earlier children correctly learn these skills, the more confident they will be in physical activity. That confidence affects every aspect of their lives from academic to social.

Focusing on physical literacy through an athlete-centric approach creates a clear understanding of an individual’s developmental level as opposed to his or her age. This helps coaches, parents, and administrators appropriately tailor the training, skills, and tactics taught to maximize an individual’s full potential while helping avoid burnout.

Key Principle No. 2: Enhanced Entry to Create Opportunities for All
A sport must be inclusive so that everyone has the opportunity to discover the benefit of physical activity and to realize their full athletic potential. It can play a part in developing social relationships and imparting valuable life lessons. Running, swimming, dancing, and resistance training are all good non-golf training activities for golfers in an ADM model as long as the activity and intensity is age-appropriate.

Key Principle No. 3: Multi-Sport Participation
The ADM approach provides guidance and education for coaches and parents to focus less on specializing in one sport and more on creating a well-rounded experience for athletes based on science, psychology, and best practices of athletic development.

Top youth sports researchers Jean Cote and Jessica Fraser-Thomas suggest that at no time should a young athlete participate year-round in a single sport. While they recommend that athletes in sports whose competitors peak after age 20 need to accumulate around 10,000 hours of general sports participation, no more than half of that needs to be a deliberate practice of their chosen sport. Prior to age 12, 80% of an athlete’s time should be spent in deliberate play and in sports other than their chosen sport.

Between ages 13 and 15, there should be a 50/50 split between an athlete’s chosen sport and other athletic pursuits. Then beginning at age 16, even when specialization becomes very important, 20% of training time should still be in an athlete’s non-specialized sport and deliberate play.

“We’re concerned that perhaps athletes who specialize in one sport may participate in terms of numbers of hours per week and the intensity level to a greater extent than they can tolerate physically,” says Dr. John DiFiori, Chief of the Division of Sports Medicine at UCLA Medical Center.

“There’s an over 40% increase in overuse injuries when training and competition is year-round. We have seen chronic tendon injuries develop in young athletes that can persist well into their high school, college, even professional careers. We also see injuries that can affect the growth plates, an area of active bone formation. With excessive overuse, we see disruption of the bone formation process that can have consequences for long-term bone growth.”

At age 13, about 70% of young athletes are dropping-out of organized sports due to burnout,” continues Dr. DiFiori. “It is recommended that athletes avoid specialization before the age of 14.

Multi-sport participation is critical to developing a well-rounded foundation for physical activity that can transfer between sports. It also provides several cross-training benefits such as strength, endurance, agility, coordination, and speed training. All improve athleticism and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Key Principle No. 4: Fun, Engaging, and Challenging Atmosphere
This is essential for any sports activity. The definition of fun may change as participants advance to more elite levels of competition, but making the process positive and enjoyable is key. Free and spontaneous play helps foster growth and development for young players. Fun, engaging, and challenging equals long-term golfers, and that means more players out on the course down the road.

Key Principle No. 5: Quality Coaching at All Levels
This is critical to an athlete’s development and success at all levels. Not only should a coach be qualified and highly knowledgeable about their sport but also to understand effective communication, practice planning, and athlete development. The very best coaches view themselves as lifelong learners and are always working towards improving themselves.

ADM Outcomes
By creating early positive experiences for all athletes, the PGA’s application of the ADM will keep more children engaged in the sport longer with four outcomes:

* Grow both the general athlete population and the pool of elite athletes from which future U.S. Olympians and Paralympians are selected. The ADM is designed to help increase youth participation in sports and encourages children to stay active longer.

* Develop fundamental skills that transfer between sports. Emphasizing basic sports knowledge, fundamental skills, and multi-sport participation will enhance an individual’s mental and physical abilities. These basic development principles will help prepare children for a lifetime of activity from recreational to elite levels.

* Provide an appropriate avenue to fulfill an individual’s athletic potential. Whether it leads to a lifetime of recreational play or high performance competition, providing the proper foundation, developing mentally appropriate activity and progressively challenging training and competitive environments will help an individual fulfill their athletic potential.

* Create a generation that loves sports and physical activity and transfers that passion to the next generation. Sports participation emphasizes an active and healthy lifestyle at a young age. The ADM will improve the health and well being for future generations in the U.S.

The ADM offers equal opportunity for recreation and competition, a key to retaining younger players. The ADM approach also provides guidance and education for coaches and parents based on best practices of athletic development, psychology, and science.

Ten Key Factors of the LTAD
LTAD is the foundation of the ADM. These factors are important but the list is infinite. Genetics, environment, and access to financial resources among other things also have an impact on development and overall performance. The ten key factors of the LTAD are:

Continuous Improvement – this is the most important factor. If each individual within an organization continues to increase their knowledge, the result will be an organization that continues to improve.

Fundamentals – all sports begin with basic fundamental movement and core sports skills. Physical literacy is the key to participation and ultimately success in sports. A best-case scenario is for a player to have developed physical literacy prior to the adolescent growth spurt.

Specialization – in general, sports can be divided into early or late specialization. Early specialization sports like gymnastics, diving, and figure skating require training before the age of seven. Most sports require late or very late specialization. Those sports can be mastered for elite levels of competition as long as specialization begins around the ages of 12 to 15.

Age – we can’t always use date of birth to determine training, competition, and recovery programs for athletes. Age isn’t just about counting years when it comes to training. Long-term athlete development accounts for age in a few different ways: chronological age, relative age (differences among children born in the same year; a 2-3 month age gap can be significant in development of motor skills and overall strength), developmental age (physical, mental, cognitive, and emotional maturity), skeletal age (relates to physical maturity based on bone development), general training age (the number of years in training and participation in sports), and sport-specific training age (takes into account the number of years since the athlete specialized).

Trainability – there are windows of optimal trainability for male and female athletes. If skipped or missed, a child’s chance to reach his or her full potential could be decreased. The periods vary between individuals although skill trainability gradually declines after 11 to 12 years of age or right after the onset of the growth spurt. The opportunity to build a foundation in skill learning needs to happen before the age of 12.

Ten-Year (10,000-hour) Rule – it takes years of organized practice to excel at a sport. It comes down to the need to practice for three hours a day for ten years. This doesn’t mean 10,000 hours of one specific sport but 10,000 hours of athlete development playing tag, hop scotch, climbing trees, or any other activities in which children engage. It takes years of dedication to develop and perform at the highest level, and it doesn’t always happen right away. Programs must include a long-term developmental pathway that provides opportunities for elite players into their early 20s.

Intellectual, Emotional, and Moral Development – kids develop emotionally at different rates. Depending on the emotional and intellectual maturity of the player he’s working with, a coach will need to make different decisions to navigate the sports experience.

Periodization (time management) – the practice of breaking the calendar year into smaller time intervals to prepare, compete, rest, and recover. The science behind periodization has been used on the international stage with great success in other sports. Eighteen-time major winner Jack Nicklaus has talked about playing many different sports before choosing to specialize in golf.

“By playing all sports, I developed my body to where I wasn’t specialized,” says Nicklaus. “I didn’t have any injuries. I never had a deficiency. I think playing all sports rounds out your body.”

“I’ve seen kids with amazing talents that get pushed too hard and too soon and too much,” says World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam. “Every kid is very different. You have to have different approaches.”

Competition – without competition, it would be very difficult to have a defined sports experience. Imagine not keeping score! Even friendly games have a way of measuring some sort of progress. At a certain point, growth and progress has to be measured. Being able to create an environment for appropriate competition is key to LTAD.

System Alignment – we need a structure that is athlete-centered and looks at the individual player’s development. The framework for long-term athlete development is influenced by clubs, schools, academies, and facilities all with varying interests. In a clearly-defined, logically-structured system, players have the best opportunity to succeed. The goal is to define our sports system with a pathway that addresses the needs of each individual and maximizes their development as they progress through our system. The LTAD principles support the fact that in earlier stages, both the participants that prefer playing a sport for life and the ones that end up as high performance players should initially experience the same path.

Why the PGA Adopted the ADM
Emphasizing fundamental skills at a young age can help PGA player development because players will have greater longevity in the game. The ADM focuses on fundamental skills at a young age and refines competitive skills at higher levels of development. This will result in more players staying in the game of golf with or without high-level competition. The current development system for PGA youth athletes emphasizes winning and competing, while ADM golfers will focus on the process of skill development.

The ADM Model is meant to provide a path to successful play for golfers. It also acknowledges youth participants may enter a program at various levels. As children grow, the ADM pathway should be used to reference what key concepts participants should focus on as they develop and grow in their golf experience. There are five pathway stages to help determine what key concepts players should focus on. They are just guides:

1. Discover, learn and play (ages 0-12) – encourages players to sample multiple sports through unstructured play. Most of all, the activities have to be fun. This stage focuses on rules of the game and core fundamental movements. This may come from teaching players how to use appropriately-sized equipment and get them used to playing surfaces.

2. Develop and challenge (ages 10-16) – after selecting a sport, athletes are focused on refining the skills needed to be successful in local and regional competitions.

3. Train and compete (ages 13-19) – competition has become more clearly defined. Coaches and players will be more focused on technical, tactical, physical, and social development. Players entering high school are more likely to begin specializing in one sport and participating in more competitions at this time.

4. Excel for High Performance or Participate and Succeed (ages 15+) – athletes in this stage will be more focused and responsive to the challenge of making their game better as year-round competitions are more frequent and closer together.

5. Thrive and Mentor – athletes are active in a chosen sport for life with the goal of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It’s likely for individuals to choose to coach, officiate, or mentor during this phase.

Excellence takes time! The LTAD is a framework that allows for flexibility when considering age recommendations within the stages. There will be kids that break the mold. It’s critical to acknowledge variations in age and make adjustments for young players when necessary.

Seven Stages of ADM
Age and developmental appropriate training are one of the most important factors for retention after a player is introduced to the game. In the ADM, the physical and physiological development is broken down into seven stages:

Stage 1: Active Start (Girls & Boys ages 0-6)
Gets kids moving and eventually linking those smaller movements together in play

Stage 2: FUNdamentals (Girls ages 6-8, Boys ages 6-9)
Develops movement skills for play focused on fun, inclusive, multisport, and developmentally-appropriate activities

Stage 3: Learn to Play (Girls ages 8-11, Boys ages 9-12)
Further develops all fundamental movement skills and teaching general golf skills

Stage 4: Play to Improve (Girls ages 11-15, Boys ages 12-16)
Introduces training to further develop golf skills based around puberty and growth spurts

Stage 5: Play to Compete (Girls ages 15-21, Boys ages 16-23)
Teaches golfers to perform under a variety of conditions during training and encourages the athlete’s competitive spirit

Stage 6: Play to Win (Girls ages 18+, Boys ages 18+)
Reinforces, refines, and optimizes technical, tactical, and ancillary skills with an end goal of winning

Stage 7: Play Golf for Life (All ages)
Encourages fun and inclusive programming for golfers of all ages and ability levels.