Guyanese to participate in Pan Am Webinar on Long Term Athlete Development

Eight Guyanese sport officials will from September 2 participate in a Webinar on the Long Term Athlete Development model, initiated by Pan Am Sports.

Pan Am Sports has reached an agreement with Sport for Life from Canada to share their knowledge and programmes with all the National Olympic Committees through their new Webinar educational series on Zoom and the Pan Am Sports Channel.

The presentations on the Long Term Athlete Development model will be over an eight-week period with two hours every week on Wednesdays, starting this week.

The Guyanese who would be part of the Webinar are Theodore Henry (Ministry), Nicholas Fraser (Ministry), Terrence Poole (Boxing), David Fernandes (Squash), Shavin Green (Table Tennis), Shyka Gonsalves (Swimming), Roger Peroune (Karate) and Kenisha Headley (Athletics).

Local associations were invited by the Guyana Olympic Association to submit names to be part of the eight-module online programme.

Programme overview

Pan Am Sports is partnering with Sport for Life (Canada), the global leader in Quality Sport and Physical Literacy education, to present an eigh-week online webinar series about Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD), the underlying connective concept behind every healthy performing sport system across the globe.

LTAD forms the basis for progressive stage-based development of participants from their introduction to sport, to recreational and high performance levels and on to ultimately staying active for life.

It connects the multiple sectors responsible for the provision of sport opportunities, outlines key considerations in creating pathways and frameworks of athlete and system development, and enables the creation of policies that improve the quality of sport.

This LTAD series, presented by world class experts in sport and physical activity, will combine online education, e-learning and practical examples from guest speakers to provide each student the following: • The Athlete Development model and why it is absolutely crucial to modern sport

• The Key Factors of LTAD – including specialization, age, physical literacy, competition, periodisation
• The 7 stages of Athlete Development – the flow, connections and key considerations
• Quality Sport – LTAD in action, “Good programs, place and people” (case studies and examples from successful sports)
• Training and Competition – the keys to successfully aligning competition structures, training & multisport Games
• Physical Literacy – the competence, confidence & motivation to be active for life
• Coaching and National Sport Systems – their central roles in healthy sport systems
• Interdependence – how LTAD and Physical Literacy work together – case studies in NSOs and NOCs

Key Outcomes

At the end of this series, participants will:

• Have improved understanding of Long-Term Athlete Development
• Understand how to connect Long-Term Athlete Development stage objectives to actual program delivery from club, school to national and international levels
• Understand philosophy of multi (sectors – organizations) partner engagement
• Have developed a rationale for how an LTAD Framework can support and enrich a National Sport Policy
• Have developed a rationale for how an LTAD Framework with Physical Literacy can underpin and enrich a quality Physical Education Curriculum
• Understand how to develop successful sport-specific LTAD/ADM Frameworks