Eliminating standings does not eliminate competition

The implementation of CS4L and LTAD is not without its naysayers. The question is whether or not the naysayers are actually getting their facts straight.

Brian Lilley, columnist and blogger for the Sun newspaper chain, has written a blog post that attacks LTAD and CS4L concepts around competition in the ranks of children’s sport. Mr. Lilley makes a number of inaccurate statements that have stirred readers, most notably that LTAD “attempts to make sure there is next to no competition for children under 12”.  

He could not be further from the truth.  

LTAD makes no attempt to remove winning and losing from sport. Rather, it seeks to restructure competition at different ages so that kids remain engaged in their sport and develop optimal skills.  Part of this includes recommendations to eliminate league standings in sports prior to age 12.

(Though even this varies according to different sports in Canada.)

This issue around competition is currently making news largely because the Ontario Soccer Association is in the process of implementing the competition recommendations of the soccer-specific LTAD, known as Long-Term Player Development (LTPD). The elimination of league standings below U12 has been a flash point for some soccer coaches and parents in Ontario, who fear that children will lose all motivation to play the game if there are no league standings.

Really? Do people really believe that children under the age of 12 will stop wanting to score goals, sink baskets, or make the point if there are no league standings?

There is insufficient space in this blog to provide a full discussion of the nature of competition in the framework of LTAD and CS4L, so readers are encouraged to learn more by reading here.

Mr. Lilley has obviously not done his homework. Eliminating standings is not about eliminating competition, and the concepts behind LTAD are embraced by the 56 National Sport Organizations in Canada who understand and support the logic behind it.

They understand that providing children (and all Canadians) with quality sport opportunities will make them better athletes in the long term, while also promoting wellness for a much larger segment of Canadian society than currently happening. (For more discussion on this theme, see physical literacy, and Active for Life.

Rest assured, Mr. Lilley, that LTAD and CS4L do not want to remove competition in children’s sport.  The idea is simply to make the competition serve the developmental needs of the athletes, and not the needs of coaches and parents who too often compromise long-term development for the sake of a short term win on the weekend.