Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD)

Please find below a shorter guide to the LTAD plan produced by Dr Istvan Balyi for British Swimming.

What is Long Term Athlete Development - Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) in Swimming is a structured framework designed to guide swimmers through progressive stages of physical, technical, and psychological growth. It is about helping athletes reach their full potential while promoting lifelong participation in sport and physical activity, recognised and supported by Swim England as part of its broader athlete development strategy.

Why LTAD Matters

  • Prevents burnout and injury by aligning training with growth stages
  • Encourages long-term engagement, not just early success
  • Builds well-rounded athletes with strong technical and mental foundations

For more information on LTAD including recommended training hours, recommended types of training etc please see link below.

Barnet Training Scheme follows the LTAD model with training phases, content, hours and metres advised for swimmers. 

All of the Squad Guides on the website show which stage of the LTAD the swimmers in the group are currently at.

LTAD is a physiological guide to development, British Swimming have produced a further document Optimal Athlete Development Framework (OADF) which assists in covering the characteristics of an athlete required for successful swimmers which is available on the British Swimming website.

The final two pages of the below document sets out the ages, developments phases, progression, growth and development considerations, swimming specific skills, periodisation, session numbers, session length, training hours, training volume and competitions.

This model or a model very similar is run by most of the top swimming nations in the world, Australia, USA, Canada, Russia.

Istvan Balyi’s LTAD model aligns closely with the Multi-Year Training (MYT) framework developed by Dr. Andrei Vorontsov of the Russian State Academy of Physical Education, reflecting shared principles in progressive athlete development across both systems.

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