What and Why
Shelley Ganske
December 2013 Parent Session
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Decrease possibility of injury
 By providing the best possible support to joints
involved in synchro
Improve overall body awareness
Improve strength
Improve endurance (cardiovascular and
muscular)
Improve posture
Improve flexibility
Improve motor skills (ABCs); agility, balance,
coordination
At advanced stages, improves power
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It is important for young athletes to develop a
variety of fundamental skills to help them
become good general athletes before they
start training in a specific sport.
Fundamental skills such as running, jumping,
throwing, catching, tumbling and balance are
fundamental to success in a variety of sports.
In synchro, since all training takes place in
the water, its important that we introduce a
land portion to improve the fundamentals.
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3 activities provide the base fro all other sports:
◦ Athletics: run, wheel, jump or throw
◦ Gymnastics: ABCs and speed
◦ Swimming: for water safety, balance in a buoyant
environment and as foundation for all water sports
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FUNdamental movements skills and FUNdamental
sports skills = physical literacy
Physical literacy refers to competency in
movement and sports skills
Ideally, physical literacy should be developed
before the onset of the adolescent growth spurt.
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Young athletes who develop a variety of skills and
motor abilities are more likely to adapt to demanding
training loads, without experiencing stresses associated
with excess specialization.
Throughout the long process of developing successful
athletes, athletes experience thousands of hours of
training and complete exercises and drills many
thousands of times to develop their abilities. If
programs are not closely monitored and varied, athletes
may have difficulty coping with the physical and
psychological stresses.
Including diverse exercises and developing a range of
skills in the training program at every stage of the
developmental process not only helps athletes develop
new abilities, but also prevents injury and avoids
boredom and burnout.
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Certain changes occur as children grow and
develop. These ‘stages of development’ affect
every aspect of life and sport.
Stages of physical development influence the
ability to perform skills, and stages of emotional
development affect the kind of cooperation or
competition participants are capable of and are
directly linked to the long term development of
synchro athletes.
There are windows of trainability; suggested
times for accelerated adaptation to training. It is
the genetic endowment of athletes as they
respond individually to specific stimuli and adapt
to it accordingly.
=Window of trainability
Type of
training
Aerobic
Endurance
(
10 min)
Aerobic Power
(intense 2-10
min)
SpeedEndurance
(8-60 sec)
Speed
Strength
(POWER 1-2
sec)
10+U
13 P
13-15 N
Some
Some
Some
Speed-General
(2-8 sec)
StrengthSome
Endurance
(15-30 reps)
StrengthGeneral
(8-15 reps)
Strength-Max
(1-2 reps to
failure)
Agility/Balance
/
Coordination
Core
Flex
11+12
16-18
Jrs
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Sports can be classified as either early or late
specialization. In early specialization sports, the
very complex skills are learned before maturation
since they may not be learned after (or more
difficult to learn). E.g. Gymnastics, diving and
figure skating. Synchro is a late specialization
sport.
Children and youth need to do the right things at
the right time to develop in their sport or activity
– whether they want to be hockey players,
dancers, figure skaters or gymnasts. Long-Term
Athlete Development (LTAD) describes the things
kids need to be doing at specific ages and stages
in their development.
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There are seven stages within LTAD:
Stage 1: Active Start (0-6 years)
Stage 2: FUNdamentals (girls 6-8, boys 6-9)
Stage 3: Learn to Train (girls 8-11, boys 912)
Stage 4: Train to Train (girls 11-15, boys 1216)
Stage 5: Train to Compete (girls 15-21, boys
16-23)
Stage 6: Train to Win (girls 18+, boys 19+)
Stage 7: Active for Life (any age participant)
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Stages 1, 2 and 3 develop physical literacy in a
fun, stimulating environment before puberty.
Physical literacy includes fundamental movement
and sport skills that give children the confidence
to participate in a variety of sports and physical
activities throughout their lifetimes.
Stages 4, 5 and 6 provide specialized training
after age 11 for those who want to compete at
the highest level. To enter this high performance
path, physical literacy is essential.
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Aerobic stamina
◦ The ability to sustain a dynamic effort over an extended
period of time (over 10 min)
 Bouts 2-10 min require a subset called max aerobic power
SYNCHRO EXAMLE: ROUTINE RUN THRU
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Muscular strength
◦ The ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert force to
overcome the most resistance in one effort.
 Max strength: the highest level of tension generated by a
muscle or grp
 SYNCHRO EXAMLE: body/leg boost
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Muscular endurance
◦ The ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert force to
overcome a resistance many times.
 SYNCHRO EXAMPLE: eggbeater section of a routine
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Speed
◦ The highest rate at which a movement or a series of
movements can be executed, or the ability to cover
a given distance in the shortest possible time
during an all out effort of short duration
 SYNCRHO EXAMPLE: figure in a routine that has
multiple fast movements performed at a quick rate
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Motor abilities
Flexibility