Active for Life
This may occur at any age
Young athletes can enter this stage at essentially any age. According to LTAD, if children have been correctly introduced to activity and sport through Active Start, FUNdamentals and Learning to Train programs, they will have the necessary motor skills and confidence (physical literacy) to remain Active for Life in virtually any sport they like. They may decide to continue playing their sport at the recreational level, or they may become involved in the sport as a game official or coach. They might also try new sports and activities: examples could be a hockey player taking up golf or a tennis player starting to cycle.
Canada’s sport system should encourage athletes to:
- Move from one sport to another. For example, the gymnast becomes an aerial skier, the sprinter takes up bobsledding, or the 12-year-old basketball player discovers canoeing.
- Move from one aspect of sport to another. For example, the middle distance runner becomes a guide runner for blind athletes or the cyclist rides tandem at the Paralympic Games.
- Move from competitive sport to recreational activities such as hiking and cycling.
- Move from highly competitive sport to lifelong competitive sport through age group competition such as Master’s Games.
- Upon retiring from competitive sport, move to sport-related careers such as coaching, officiating, sport administration, small business enterprises, or media.
- Move from competitive sport to volunteering as coaches, officials, or administrators.
A positive experience in sport is the key to retaining athletes after they leave the competition stream.
Sport must make a paradigm shift from cutting athletes to re-directing them to sports where they are pre-disposed to train and perform well.