The original Five Basic S’s of training and performance were introduced in the Canadian Sport for Life: Long-term Participant Development document. Building on the physical development, an additional Five S’s create a complete, holistic, training, competition and recovery program and a proper lifestyle.
Thus, there are Ten S’s of training which need to be integrated when developing annual training, competition and recovery plans. Each of these capacities is trainable throughout a participant’s lifetime, but there are clearly critical periods (or sensitive periods) in the development of each capacity during which training produces the greatest benefit to each participant’s improvements.
The CS4L document also describes the various stages of LTPD and identifies the windows of optimal trainability related to the critical or sensitive periods of the maturation process.
In all former LTPD documents the windows of trainability have been referred to as the “critical periods” of accelerated training; however, scientist now believes that critical periods should be referred to as sensitive periods. Thus, windows of trainability refer to periods of accelerated adaptation to training during the sensitive periods of pre-puberty, puberty and early post-puberty. The windows are fully open during the sensitive periods of accelerated adaptation to training and partially open outside of the sensitive periods.
These sensitive periods vary between individuals as each participant is unique in their genetic makeup. While the sensitive periods follow general stages of human growth and maturation, scientific evidence shows that humans vary considerably in the magnitude and rate of their response to different training stimuli at all stages. Some participants may show potential for excellence by age 11, whereas others may not indicate their promise until age 15 or 16. Consequently, a long-term approach to participant development is needed to ensure that participants who respond slowly to training stimuli are not “short-changed” in their development.
Download the pdf (540KB) with more detail here.