Maximizing Athlete Retention

Many coaches forget the importance of development in youth athletes, putting more emphasis and spending more time on the athletes whom from a young age seem to have what it takes to be an all-star athlete. What most coaches don’t realize and a lot of associations across the country forget is that all athletes learn and develop new and improved skill at different times in their athletic career.

U.S Lacrosse, A national governing body is taking a new approach to what we believe is a great start. They have put together a new set of rules and guidelines for youth lacrosse coaches in an attempt to improve upon the development of athletes during each stage of their career both while in-game and throughout the years training season. The program is called LADM which stands for Lacrosse Athlete Development Model(LADM).

“The goal is to cultivate players with sound fundamentals, and create more opportunities to stay involved in lacrosse”.

“The base of the pyramid of participation defines the health and welfare of the sport,” says Steve Stenersen, CEO, U.S. Lacrosse. “The universal adoption of these rules and principles around LADM and age segmentation are critical for us to maximize sport growth and player retention – we will engage more kids longer, and create more great athletes down the pipeline.”

Several sports have seen a higher level of diminishing opportunity during the past several years, U.S Lacrosse has done a great job creating this program to focus on player retention. Are they setting a new precedent in which other associations should follow?