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According to this article, the 2003/4 incarnation of the "Long-term athlete development model";
"A specific and well-planned practice, training, competition and recovery regime will ensure optimum development throughout an athlete's career. Ultimately, sustained success comes from training and performing well over the long-term rather than winning in the short-term. There is no short-cut to success in athletic preparation. Overemphasising competition in the early phases of training will always cause shortcomings in athletic abilities later in an athlete's career.
This article discusses trainability during childhood and adolescence. Coaches world-wide currently design long and short-term athlete training models as well as competition and recovery programs based on their athletes' chronological age. Yet, research has shown that chronological age is not a good indicator on which to base athlete development models for athletes between the ages of 10 to 16. There is a wide variation in the physical, cognitive and emotional development of athletes within this age group.
Sports can generally be classified as early specialisation or late specialisation sports. Early specialisation refers to the fact that some sports, such as diving, figure skating, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and table tennis require early sport-specific specialisation in training.
Late specialisation sports, including track and field, combative sports, cycling, racquet sports, rowing and all team sports require a generalised approach to early training. For these sports, the emphasis during the first two phases of training should be on the development of general motor and technical-tactical skills. Early specialisation sports require a four-phase model, while late specialisation sports require a six-stage model:"
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