Golf's American Development Model
The American Development Model (ADM) is a concerted effort between the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and its National Governing Bodies of sport to apply long-term athlete development principles in a way that resonates with the culture of sport in the United States.
The ultimate goal is to create positive experiences for American sport participants at every level. The purpose of this document is to provide key influencers – including administrators and coaches – a roadmap for building and delivering programs that focus on the individual at each stage of development.
Led by the USOPC, golf’s ADM has vision, data and expertise that we can learn from and utilize as an industry. We have compiled recommendations on how this should be appropriately applied in our industry to maximize lifelong participation, reduce golfer burnout and drive business. The ADM provides age-appropriate guidelines and curriculum for the American golf industry to help more people have fun playing golf, develop a lifelong love of the game, and excel at golf.
There is strong support for an ADM at many levels.
WHY AN AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT MODEL?#
Impact on All Sports
The USOPC and its National Governing Bodies understand the vital role sport plays in the lives of Americans. Participating in sports is an excellent form of exercise, a way to build lifelong relationships and a platform for achieving goals and realizing potential. Without positive sports experiences, we risk:
- Fewer opportunities and demand for sport programming
- Fewer opportunities to teach valuable life lessons through sports
- Fewer participants in the system to drive business and success for our industry
Impact on Golf
By creating early positive experiences for all participants, the American Development Model will keep more golfers engaged in our sport longer, with four outcomes:
- Grow both the general athlete population and the pool of elite athletes from which future LPGA and PGA Tour players, major champions and U.S. Olympians and Paralympians are selected
- Develop fundamental skills that transfer between sports
- Provide an appropriate avenue to fulfill an individual’s athletic and personal potential
- Create a generation that loves golf and physical activity, and transfers that passion and healthy lifestyle to the next generation
The 5 ADM Principles
Learn MoreGolf programs looking to take advantage of the scientific facts of the American Development Model should adhere to these five principles:
- Developmentally Appropriate Activities That Emphasize Motor and Foundational Skills
- Enhanced Entry to Create Opportunity for All
- Multi-Sport and Multi-Activity Participation
- Fun, Engaging and Progressively Challenging Atmosphere
- Quality Coaching at All Levels
Stages of Golf's ADM#
The American Development Model is meant to explain a golfer’s advancement through a pathway. The pathway should be used to reference what key concepts participants should focus on as they develop and grow in their golf experience. GOLF’S ADM consists of seven stages designed to create a healthy sport experience and support advancement based on the participant’s physical, mental and emotional level, and potential for growth.
0-6 Girls // 0-6 Boys
- Provide organized physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day for toddlers and at least 60 minutes a day for preschoolers.
- Provide unstructured physical activity — active play — for at least 60 minutes a day, and up to several hours per day for toddlers and preschoolers. Toddlers and preschoolers should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time, except while sleeping.
- Provide infants, toddlers and preschoolers with opportunities to participate in daily physical activity that promotes fitness and movement skills
Click Here for more information on the Active Start Stage
6-8 Girls // 6-9 Boys
- Practice becoming more proficient in fundamental movement skills before more sport-specific skills are introduced
- Emphasize the overall development of the child’s physical, capacities, fundamental movement skills and the ABC’S of athleticism: agility, balance, coordination and speed
- Teach appropriate and correct running, jumping and throwing techniques
- Introduce basic flexibility exercises
- Develop speed, power and endurance using games
Click Here for more information on the FUNdamentals Stage
8-11 Girls // 9-12 Boys
- Further develop all fundamental movement skills and teach general, fundamental golf skills. Otherwise, a significant window of opportunity is lost, compromising the ability of the young golfer to reach their full potential.
- Develop strength using exercises that incorporate the child’s own body weight
- Introduce hopping and bounding exercises or routines to aid in strength and power development
- Further develop endurance through continuous activity games and relays.
Click Here for more information on the Learn to Play Stage
11-15 Girls // 12-16 Boys
- Introduce aerobic training as the child matures to further develop levels of skill, speed, strength and flexibility
- Encourage flexibility training, as the rapid growth of bones during this stage leads to stress on tendons, ligaments and muscles
- Note that both aerobic and strength trainability are dependent on the maturation levels of the youth. For this reason, the periods during which aerobic and strength training are emphasized depend on whether an athlete is an early, average or someone who matured late
Click Here for more information on the Play to Improve Stage
15-21 Girls // 16-23 Boys
- Provide year-round, high intensity, and individual training.
- Teach golfers, who are now proficient at performing basic and sport-specific skills, to perform those skills under a variety of competitive conditions during training.
- Place special emphasis on optimum preparation by modeling competitions in training.
- Individually tailor fitness programs, recovery programs, psychological preparation and technical development.
Click Here for more information on the Play to Compete Stage
18+ Girls // 19+ Boys
- Train golfers to peak at major competitions – performance on demand.
- Ensure that training is characterized by high intensity and relatively high volume all year round
- Allow frequent preventative breaks to prevent physical and mental burnouts.
- Change the training- to-competition ratio 25:75, with the competition percentage including competition- specific training and actual competitions.
Click Here for more information on the Play to Win Stage
All Ages
- Have fun
- Inclusive programming available for all (age, gender, race, socio-economic status
- Encouraged to play as often as possible
- Include physical fitness as part of programming
- Include social aspects as part of programming
- Encourage practice and the driving range time for game improvement
- Encourage individual and group lessons and events
- Move from highly competitive golf to lifelong competitive sport through club and local fun golf events
Click Here for more information on the Play Golf for Life Stage