Female Youth Physical Development Model

The Youth Physical Development Model (YPD) by Rhodri Lloyd and Jon Oliver is a progression from previous long-term development models, which promotes a comprehensive approach to the development of young athletes from early childhood to adulthood (Lloyd and Oliver, 2012). YPD contradicts previous research, which looked at specific training windows of opportunity during youth athletic development, by suggesting that all physical qualities should be trained through childhood and adolescence, with greater focus given to certain qualities through development. In the table below, training emphasis is highlighted by font size, the greater the font size, the more important the fitness quality is to train.