Ages and Track and Field
Development is wrapped up in lots of “science” but there seems to be a certain predictability with different sports and stages of development. Whilst there is a change from year to year the one constant seems to be the age 25 and 2 to 3 years either way. Seems simple and is but gets lost given that 16 years of age is a long way from 24 for instance. 2007 to 2015.
As Michael Poulton outlined using results from a model that looks at the number of athletes per event in the world’s top 100 at the end of the 2006 season , OZ has some numbers there. My statistics are at best a trend only but do reflect the mature status of elite performers. Obvious really but often people think there are heaps of 20 year olds stacked in top 100 even 500 for each event. And my main thrust is simply that structures have to be in place to keep athletes in the sport from 16 to 22 for example.
Now the competition is with things like the TAC development squads and the lure of Soccer for example. Little Athletics should provide the base ( but in my opinion is a bit too young ) and then ideally there should be structures in place to foster development with professionally run clubs. Wishful thinking I know but athletics would explode and feed off the sports science and “institute” driven revival since the “1976 no medal debacle” in Montreal.
We see the AIS employing heaps of full time after school positions in OZ and I cant see why we couldn’t have regional coaches employed at varied venues to keep young people training in athletics and in fact active. Maybe wishful thinking. Again these days money is needed and that is tough for Athletics to generate . Again I am heading to the sad fact that these days most people won’t and can’t coach for hours for zero money night after night in the cold ( and the heat!) . This is one of the strange expectations that exists when parents will pay for swimming and other sports. Odd. IE That is that athletics should often be coached for nix!
I have attached a rough calculation of ages for 100m rankings now and also in 2000 and a look at different events which changes the averages.
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loris bertolacci 
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