What is Long Term Participant Development? (LTPD)
What will this mean for your child?
Baseball Canada LTPD Resources
Baseball Canada Long Term Participant Development Document
Long Term Participant Development Guides
What is Long Term Participant Development? (LTPD)
Children, youth, and adults need to do the right things at the right time to develop as baseball players. Long-Term Development (LTD) describes what participants need to be doing at specific ages and stages of development.
The baseball Canada framework has 7 stages of development from developing the fundamentals of movement to playing professionally and recreationally and being active for life. Along the way, it addresses the physical, mental, emotional, and technical needs of the athlete.
Science, research, and decades of experience all point to the same thing: kids and adults will get active, stay active, and even reach the greatest heights of sport achievement if they do the right things at the right times. This is the logic behind the Long-Term Development Framework (LTD).
What will this mean for your child?
At each stage, the player will be trained in the optimal systems and programs to maximize their potential as a ballplayer and as a long-term participant in sport and in baseball.
In addition to new developments in sport science, updated research, and lessons learned from implementing the original 2007 framework, Baseball Canada has focused on several important upgrades to better support today’s participants, parents, coaches, and organizations.
From Book to Chapters
The 2026 Baseball Canada framework is designed to be consulted in sections, per chapter or per stage according to each and everyone’s area of interest. It is also designed so each chapter can be separated from the guide and distributed in separately from the entire document.
From Participation to Quality Experiences
Not all sport and physical activity experiences are positive. This guide helps associations and leaders create better baseball experiences by delivering good programs, led by good people, in good places where children, athletes, and families can thrive.
Awareness and First Experience Matter
Even the best program has little impact if participants never walk through the door. That’s why this framework places greater emphasis on the often-overlooked stages of awareness (Knowing that Baseball exists and is accessible) and on having a good first experience.
Supporting the Adolescent Participant
Adolescence is a critical stage in sport participation. While some young people step away from baseball and physical activity, others begin progressing toward high performance.
This guide places greater emphasis on the needs of adolescent athletes, helping coaches, parents, and organizations better support development, retention, confidence, and long-term engagement in the game.
Guiding Principles of Long-Term Development
Long-Term Development helps create the conditions for participants to grow, succeed, and stay active for life. Today, the term principles refers to the seven guiding elements that shape the design, delivery, and ongoing evaluation of baseball programs at every stage of development.
Baseball Canada LTPD Resources
Baseball Canada will continually update this section to provide access to the most current materials and programs as they are developed.
We will add a range of LTPD resources designed to help all participant’s understand the stages that each player goes through and also the training principles and activities at each stage.
Rally Cap Program
This has been designed by Baseball Canada staff to ensure that a child's entry into the game of baseball is appropriate and enjoyable. Stressing the proper FUNdamentals, it describes a program of activities for children 8 and under.
Initiation Coach Program
This program for entry level coaches has been designed under the National Caoch Certification Program to address the needs of coaches handling children entering the game of baseball and playing in the Community Sport context. Entry is started through an on-line module at nccp.baseball.ca.
General LTAD Information
Please go to https://sportforlife.ca/long-term-development/ for access to the resource paper used as background in starting work on the LTAD process.
Baseball Canada Long Term Participant Development Document
Coming Soon
Long Term Participant Development Guides
Coming Soon
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