USA Swimming is thrilled to launch its redesigned American Development Model (ADM). The ADM is a visual concept to help coaches and program managers build programs that are focused on the individual athlete.

Developed in a collaborative effort between the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and National Governing Bodies (NGBs), these visual models illustrate age-appropriate expectations and concepts for each stage of an athlete’s development. The ADM helps coaches address the full development of each swimmer, as each swimmer’s journey proceeds at an individual pace with many different levels of success.

The goals of USA Swimming’s ADM are:

• Give athletes, coaches and parents a positive experience in the sport of swimming
• Keep athletes, coaches, and parents engaged in the sport longer
• Help increase the pool of potential National Team candidates
• Teach athletes life skills that will help them be successful in life

Coaches can reference USA Swimming’s ADM as a tool to create their team’s long-term athlete development plan, design practice group structures and evaluate the overall development and progress of their swimmers.

In the USA Swimming ADM, there are six levels of development focusing on the four critical athlete-centered outcomes within the USOPC’s Quality Coaching Framework, which provides an overarching set of principles that is designed to inform how to coach most effectively:

• Competence
• Character
• Confidence
• Connection

Competence refers to sport-specific skills, improved health and fitness, and healthy training habits of an athlete. Confidence is the self-belief, resilience, mental toughness and sense of positive self-worth they develop. The positive bonds and social relationships are the connections with people inside and outside of sport, while the respect for the sport, ethical and morally responsible behavior, integrity and empathy build character. 

Coaches support each athlete’s journey progressing through the aforementioned four C’s and the ADM provides suggested training guidelines and competitive performance metrics for each.

Once an athlete progresses beyond level 6 of the ADM, they should be capable of competing at USA Swimming Sectional swim meets and above.

“The ADM is not meant to create clone coaching. The ‘how’ of getting to each milestone is completely up to the coach and athletes,” USA Swimming Team Services Manager of Performance Development Jaime Lewis explained. “Athlete development and accomplishments result from balancing the art and science of coaching. Physical, mental and emotional development occurs in spurts. Not every athlete will progress at the same pace or even make it to level 6. Each swimmer’s journey proceeds at an individual pace, with many different levels of success. These progressions can be helpful in creating a career plan for the development of swimmers.”

Learn more by visiting www.usaswimming.org/adm.