LTPAD

Competition and Events System Review: Terms of Reference

Speed Skating Canada (SSC) has endorsed Find your Edge, a sport-specific Long Term Athlete Development Model (LTAD) as its fundamental guide to athlete and participant development.  Implementation of the Model’s principles is a strategic objective for the organization.  To that end, SSC established the Long Term Athlete Development Model Implementation Working Group.  As part of its mandate and as a critical step in the process, the Working Group has decided that in order to move forward it was necessary to examine SSC’s competition and event system to ensure that it is aligned with those principles.  As it applies to speed skating in Canada, Find Your Edge articulates those principles.

• To conduct the Review, the Working Group has established a Competition and Event System Review Team. 
• The current system has a strong basis in tradition and history but that tradition and history should not limit our thinking about how to design a system that works for all participants.  
• The Competition and Events Review Team’s overall mandate is to identify programs and structures that will facilitate entrenchment of the stated values of the organization and the SSC LTAD model and make recommendations as they deem appropriate.
• This Competition and Events System Review, as important as it may be, is but one step in the process of entrenching the Model as a guide to making decisions.  While the Review is to be focused on the competition and events system, the LTAD Model has implications for the work of the Club and Membership, Officials, and Coaching Development committees. These standing Committees need to be actively engaged in LTAD initiatives and to consider their educational programs with respect to the stages of development defined in Find your Edge.   These considerations stand on their own. Therefore, such considerations can and should be made independent of the Competition and Events System Review Team’s work. 

GOVERNANCE

The Competition and Events System Review Team will report regularly to the LTAD Working Group concerning progress of the work it is doing.  The Working Group will liaise and consult with SSC Standing Committees and Branches as may be necessary with respect to the Review’s progress.

• The Review Team is expected to provide its Report to the LTAD Implementation Working Group by January 2009.   
• Following receipt of the Competition and Event System Review Team’s Final Report, the Working Group will present it to the Board for its endorsement and to the Competition Development Committee for the purpose of developing the necessary proposals to effect any rule and/or procedure and regulation changes necessary to implement some or all of the recommendations.  Other Standing Committees will be requested to develop proposals with respect to their specific programs necessary to support implementation of the Review’s recommendations.   
• The Review will be presented to the Annual General Meeting in June of 2009.

In making recommendations, the Competition and Events System Review Team is asked to consider:

1. What an ideal competition system might look like?
2. Purposes of competitions, including categories, progressions and series of competitions.
3. Physical, social and psychological considerations for competition at each stage of the LTAD model?
4. Constraints imposed by factors beyond SSC control (such as climate, geography, social trends, academic calendar, travel costs and the ISU calendar) in implementing the LTAD Model.
5. Capacity of SSC Branches and clubs to deliver and participate in programs.

 SPECIFICALLY:

The Competition and Events System Review Team is requested to:

• Evaluate the current system of competitions to identify if and where the competitive structure is incongruent with Speed Skating Canada's stated Values and Find your Edge – Speed Skating Canada's Long Term Athlete Development Plan;
• Identify inconsistencies between the competition structure, SSC values and LTAD Model and make recommendations to address these identified inconsistencies;
• Make other recommendations which it may deem appropriate for consideration/discussion by the LTAD Implementation Working Group;
• Gather normative data and other qualitative information to assist in making recommendations that are based on research as opposed to intuition, tradition or current practice;
• Make recommendations regarding the role of SSC, Branches and Clubs in supporting the different stages defined by the Model;
• Make recommendations regarding: scheduling of events, competition/event duration,  age categories, types of events within the competition structure for National, Provincial/Territorial, Regional and local events;
• Make recommendations regarding provincial/territorial/regional games and the Canada Games within the athlete development pathway;
• Make recommendations regarding alternate competitions and events compatible with the LTAD model.