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FTEM Pathway Framework A Guide to understanding where your athletes
are placed within the FTEM structure
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Introduction
An athlete pathway spans the continuum of physical, psychological and social development; movement
skill acquisition and mastery; and athletic experience and achievement. Considerable research has
focused on identifying the ideal trajectory of an athlete’s progress from the first exposure to
fundamental movement skills to elite competitive success. What are the most efficient pathways and
sequences of experiences to optimise this process? Understanding the relationships between many
factors can help a sporting organisation structure effective support and delivery systems.
The FTEM (Foundation – Talent – Elite – Mastery) Framework can be used as a tool for sporting
organisations to structure effective strategies and programs to guide athlete and sport development.
Key Messages
1. FTEM provides an organisational framework that sporting stakeholders can use to plan and
implement strategies and programs to assist participants.
2. FTEM stages are not age dependent, but depend upon acquisition/mastery of skills,
accumulated experiences, and performance outcomes.
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Background on FTEM
Sport plays an important role in Australia’s culture, ethos and economy. Historically, Australia has an
outstanding overall record of achievement across many sports. However, declines in international
sporting success during the 1970’s provided a catalyst for the development of the Australian Institute of
Sport in 1981 and soon after, the wider State/Territory sport institute network. In the early years, the
system primarily focused on state-of-the-art sports science and medicine to identify and develop
sporting talent. Other nations adopted Australia’s world leading model during the 1990’s and have since
caught up. Today, talent identification and development strategies incorporate all of our accumulated
understanding of biophysical markers and performance analysis; plus more sophisticated analytics
based upon socio-economic and sports systems parameters, relationships, and best practice. A
comprehensive range of assessment/evaluation criteria are crucial to identifying and developing
sporting talent.
There is a clear need for Australian sporting organisations to develop deliberate strategies for
progressive talent identification and transition from pre-elite to senior elite competition. There is
evidence to support a multidimensional talent identification approach, combining data for physiological
performance, physical indicators, skills-based testing, developmental history, psychological aptitude and
personal characteristics. Hitherto, talent identification and development strategies have not fully
explored the impact of different motivational profiles and the impact of different levels of athlete
support in the daily training environment. Also, the importance of coach-athlete interaction, effective
communication, and a positive and supporting squad/team culture has been undervalued. Strategically
managing an athlete’s career must involve
personal and social factors (in both sporting and
life contexts), coping with injury and other
barriers, and transitioning through stages of the
athlete development pathway.
Clearly, a theoretical and practical framework
would be useful as a tool that sporting
organisations can use to plan what to offer,
when (in the life cycle) to offer it, and how to
deliver programs that complement one-
another. Studies by Gulbin et.al. at the
Australian Institute of Sport have demonstrated
that the performance development of an
athlete does not always follow a predictable or
linear ascent. The key learnings from this
research suggest that a number of pathways
can be followed. The developmental trajectory
of an athlete is influenced by many factors;
some of them within a sport’s control, others
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are dependent upon family or social circumstances, as well as factors related to physical and cognitive
maturation.
Based upon a wide range of findings about athletes, coaches, training environments, evaluation criteria,
etc., the FTEM Framework was constructed. The Framework is general in one sense; it highlights
essential factors or conditions that have been shown to encourage/enhance athlete development – such
as acquisition of movement skills; formation of positive attitudes and behaviours; readiness; and the
influence of people, places and conditions. The Framework is also more specific in outlining best
practice for talent identification and athlete development toward elite performance. The Framework fits
comfortably with the delivery of sport programs and physical activity participation objectives. The FTEM
Framework is a useful tool for both high performance athlete development strategies and sport
development objectives.
• An integrated framework for the optimisation of sport and athlete development: A practitioner
approach, Gulbin J, Croser M, Morlehy E and Weissensteiner, Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume
31, Number 12 (2013). This paper introduces the FTEM (Foundations, Talent, Elite, Mastery)
framework as a multidisciplinary approach for sport and athlete development pathways; based
upon extensive empirical observations from the Australian Institute of Sport, researchers, and
sporting stakeholders.
Main features of the FTEM Framework
• Developed through action research at the AIS.
• Representative of the “3 worlds” - active lifestyle, sports participation and sports excellence.
• Holistic and multidisciplinary sports model.
• Fully integrated.
• Semi-liner design permits all possible movement variations up, down and across the FTEM
framework thereby recognising that individuals can be simultaneous participating in multiple
sports at multiple levels of the pathway.
• Features variable entry and exit points within the developmental pathway.
• Non-prescriptive, allowing broad user flexibility and adaptability.
• Devoid of fixed age boundaries.
• Accommodates pathways for participants with potential (i.e. pre-elite talent), which has
been insufficiently considered in high performance modeling.
• Reinforces the need for the right support, at the right time, and with the right athletes.
More information about different athlete pathway models can be found in the Clearinghouse for Sport
portfolio, Athlete Pathways and Development which BA can provide.
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FTEM Stages
Foundation
The Foundation stage contains three levels: F1, F2, and
F3. The focus during F1 is the learning of fundamental
movement skills as part of lifelong ‘physical literacy’. A
repertoire of movement skills are introduced which lay
the foundation for the future acquisition of sports
skills. Learning a wide range of movement skills will
help the individual gain confidence, adaptability, and
resilience. Skills are introduced and acquired through
play, games and movement activities; not necessarily participation in sports.
More information about the underpinning rationale for the acquisition of movement skills during the
early (e.g. F1 and F2) Foundation stages can be found in the Clearinghouse for Sport portfolio, Physical
Literacy and Sport.
General information for parents (i.e. what they can do to encourage/assist their child) through the
Foundation stage of FTEM can be found on the Australian Sports Commission's website, Top 10 Tips for
Parents.
Foundation 1
Learning and Acquisition
of Basic Movement
Foundation 2
Extension and Refinement
of Movement
Foundation 3
Sport Specific Commitment
and/or Competition
Foundation 1: Learning and Acquisition of Basic Movement
Object control
• Kicking • Throwing • Catching • Hitting
Body control
• Balancing • Tumbling • Climbing
Aquatic skills
• Floating • Early swimming strokes • Padding • Standing on a surfboard
Locomotive skills
• Running
• Hopping
• Jumping
• Skipping
• Using a wheelchair
• Using a prosthetic limb
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Represents an extension and refinement of movement experiences and competency. The child is
exposed to greater movement challenges that may link a number of specific movement skills through
deliberate play and organised age-appropriate modified sport activities.
More information about modified sport programs can be found in the Clearinghouse for Sport
portfolio, Modified Sports.
Deliberate Play: The importance of deliberate play to skill development
Deliberate play, or unorganised play and practice, at home by a child on their own or with family and
friends is a valuable adjunct to organised sport. Deliberate play promotes movement problem solving,
creativity, diversification, variability and adaptability of skills, self-challenge and mastery.
Classic examples of deliberate play from sporting legends include:
• The late Sir Donald Bradman honed his batting skills by hitting a golf ball off a corrugated water
tank with a cricket stump.
Foundation 2: Extension and Refinement of Movement
Family Support
Age-modified sport formats and equipment
Deliberate Play
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• Former rugby league international Brad Fittler developed his football skills out of the front of his
suburban Sydney home with a plastic football (Coates, P 2005).
• Former professional surfer and seven-time world champion Layne Beachley learned to surf at
Manly beach on a foam surf board (Coates, P 2005).
Family Support: The ‘familial advantage’ - Parental and sibling influence on skill development
Collective and recent evidence from our current research project titled ‘My Sporting Journey’ and the
Australian Research Council Linkage Project ‘Sporting Talent’ is revealing that early developmental and
competitive experiences within the home, neighbourhood or school environment with parents, siblings
and friends is instrumental to sporting skill development and later sporting expertise. Not only do
parents provide great early skill facilitators and educators as a ‘fellow participant’, they also provide
numerous types of support including setting up their child’s home developmental environments,
assistance with physical preparation, emotional and financial support, technical and informational
advice on the sport and facilitating access to appropriate coaching.
Recent findings from the ‘My Sporting Journey’ project featuring 440 Senior International level
Australian athletes from across 61 Olympic, Professional and Paralympic sports, found that a high
percentage of these athletes had parents and/or siblings that also excelled in the same sport and across
other sports – that’s certainly a strong ‘familial advantage’ !
Current research findings has also demonstrated that for female athletes, playing with their brothers
and male neighbourhood and school based friends in their foundational years, is a strong contributor to
later sporting success ! It seems that playing with their male counterparts not only provides an avenue
for skill progression, enhanced mental toughness, fitness and physical robustness but are also
supportive, encouraging and motivating.
Importantly, it is not only children and their siblings that get value and enjoyment out of family sporting
play – it also encourages parents to participate and test their skills and fosters positive family dynamics
between parent and child.
Classical examples of familial advantage include:
Multiple World BMX Champion Caroline Buchanan riding and competing in BMX with her Dad and her
brother.
Rugby League Immortal Andrew Johns and his brother Mathew playing backyard footy and honing their
legendary technical and tactical skills.
Australian cricketing brothers Shaun and Mitchell Marsh watching their father Geoff play Test cricket
and having their own backyard battles of cricket, where Mitchell as the younger brother was commonly
relegated to bowling to his brother.
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AFL’s Adam Goodes playing soccer, cricket and AFL in the backyard with his younger brothers [Raising
Champions-A Parent’s Perspective].
Stan Gilchrist as a coach and father encouraging his young cricketing son Adam Gilchrist to ‘just go for it’
in the nets!
Age-modified sport formats and equipment: The importance of the right match of sport format and
equipment for fun, promoting skill development and minimising injury
Children are not mini adults! As an important precursor to sport-specific skill development, minimise
potential injuries and to ensure a positive learning experience and fun, it is important that children
participate in modified versions of a sport that are appropriate to their age, size and skill level.
Some examples of these include:
• ANZ NetSetGo that features fun and progressive, age and skill appropriate formats of Netball
with modified rules.
• MiniRoos soccer that features small-sided games.
• ANZ Tennis Hot Shots court tennis where children aged between 4 to 12 play on smaller tennis
courts with lighter racquets and low compression balls.
• PlayRugby and Game On features progressive small-sided games, playing areas and non-tackle
formats.
• BMX MiniWheelers featuring balance bikes.
It is also critical that children use sporting equipment that is matched to their size and age (e.g. light and
shorter junior hockey stick, light and smaller tennis racquets). Matching the right sized equipment, will
not only promote the development and refinement of your children’s sporting skills but also reduce the
likelihood of injury.
The following page demonstrates and example of a Boccia modified sports format that actively
promotes skills development without enforcing all the rules in an official game. This will be the most
appropriate method in driving grass roots recruitment to identify athlete potential and development.
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In the final foundational level (F3) sport-specific skills are being refined and progressed and where the
young able-bodied athlete or athlete with disabilities is committed to regular training and formal or
informal competition. This level commonly is the beginning of most club-based sporting experiences.
For ideal F3 development, we consider this complement of factors to be key:
Foundation 3: Sport Specific Commitment and/or Competition
Observational Learning
Sport Sampling
Smart Practice
The "sport-ready" athlete
Right Coach &
Club fit
Self-Regulation
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Sport Sampling: The importance of sampling numerous sports before specialising in a main sport
It is now well accepted from our research with elite Australian athletes from many sports, that an early
and vast sampling of sports prior to specialising in their main sport commonly around that age of 13 to
15, is a valuable precursor to later high performance success by providing a fuller, more competent and
adaptable sporting skill base from which to draw on. A diversified investment in sports before
specialisation has also been linked to minimising injury and reducing later dropout and burnout from
sport.
Recent findings from the My Sporting Journey project found that the majority of Australian athletes that
won or made the podium at Senior International events including the Olympic and Paralympic Games,
World Championships or World Cup, sampled on average 4 different sports and commonly to a high
competitive level, before specialising in their main sport. 80% of these athletes reported that their
training and competition in these prior sports greatly assisted their development and performance in
their main sport.
Classical Examples of sport sampling include:
• Dual International in Cricket and Soccer Ellyse Perry also played Touch Football, Athletics, Tennis
and Golf.
• Multiple Paralympic Wheelchair racer Richard Nicholson also competed in Gymnastics, Archery,
Swimming, Powerlifting and Skateboarding on his hands before committing to road and track
racing.
Smart Practice
It is well accepted that practice is vitally important in developing sporting skills. However, it is not
merely the quantity of practice but more importantly the quality and type of practice that is important.
Executing and refining the same complement of sporting skills in practice that you require in
competition is key! A good example of this is limiting the use of ball machines when developing the
batting skills of young cricketers. A ball machine does not offer the key visual cues for anticipating the
line and length of an incoming delivery from a bowler in a game context. As expertise in cricket batting is
reliant on a coupling of anticipatory (i.e. reading the body cues of a bowler), decision making and
technical skill, the best way to develop young batsmen and women is to get them to face a variety of
different bowlers (e.g. left and right handed, differing spin, swing and pace). This is the same for other
interceptive sports including tennis, hockey and waterpolo.
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Observational Skills: The value of observational learning to skill development
Learning is often based on observation and imitation. Children will learn a lot of their behavioural
responses such as reaction to failure (getting out in cricket or missing a shot in tennis) or responding to a
coach or referee from parents, their siblings, peers as well as their sporting idols. Similarly they will
learn a lot about a sport and its technical and tactical elements based on those same observations.
Observational learning is a valuable tool for aiding skill development. As the term suggests,
observational learning occurs from watching sport (including in the backyard or club) or a sporting hero
or mentor live or on television and then attempting to imitate their technique and mannerisms. A
common developmental strategy of elite sports people is that they were a ‘true scholar’ of their sport,
diligently observing and studying their sporting idols in their sport and then trying to mimic their
technical execution or their rituals and routines or even in fact imagining that they are their sporting
idol. Below is quote from a former Australian Test batsman about how he utilised observational learning
at the elite International level.
When you watch guys like Brian Lara [former West Indian batsman] or Sachin Tendulkar [Indian
batsman], Ricky Ponting [former Australian batsman and captain], you just pick up little things. I
remember clearly I scored a test [international] hundred . . . and I think it was at that stage the third
fastest ever hundred by an Australian test batsmen . . . and I was actually [imagining] I was Brian Lara.
Self-Regulation: Self-Regulation is an important skill for not just sport, but life!
Contemporary evidence emerging from a myriad of sports shows that strong self-regulation, a
complementary mix of six psychological skills (i.e., effort, self-efficacy, planning, self-monitoring,
evaluation and reflection) underpins effective learning in training, aids competitive performance and
skill refinement and assists in effectively negotiating the progressions and transitions up the athlete
pathway.
Sport Ready Athlete: Developing the “sport-ready” athlete
It is very important for sporting participants to have a good holistic understanding of and strategies for,
effectively managing the myriad of demands and requirements related to being an ‘athlete’. With
appropriate guidance and practice, these strategies and skills can in turn become habitual and life-long.
These complementary skills include but are not limited to:
• Understanding the importance of having a sound athletic base (e.g. optimal neuromuscular
flexibility, muscular strength and stability of the major joint complexes, good ‘whole body’
coordination) and maintaining good physical health
• Knowing how to do good warm-up and cool down before and after training and competition and
understand why it’s important
• Knowing how to prevent and manage sport related injuries and illness i.e., know who to consult
for further assistance
• Understanding the importance of good nutritional habits
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• Having a good awareness and implementing strategies to monitor and manage hydration and
safely exercising in hot and cold environments
• Understanding the importance of not over-training or over-competing
• Understanding the importance of rest and recovery
• Maintaining a healthy sport-life balance
Right Coach and Club Fit: Finding the right coach / club match for your child
The club and coach are a major part of the environment and experience delivered to any participant in
sport. It is important to find the right match to effectively support your child’s skill development and
sporting goals whether it is recreationally or aspiring towards high performance. Understanding and
aligning you and your child’s motivation, philosophies and skills with the right coach and developmental
club environment will provide a great platform for ongoing participation, performance and enjoyment.
The findings from the Australian Sports Commission’s Market Segmentation research provide some
excellent insight and guidance.
In a paper titled ‘A look through the rear view mirror: Developmental experiences and insights of High
Performance athletes’ that was published in 2010 and featured the insights of 673 High Performance
Australian athletes across 34 sports, having the appropriate athlete-coach match was key. In this paper,
a number of key characteristics of a good coach were recognised and included not just sport-related
factors but also key inter and intra-personal attributes.
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Pre-Elite Athlete Talent Identification and Development
Talent identification and development (TID) describes the process of
an athlete moving into, and/or progressing up, the high performance
pathway to an elite or mastery status.
In this section information and evidence is presented which informs
‘best practice’ specific to the Talent or Pre-elite (T) phases of the
athlete pathway as outlined in the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)
Foundation, Talent, Elite, Mastery (FTEM) framework.
At the T1 phase, athletes typically exhibit demonstrable gifts or talents in the physical, physiological,
psychological and skill domain, which indicate potential in high performance sport. This may occur
through formal (TID testing) or informal TID processes including self-identification prompted by an
individual’s self-awareness of their ability to outperform their peers. In recognition of the complexity
and limits of athlete prediction, T1 represents an initial assessment of potential only and ideally should
be confirmed in the next FTEM phase, T2.
The confirmation or verification of talent (T2) is seen as sequential and complementary to T1, where
evidence based testing (T1) is supplemented by the subjective judgements of coaches and talent scouts
within the training and competition environment. There are no fixed time frames for the T2 process,
although months rather than days or weeks are recommended.
During the T2 phase, athletes are observed in a trial period of a specific training and competition
environment to demonstrate and confirm their ‘trainability’ (sport-specific skill acquisition),
commitment, motivation, ‘coachability’, and other positive psychological, self-management and relevant
traits. This phase is crucial to confirm whether initial impressions of potential can be sustained.
Verification of talent by a known benchmark ideally leads to formal support of an athlete within the T3
phase.
Talent 1: Demonstration of potential
Talent 2: Verification
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After being confirmed as potential elite athletes (T2), athletes are now committed to sport specific
practice and investment in high training volumes, striving for continual performance improvements.
This phase arguably contains the largest cohort of future elite athletes, yet they also represent the most
vulnerable participants due to traditional funding and athlete support priorities being preferentially
aligned to the ends of the pathway, rather than the middle. This often translates into a number of
deficiencies in key development areas including coaching, competition, equipment etc. Central to
maximising an athlete’s development at this level is the strategy of deliberate programming [Bullock et
al., 2009]. In addition to skill practice, deliberate programming encompasses other planned factors such
as high-quality strategic planning, access to quality coaching, equipment and the best possible
competitions. Further, technical, financial and sport science and medicine support is advocated to
ensure athletes fulfil their potential [Bullock et al., 2009].
Quality of the development environment is critical at this level in order to reduce potential dropout and
underachievement. Given the measureable lack of attention often provided to athletes at this phase of
development, T3 represents a fertile area for future investment and potential international advantage.
Gaining formalised and professional support for continued development is the key feature of T4. An
athlete’s efforts to improve their performance at T3 are essentially rewarded at T4 where they may earn
an athletic scholarship at a university or an institute/academy of sport. Similarly, they may be drafted
into a professional team or an elite training squad greatly enhancing their chances of becoming an ‘elite’
athlete. Performing well at a key event (e.g. a major championship) can also be a critical milestone that
leads to the increased likelihood of being noticed and supported by the sport or the system.
Maximisation of interaction between pre-elite and elite athletes (‘vertical integration’) is critical to
advance a T4 athlete’s development. In addition, T4 presents a critical transition point into open
international competition (E1).
Talent 3: Practicing and Achieving
Talent 4: Breakthrough and Reward
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Achieving and Maintaining Elite Performance
At the pinnacle of athlete pathway, sporting organisations strive to
improve the conversion rates from national representation to
podium and onto sustained success. They seek to assist athletes to
negotiate the myriad of high performance stressors while
maintaining a healthy sport-life balance which supports athletes’
well-being and their ability to sustain their performance on the
world stage.
To distinguish between elite and non-elite athletes in the field of talent development it is essential to
fully understand expertise characteristics and their development.
The E1 phase represents achievement of an elite athlete status through selection and representation at
the highest senior levels of international or professional sport. Examples within non-professional sports
include representing Australia at the senior World Championships, Olympic or Paralympic Games.
Specific to professional sports, athletes are playing at the highest levels of professional competition.
Whilst these athletes have achieved an elite status, they are yet to achieve an international podium
result or be successful in a professional sport such as winning a national premiership (AFL for example)
or a ‘season’s best player’ recognition. Considering this fact, targeted interventions such as tailored
support and education prior, during and after an athlete’s initial exposure to key high level events is
considered paramount to converting E1 athletes into medal winning athletes (E2).
An E2 phase athlete in an Olympic or Paralympic sport has achieved a medal winning performance at a
major senior international competition such as the World Championships, Olympic or Paralympic
Games. An E2 athlete in a professional sport has achieved recognition within that sport (for example, in
the AFL a national premiership, winning the Brownlow medal or a club’s medal of honour for the
season’s best and fairest player).
A better understanding of what factors, attributes and strategies underpin the conversion of an athlete
from E1 senior representation to E2 podium success is paramount to developing and maximising
investment. That understanding also enhances diagnostics, strategies and system provision specific to
pre-elite identification (T1), confirmation (T2) and development (T3).
Elite 1: Representation
Elite 2: Success
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For Olympic and Paralympic sports, mastery athletes are those that achieve sustained success at an E2
phase over multiple high performance cycles (i.e., a typical eight year period based on two high
performance cycles of four years). Similarly, professional mastery phase athletes are those who achieve
repeated and sustained success at E2 over an enduring period or era (i.e., eight to 10 years).
Mastery as the pinnacle of the high performance pathway represents the highest of sporting
achievement. Mastery athletes represent the most advanced and optimised exemplars of the bio-
psycho-social components for their respective sport. Their sustained elite success represents the most
cost effective and efficient outcomes for the considerable investments made into elite athlete
development. Better understanding of what athlete factors, attributes and strategies underpin
sustained elite success is paramount to maximising investment in elite talent. It also enhances
diagnostics, strategies and provides systems specific to pre-elite identification (T1), confirmation (T2)
and development (T3).
Mastery 1: Sustained Success