Regional partnership

For many talents, the change from a selection team to a TeamNL centre club is too big. Talents train at a club four evenings a week, for example. At Papendal, this is twice a day. All of a sudden, there is much more involved than merely training. For instance, following an intensive weight training. Being conscious about nutrition. Live away from home.

In order to bridge this gap, the NOC*NSF and the sports confederations work on enhancing the regional infrastructure by setting up Regional Training Centres (RTCs). These entry programmes are directed by the sports confederation. They are facilitated by the Regional Elite Sports Organisations (RTOs). In the eastern region, TeamNL centre Papendal, Elite Sports Gelderland and Elite Sports Overijssel collaborate in Elite Sports East.

Talent development, a broadly used term. But what does it stand for?
The objective is to train young talents step by step to becoming an elite athlete. So they can find their way to the European top. And then the global top. Each sports confederation has drawn up a multi-annual plan. These plans describe the elite athlete training programme. They describe the goals for athletes, per age category and programme stage. We refer to these as continuous curricular strands.

The NOC*NSF is also concerned with the development of continuous curricular strands. As a few of the topics go beyond sports. Such as nutrition. Performance behaviour or anti-doping. Elite Sports East mainly appoints experts to these exceeding topics.

Optimising the advancement of athletes from RTC to TeamNL centre level. That is the objective of the collaboration between TeamNL centre Papendal, Elite Sports Overijssel and Elite Sports Gelderland. The continuous curricular strands at the expert levels play an important role in this. Therefore, expert groups have been put together. The experts in these groups are involved with the RTCs as well as the TeamNL centre. For example, they give workshops to the coaches in the region. Share their knowledge. This is how a regional coach learns skills related to weight training and behavioural performance. In turn, they can transfer this knowledge to the talents during the trainings.

We are currently working on the alignment of the form and content of the talent development at RTCs. The eastern region supports sports confederations with the organisation of the RTC programme. Facilitates services.