2020 NSCA National Conference Schedule

Check in, register on-site, conference app/help desk.

• Experience the yoga-inspired method of movement training Dana Santas has been successfully using in pro sports for two decades.
• Focus on movement patterns that directly translate to mobility, stability, strength, power and balance in athletic performance.
• Learn how to leverage breathing as your most fundamental movement pattern while training, influencing exercises and quality of movement in measurable ways.

The one hour clients spend with us may not be the the most important one as many factors outside our training session impact results. Ali will go over the impact training and nutrition have on our bodies and what we can do about it, and what is important to understand to achieve the highest results. Attendees will be able to identify the physiological signs from metabolic adaptations that occur from deep calorie deficits, certain training protocols, hormonal fluctuations, and what to do about them.

Sponsored by Perform Better

• Identify some of the controversies surrounding many traditional “safety" recommendations in regards to functional movements and training strategies.
• Identify several unorthodox training strategies that can improve human function in daily activities as well as sports.

• Attendees will be able to properly sequence long term joint rehabilitation programming.
• Attendees will be able to identify key indicators and risk factors in knee rehabilitation.
• Attendees will be able to employ neural based training to accelerate the return to play process.

Sponsored by Perform Better

• Describe the underlying mechanisms as to why sleep is important for athletes
• Identify reasons that athletes may experience poor sleep
• Identify appropriate methods to monitor sleep in athletes

• To describe the fascial integration between foot and core stabilizers
• To demonstrate effective cueing and activation of deep core stabilizers
• To design progression foot to core programming that increases stabilization rates in athletes

• Define experiential learning.
• Identify opportunities for experiential learning activities and assignments at their site
• Design experiential learning activities and assessments to enhance student engagement and course quality.

• Explore the scientific principles that underpin the physiological paradox of concurrent training, and understand how they can be manipulated to maximize training adaptations.
• Review the applied 'nuts and bolts' of concurrent training in athletic settings, and evolve beyond the rudimentary discussion of strength vs endurance training.
• Discover training methods used by world-class MMA fighters and combat athletes that promote sport-specific optimization of physical and physiological characteristics concurrently.

Lunch provided

RSVP Required

Lunch not provided

• Putting into perspective the current methods of speed training
• Getting a view on the holistic and dynamic characteristics of modern training methodology
• demystifying some ideas about speed training

When it comes to fat loss, most people think of only two variables: Diet + Exercise. There is one only variable we can control in the one hour we spend with someone in the gym- exercise. 

Although we know calories matter, sometimes hormones matter more. What happens when someone's metabolic makeup is greatly affected by overtraining, under eating, and hormonal.

Sponsored by Perform Better

Sponsored by GNC

• Determine key strength and power qualities for your sport, work or tactical environment.
• Validly measure these qualities, determine relative strengths and weakness to optimize training program design.

• Identify the non-traditional uses for creatine supplementation in sport.
• Examine the impact of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance, thermoregulation, brain injuries/concussions, and rehabilitation. 

• Attendees will be able to properly sequence long term joint rehabilitation programming.
• Attendees will be able to identify key indicators and risk factors in knee rehabilitation.
• Attendees will be able to employ neural based training to accelerate the return to play training process.

Sponsored by Perform Better

• Understanding proper formatting and content of NSCA Foundation grant proposals
• Defending importance of the question and quality of the research design
• Avoiding common problems with proposals, including planning and budgeting

• Identify the emergent technologies that are viable to integrate into and support strength and conditioning practice
• Understand recently discovered scientific principles that capitalize on real-time performance data to optimize motor control adaptations, retention and performance transfer to real world sport competition.
• Detail strategies that capitalize on data fusion to harness real time technologies for use in injury prevention and performance enhancement training

• Discuss the peer-reviewed literature surrounding Velocity Based Training (VBT) and dispel the common misconceptions associated with this approach.
• Critically examine areas of Strength and Conditioning whereby VBT could become a valuable tool for practitioners.
• Provide practical examples of how VBT can fit in to current methods of testing and monitoring, load prescription and volume control.

• Identify the negative consequences of ill-informed dieting strategies for athletes
• To properly define what a 'Diet Break' is and the potential value it can provide athletes
• Demonstrate the application of a properly designed Diet Break for an athlete

• Identify body composition techniques to apply and utilize for various sport and client populations
• Describe the error rates and testing considerations for various body composition techniques (i.e. DXA, BIS, BodPod, 3D body imaging etc).
• Discuss the cost-benefit analysis of body composition techniques

• The attendee will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the biomechanics of the shoulder complex during the execution of overhead exercise performance
• The attendee will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the appropriate upper body exercise implementation and program design, with modification when necessary for various shoulder pathologies
• The attendee will be able to incorporate an arm deceleration training program for the overhead athlete

This practical application session will focus on development of a comprehensive strength, power, agility, and speed training in a metabolic workout format designed to maximize athletic performance, energy system development and injury prevention. Session will include movement preparation, dynamic warm-up, speed training, plyometric, acceleration, agility ladder, line and cone drills as well as the use of training implements. Active participation by attendees is encouraged and welcome. 

All Exhibitors & Attendees Welcome!

Complimentary food and drink.

RSCC & RSVP Required

• The audience will increase their awareness of how to influence and inspire people from a position of leadership.
• The audience will discover the different characteristics between being a boss vs a leader.
• The audience will increase their awareness of how TRUST impacts the team/organization.

Check in, register on-site, conference app/help desk.

Sponsored by the Women’s Committee

• Experience the yoga-inspired method of movement training Dana Santas has been successfully using in pro sports for two decades.
• Focus on movement patterns that directly translate to mobility, stability, strength, power and balance in athletic performance.
• Learn how to leverage breathing as your most fundamental movement pattern while training, influencing exercises and quality of movement in measurable ways.

• Identify basic foundation-building drills that emphasize essential movement patterns that is required to successfully move into sport and position specificity.
• Learn all sport/position specificity of motions and how and when to implement them based on the foundation base.
• Implement drills into long term and short term periodization models and gain knowledge on which types of exercises (general versus specific) and modes (volume, intensity, and load) will apply at various states of the training cycles.

• Identify the value and importance of sports nutrition on health and performance
• Disperse common misconceptions and misunderstandings of dietary fat for performance
• Learn practical tips for what and how to include dietary fat into an athlete's habitual diet

• Provide overview of each work setting; Professional, College, High School, Private Sector, Tactical, Education 
• Know what questions to ask to pick the right job 
• How to make yourself a viable candidate

LTAD Track

• To understand the implications of context specificity on agility - Gamespeed
• To develop a framework to maximise the transfer from training to performance.

• Appreciate how data can be used to define a training system, which is evidence based, objective, and free from cognitive bias.
• Appreciate that athlete engagement is affected by the team's vision and culture, and thus the need to formalise these, as well as their own personal training philosophy.

• Identify the crucial role physical education should play in the long-term athletic development of all our youth.
• Learn how to integrate the LTAD framework into a traditional physical education setting.

• Understand the integration of different disciplines that went into the concept of sport science.
• Understand the different domains of practice in the emerging field of sport science.
• Understand the needed competencies related to the different roles played by professionals in the field of sport science.

• Understand cognition, exercise and how they intersect during exercise.
• Understand different types of cognition and how they impact sport.
• Identify keys in where this intersection impacts sport performance.

• Identify basic foundation-building drills that emphasize essential movement patterns that is required to successfully move into sport and position specificity.
• Learn all sport/position specificity of motions and how and when to implement them based on the foundation base.
• Implement drills into long term and short term periodization models and gain knowledge on which types of exercises (general versus specific) and modes (volume, intensity, and load) will apply at various states of the training cycles.

• Understand how the S&C coach plays a vital role as a member of the sports medicine team.
• Gain insight on how to apply your S&C skillset to the Return to Play process and aide in creating positive outcomes concurrent with the rehabilitation process.
• Learn how using objective assessments can help you have the hard conversation with athletes and parents about their injury risk level and readiness for Return to Play.

• Examine what is known and not known about psycho-social development of children and adolescents through sport.
• Discuss the coaching roles, responsibilities and skills needed to support the psycho-social development of children and adolescents through sport.
• Identify strategies and evidence based practices to support both programmatic coach education and individual professional development continuing education efforts that value and facilitate the development of the essential teaching and leadership skills necessary to create sport environments that support the psycho-social development of children and adolescents.

Lunch provided

RSVP Required

Lunch not provided

• Understand tissues is important in force production and transmission, and their interaction via a three component model approach e.g. muscle (contractile component), tendon (series elastic component) and mysial/connective tissues (parallel elastic component).

• Identify simple assessments that can potentially isolate the contribution of these components.

• Become more aware of sport nutrigenomics / genomics as a rapidly growing science that has fueled the proliferation of a hustling genetic testing services marketplace.
• Coaching professionals will better understand the strengths and limitations of consumer genetic testing and how they can incorporate this service into their practice. 

• To develop a coaching and development structure to enhance context specific movement capacity.
• To emphasise the important of effective coaching in this process.

• How to best identify energy and power "leaks" in overhead and rotational athletes
• How to best train athletes with certain inefficiencies both from an overhead and rotational perspective
• Adding new technologies to improve training of overhead and rotational athletes

• Answer key questions regarding WHY you want to work with firefighters to identify whether you SHOULD be working with firefighters.
• Identify strategies to gain access to fire departments and firefighters.
• Gain insight into writing a contract for your services and maintaining that contract through following specific rules of engagement.

• Undertsand probiotic supplment facts label
• Identify key mechansims by which probiotics affect gut function
• Understand current literature surrounding probiotics and athletic performance

• Identify skills that reinforce implicit/explicit systems
• Describe different cognitive challenges during sport and their relationship in training

• Discuss the impact that muscular strength has on various performance variables and injury risk reduction
• Identify underlying factors and effective training progressions that can influence muscular strength
• Discuss effective training strategies that may benefit athletes throughout the training spectrum

• Describe the difference between central and peripheral fatigue and its relationship to motor unit recruitment and load.
• Describe the force/velocity relationship and its relationship to peripheral fatigue, mechanical tension and hypertrophy.
• Describe how blood flow restriction accelerates peripheral fatigue to achieve high levels of mechanical tension at the muscle fiber level at low loads.

The Data Blitz will consist of individuals that the NSCA Foundation has supported with Grant funding and allow them to present their research results from the funded study.  The Data Blitz will be a serioes of 5-minute fast-paced talks, each covering just a bit-sized bit of the NSCA Foundation funded research

• Attendees will learn about the intersection between attention and learning
• Attendees will learn about the impact of coaching language and cueing on motor skills learning
• Attendees will learn about an evidence-based model for crafting cues that support movement performance and coordination

RSVP Required

Check in, register on-site, conference app/help desk.

• Identifying potential first steps for improved sport science support - S&C and Academic Faculty perspective
• Creating achievable goals that are shared across support staff
• Maximizing relationships on campus - the key to sustained progress

• Be able to discuss the hormonal regulation of lipolysis during exercise
• Be able to explain the limitations of fat oxidation during different exercise intensities
• Be able to describe several exercise programs that enhance fat oxidation Description of Lecture: The Physiology of Fat Loss

• Understand the important components of performing mobility training for a warm-up or a stand-alone work-out.
• Perform movements that increase range of motion and improve strength and stability.
• Describe how mobility training is the "new stretching and warm-up" as it relates to improving the performance of athletes.

• Learn the research and testing protocols for Dynamic Strength Index (DSI)
• Discuss the process of identifying and training athletes according to force-velocity deficiencies
• Using force plate technology as a screening tool for designing resistance training program
• How to enhance DSI emphasized training programs by using velocity based training (VBT)

• Common programming/training errors that prevent proper development
• Techniques and methods used to help prevent injury and overtraining
• Statistical program review of the different needs between seasonal and non seasonal athletes 

• To understand that core training is important for athletes and any individuals who are active
• To identify what movements and activities are important as part of everyday programming for a healthy core
• To reinforce the importance of educating clients that core training is more than what you see on most social media channels

• Participants will learn at least three common misconceptions about weight and a “healthy” diet.
• Participants will become aware of controllable changes that can positively impact health.
• Participants will be able to list three ways to help patients make lasting nutrition and health changes without an overvaluation of weight.

Sponsored by National Cattlemen’s Beef Association

• This presentation will provide background, definitions, and information about exercise intensity domains, the assessment of aerobic and anaerobic fitness, and the use of the first and second thresholds in practice.
• The audience will learn how to quantify aerobic and anaerobic fitness using field-based approaches (e.g: critical velocity test) in scenarios where lab-based physiological tests (e.g: Lactate Threshold, MLSS) cannot be done.
• We will discuss the pros and cons of both approaches, and their application in order to enhance performance in endurance athletes.
• An innovative approach to optimize load management in team-sports using GPS-based tracking devices, and velocity-duration data.

• Understand similarities and distinctions between nutritional practices influencing the frequency and distribution of eating occasions.
• Evaluate current evidence regarding the potential effects of intermittent fasting and variation in meal frequency on adaptations to exercise training.
• Determine the contexts in which selective manipulation of eating frequency and distribution may be appropriate for active individuals.

• Describe the background of transcranial direct current stimulation and its influence on motor skill learning.
• Describe the current research on the use of transcranial direct current stimulation to improve muscle strength.
• Describe the current research on the use of transcranial direct current stimulation to improve muscle endurance and attenuate fatigue.

• Describe how VBT may not be practical in large team settings or in weight rooms without much money
• Review the literature of how many repetitions people can usually do for various exercises until dropping below a certain velocity-loss threshold
• Understand how adjusting rest periods can mimic the velocities and training volumes of VBT