Contracted Human Performance and Optimization Coach of 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regimen Jeff Carroll talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about his start in the field of strength and conditioning and his transition from professional athletes to a tactical population and setting. Topics under discussion include: Carroll’s career path, coaching professional athletes, transitioning to tactical strength and conditioning, and the future of tactical strength and conditioning.
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This column reviews recent literature that investigated the appropriateness of a commonly utilized on-duty exercise training modality for firefighters and describes the occupational demands of specialist tactical police officers.
This article shows how to introduce and apply the sport season model, periodization cycles, and variables of training into the ARFORGEN process. Overtraining, including the signs and symptoms, also is covered.
Introducing the National Strength and Conditioning Association's new Certified Special Population Specialist (CSPS) credential, established in 2012 to address the fitness needs of individuals afflicted by chronic or temporary health conditions.
Get NSCA's Essentials of Training Special Populations — a trusted resource for students, personal trainers, exercise science professionals, and CSPS® exam prep.
Multidirectional ground reaction forces (GRFs) and jump tests within baseball pitchers provide insight into athletic ability and coordination to produce lower-body force and power. Lower-body power is a biomechanical feature that denotes physiological capacity through dynamic and passive tissue stretch-shortening in transferring energy from the ground through the kinetic chain. Optimized lower-body power may lessen the magnitude of forces on the upper extremity. Insufficient lower-body power may create a greater risk of upper-body injury. Lower-body power and its relationship to ball velocity have been minimally investigated, yet some research points to a correlation between jumping ability and fastball velocity. Because pitching is unilateral, practitioners should consider unilateral jumps to determine the extent of bilateral asymmetry or stride to drive leg differences that can guide training to remediate deficiencies. The purposes of this brief review are to (a) examine factors that influence vertical jump performance among baseball players, (b) examine research on pitching multidirectional
GRFs, and (c) examine literature concerning jump performances to baseball pitching performance. Collectively, this review can assist coaches and practitioners in lower-body power testing and training for baseball pitchers.