For emerging athletes to move properly and develop athletic skills, they must first develop proficiency in fundamental motor skills. The ABCs of athleticism, therefore, must reflect the development of fundamental motor skills first, and specific athletic skills second.

Richard Howell, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Indianapolis Colts National Football League (NFL) team, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about his impressive 21 years with the organization. Topics under discussion include going from pre-medical to strength coach, building relationships with athletes and staff members, and how technology provides hard numbers for sport coaches to understand stress management. Connect with Richard through email: Richard.howell@colts.nfl.net | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

As Director of Sport Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Heather Farmer spearheads comprehensive integration efforts. This includes ensuring every stakeholder, from sport performance staff to academic advisors, has a seat at the table. Farmer also outlines developing an internship and graduate assistantship program to meet staffing needs and offer opportunities for practical experience. She recounts how leveraging relationships — not data — has been her key to scalability. Additionally, Farmer recognizes that to make an impact, she must meet athletes and sport coaches where they are, which she uncovers through “highlights” and “hurdles.” She suggests that sport scientists with strength and conditioning backgrounds, like herself, are uniquely equipped to excel due to their communication skills. Farmer and McMahon also discuss avoiding “analysis paralysis” and how to incorporate data to elevate the student-athlete experience — an unignorable factor as athletes bring an element of “self” in the age of name, image and likeness (NIL). Reach out to Heather by email at: heather.farmer@unlv.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

The purpose of this article is to examine components that affect speed to determine the degree that speed is governed by skill versus genetic factors.

Falls resulting from trips are a leading cause of injury and can sometimes result in death, especially in the older population. Numerous researchers have studied the biomechanical mechanisms that differentiate fallers from nonfallers and determined whether training can beneficially impact those outcomes. Exercise and task-specific interventions have demonstrated fewer falls after trips but can be costly and often require specialized equipment, making their applicability less practical. Qualified health and fitness practitioners can develop evidence-informed, exercise-based programs focusing on 3 components (balance training, task-specific training, and resistance exercise). Such programs may help to reduce fall risk in older adults based on previously documented studies identifying the biomechanical demands of a successful fall arrest after a trip perturbation. These multicomponent programs should include a safe task-specific training element that does not require specialized equipment.

Dave Terry, Associate Director of Sports Performance at Georgetown University, talks to the former NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about his time at Georgetown and the value of mentorship. Topics under discussion include building the intern program, creating relationships with the athletes, and different ways to think creatively, learn, and grow as a strength coach. Find Dave on Instagram: @daveterry16

Researchers and practitioners have highlighted the necessity to monitor jump strategy metrics and the commonly reported outcome measures during the countermovement jump (CMJ) and drop jump (DJ) tests. However, there is a risk of confusion for practitioners, given the vast range of metrics that now seem to be on offer via analysis software when collecting data from force platforms. As such, practitioners may benefit from a framework that can help guide metric selection for commonly used jump tests, which is the primary purpose of this article. To contextualize the proposed framework, we have provided 2 examples for how this could work: one for the CMJ and one for the DJ, noting that these tests are commonly used by practitioners during routine testing across a range of sport performance and clinical settings.