Strength and conditioning professionals who incorporate a properly designed and supervised training program can help their young athletes train, compete, and reduce the likelihood of injury.

Learn about the framework for practical, functional, and sequential skill development for a “best practices” model. This model is designed to develop a movement vocabulary, physical literacy, and movement skills for improved athleticism.

This NSCA Coach article summarizes key findings on coach-focused strategies to help educators use resistance training to support healthy youth development. Visit NSCA online to read more on mental health and youth sports.

Here are more reasons why award-winning Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach Scott Sahli is happy when kids are involved in multiple sports programs and supervised by certified strength coaches.

Strength and conditioning coaches with knowledge of the exercise principles for youth and the specific demands of basketball can design effective integrative neuromuscular training (INT) programs based on the individual needs of youth athletes.

This article describes an innovative approach that was used to implement a long-term athletic development (LTAD) program in a health club, and includes the steps used for implementation.

What does LTAD mean and how can parents get more involved with their child’s athletic development? Rick Howard provides an overview of youth development, important concepts to understand, ways to impact physical development, signs of overtraining, and further resources that are a great refresher for coaches and can be passed onto parents.

This second article of a two-part series continues the discussion of long-term athletic development (LTAD). This article provides practical application of the LTAD principles by examining two sample programs.

This article applies LTAD principles to guide the process of generating an athletic profile (part 1) and sample program design (part 2) for a middle school athlete and a high school athlete.

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