Synergistic development of muscular strength and motor skill competency is central to long-term athletic development. However, these qualities need to be developed in a logical and progressive manner, and training methods need to be developmentally appropriate, engaging, and enjoyable for young athletes to help them build a positive association with strength and conditioning-based activities. This article aims to provide a resource for coaches to use when developing the athletic motor skill competencies in youth, including game-based activities, and a more structured resistance training curriculum.

Are you interested in helping shape the future of the NSCA? Learn if you are qualified and how to apply to the NSCA Board of Directors. We are seeking dedicated individuals to lead the association and advance the strength and conditioning profession.

Access the video collection for the 2018 Hockey Strength and Conditioning Clinic held June 8-9, 2018 in Colorado springs. Give your athletes a competitive edge on the ice by developing speed, agility, and quickness inside the weight room. Master off-season training, skill development drills, and performance-based nutrition strategies from NHL and collegiate level coaches with years of experience in the rink. Learn the latest training methods backed by science to help your players dominate the competition.

A one-day, joint event presented alongside New England ACSM focusing on the mental science of strength.

Choose your path with new 2026 NSCA Performance Summits. Join us at one of four specialized strength and conditioning events across the U.S. and earn 0.8 CEUs.

June 7-8 | Learn how to help your athletes develop agility, power and speed in the weight room, then translate that effort into success on the ice.

Puberty is a critical period for young athletes, characterized by significant physical, psychological, and social changes. During puberty, young athletes experience the adolescent growth spurt at the same time as intensified training regimens, which can affect performance, injury risk, and overall health. Systematic training can improve physiological and performance outcomes, but the increased training volume and changes to the body during adolescence can also heighten the risk of injuries. This article discusses the injury risks associated with adolescent growth and provides comprehensive recommendations to mitigate these risks. Key recommendations include limiting training hours to the athlete’s age, monitoring growth and maturation to adjust training loads and content, and incorporating and modifying consistent strength and conditioning prescriptions. In addition, optimal nutrition, sleep, and interdisciplinary planning among coaches, parents, and stakeholders should be emphasized to support young athletes’ holistic development and well-being during the adolescent growth spurt.

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Athletes engage in training programs that develop physical and physiological attributes to improve performance over time. However, ensuring athletes are optimally prepared just before competition is also of utmost importance. Indeed, such approaches may often adopt 1 or more strategies in the days, hours, and minutes preceding competition, including exercise priming, active warmup, and/or postactivation performance enhancing (PAPE) activities. Despite a plethora of discrete research, such information seems poorly synthesized, making it difficult for coaches and athletes to implement optimal evidence based physical preparation approaches in many sporting contexts. This article aims to provide a scoping overview of evidence, facilitate discussion, and where possible, propose practical exercise based recommendations that may be useful leading up to (~48 hours–~1 minute) tasks with a short or prolonged endurance component or requiring repeated intermittent efforts (e.g., team based field sports). Well-timed and –designed activities can facilitate several aspects of physical performance, potentially improve athletes’ psychological state(s) and mental preparedness. The benefits of a warm-up are most well documented, but priming and PAPE strategies also warrant consideration. It is intended that the evidence and suggestions presented will be useful for strength and conditioning professionals preparing athletes for competition.

The NSCA has twelve committees, each of which was established by the Board of Directors to meet the needs of the NSCA. Learn more about how our committees serve Certification, Conferences, Leadership, Inclusion, Fellowship, and Training (L.I.F.T), Education, Finance, Membership, Nominations, Research, State/Provincial Directors, and Women. Applications for committees are accepted from October 1 to December 15 each year.