Verbal cues are tools used by practitioners in developing a youth athlete’s motor skill abilities. External cues may optimize athletic performance and movement competencies in adults with trends for youth athletic populations following suit. However, maturation, training age, and cognitive age may interact with the efficacy of cues used. To better assist practitioners working with youth, this article reviews current empirical evidence on how youth populations respond or may respond to cues and offers practical applications.

The NSCA Coaches Conference joins NSCACon, a key event for strength and conditioning coaches. Explore career insights, recertification, and expanded awards ceremony.

Typically, a coach may follow a process in which they first identify the key performance indicators of their sport, determine the physical attributes that map back to them, and then distribute the development of those capacities over the allocated timeframe. Furthermore, effective training plans are based on a theoretical or biological basis for how we move and adapt to exercise stimuli, coupled with an understanding of how these are best sequenced, such that one stimulus and subsequent adaptation can potentiate the next. Thus, reverse or backward engineering, when appropriately converged with the plans of those devised around nutrition, conditioning, technical, and tactical training, for example, likely gives athletes the best chance of attaining their performance goals. The aim of this article is to describe the application of reverse engineering, exampling it within the context of developing an athlete who can demonstrate a high level of agility.

Castle View High School Strength and Conditioning Coach says science is leading to safer training methods being used in high school weight rooms.

One resistance training variable that may be altered to achieve desired outcomes is the range of motion used in training. Generally, the strength and conditioning field has accepted that using a greater range of motion in strength training exercises results in more substantial muscle hypertrophy outcomes. However, this theory has proved to be inconsistently supported in the literature, and to date, no sufficient explanation exists to explain this phenomenon. This review article seeks to outline a novel approach for potentially describing the disparities seen in range of motion research with respect to hypertrophy outcomes by applying the unique length-tension curve of each muscle being examined. As will be discussed in the review, virtually all the results from range of motion studies in various muscles have corresponded to each muscle’s length-tension curve; muscles that are active on the descending limb of the curve appear to garner greater hypertrophy from using larger ranges of motion. Conversely, muscles that are not active on the descending limb exhibit similar adaptations despite alterations in range of motion. A novel hypothesis for applying this information to resistance training programs will be presented and discussed.

Canoe slalom requires technical ability, well-developed energetics, a high level of maximum force production, and range of movement to perform a variety of complex paddle stokes, while maneuvering through a challenging whitewater course. The strength and conditioning (S&C) coach should provide strategic direction across a network or department including S&C coaches working toward identified outcomes and measures. S&C coaches should collaborate with a multidisciplinary support team (i.e., sport coaches, physiotherapists, physiologists, etc.) to develop a technical framework. The technical framework may allow for development of training strategies that provide a clear breakdown of the outcomes, adaptations, exercises, and testing methods. The current article articulates this process related to a canoe slalom national performance program. You must pass this quiz (by answering at least 7 out of 10 questions correctly) to earn 0.2 CEU in Category D. Upon passing, your CEUs will be recorded automatically. You are given only ONE attempt per purchase to pass the quiz.

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.

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