Early sport specialization involves physically immature children participating in intensive year-round training and/or competition for a single sport. The lack of sport exposure and diversification during the developmental years may underlie the increased risk of overuse injuries, blunting of motor skill development, psychosocial issues, overtraining syndrome, burnout, and potential dropout from sport. With increasing number of youth choosing, or being encouraged, to specialize at an early age, we aim to provide evidence based recommendations for the integration of strength and conditioning into the development programs of young athletes who participate in sports with a culture of early specialization. In addition to the principles of programming, strategies are provided relative to monitoring of growth, maturation, and training load to illustrate the potential complexities of attempting to optimize long-term athletic development in early specializing athletes.

The NSCA Education Recognition Program (ERP) recognizes and distinguishes schools with standardized, approved strength and conditioning or personal training curricula in undergraduate and graduate settings designed to prepare students for the NSCA-Certified Personal Trainer® (NSCA-CPT®) and NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® (CSCS®) certifications.

Protect your fitness career with NSCA Certified Professional Liability Insurance (CPI) Membership. Get up to $5M in liability coverage plus NSCA Member benefits.

In this video from the 2023 NSCA National Conference, Duncan French discusses effective decision-making processes within strength and conditioning, and how coaches can identify, review, and improve training interventions for strength, power, and conditioning.

Access the video collection for the 2019 Coaches Conference.

NSCA has a network of volunteer leaders who direct NSCA’s efforts at the state level. NSCA’s Southeast Regional Coordinator provides oversight and training to local state directors. Members in the Southeast Region can connect at local and regional events as well as on Facebook to others in this area.

Purchase the 2019 RSCC renewal course. - Achieve a minimum of 70% to renew your RSCC designation and earn 0.5 CEUs towards your certification.

From the 2019 Tactical Annual Training, Rob Orr, co-lead of Bond University’s Tactical Research Unit, explains how the backs of tactical personnel can be compromised. He also details the systems that affect the back and how to construct programs to optimize physical conditioning and reconditioning.

Tex McQuilkin, Director of Training for Power Athlete HQ, defines athleticism as a trainable performance variable at the 2019 Coaches Conference. McQuilkin illustrates the four phases of the competitive lifecycle for sport athletes and empowers coaches with strategies to best apply progressive overload and support the long-term trainability of novice athletes.