This is the NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, where strength and conditioning coaches share their experience, lessons learned, and advice about how to thrive in a highly competitive profession.

Successful performance in sport is a multifactorial process that includes a blend of technical, tactical, physiological, biomechanical, and psychological features interacting together to result in the desired performance outcome. The strength and conditioning (S&C) program, depending on the sport, can support performance by influencing the physiological and biomechanical components through direct and indirect avenues of impact. Performance planning to achieve identified objectives is typically a long-term process, ranging from a year in seasonal professional team sports to a four-year Olympic cycle. It is critical to develop and implement key strategic processes to ensure that the S&C program effectively supports performance at major competitions. Furthermore, it is essential to have clarity for the role of S&C within the overall sports training program. Having a clear approach to deconstructing and understanding performance from a human performance perspective, showing how and where the impact on performance can be made, and objectively demonstrating the contribution to performance variables is vital. The current article uses the author’s experience of working across a range of Olympic and professional sports to articulate a process for strategic planning and managing S&C support from a technical perspective. Examples from various sports have been used to illustrate critical strategic processes.

This is the NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, where strength and conditioning coaches share their experience, lessons learned, and advice about how to thrive in a highly competitive profession.

Learn, participate and network with colleagues at (location) while earning CEUs. Hosted by the state, provincial and regional directors, this local event brings cutting-edge research and application to your backyard.

CASCE accreditation is designed to help your program recruit more high-caliber students and prepare them for fulfilling careers in the strength and conditioning industry.

Learn, participate and network with colleagues at (location) while earning CEUs. Hosted by the state, provincial and regional directors, this local event brings cutting-edge research and application to your backyard.

Various methods of eccentric training that aim to increase muscle mass or reduce ground contact time during a landing task have been extensively researched and practically examined. However, multiple methods to implement eccentric training currently exist; they differ in execution and intended training adaptions. There is a clear differentiation between an eccentric muscle action and an eccentric motion whereby a motion alludes to a downward movement of an exercise. The proposed eccentric motions are dissipating eccentrics, deceleration eccentrics, overcoming eccentrics, maximal eccentrics, and rebound eccentrics. These motions formulate into training methods and cues to allow practitioners to clearly differentiate the various eccentric training methods used in research and practice. This review proposes a new conceptual framework that clearly outlines the different forms of eccentric motions that fall into a desired eccentric training method.

NSCA Coach provides valuable takeaways for every level of strength and conditioning coach through quarterly, electronic issues. You can find scientifically based articles specific to a wide variety of your athletes’ needs with Nutrition, Programming, and Youth columns.

Learn, participate and network with colleagues at (location) while earning CEUs. Hosted by the state, provincial and regional directors, this local event brings cutting-edge research and application to your backyard.