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.

This article shares various options for integrating mental skills training into existing strength and conditioning programs. Such simultaneous, dual-training approaches may better prepare officers for the realities of occupational performance.

Fitness testing uses a battery of protocols recognized by the scientific community as both reliable and valid, and it measures important fitness constructs such as aerobic endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, power, agility, flexibility, and balance.

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.

The purpose of this article is to propose a training model for the aging firefighter to improve the athletic qualities of aerobic fitness and muscular strength so that they may remain healthier longer into their careers.

Identify methods of prioritization and individualization within the training week plans to make training specific for individual athletes within the team setting. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 National Conference, Ashley Jones explains how to design effective week plans for each of three major phases of a training year, and describes the format and content of key training areas of speed, strength, and fitness within each training phase.

In the second of this two part series, this article will discuss program design with an emphasis on integrating lower limb plyometric training into soccer training to enhance power actions, as well as, consider high school athletes’ biological characteristics and long-term athletic development (LTAD).

This article presents general information suggesting physical training as a means for improving cognitive fitness.

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.

The aim of this article is to provide those working with tactical populations an introduction into tracking training load to mitigate injury risk while concurrently optimizing fitness.