The NSCA Education Recognition Program (ERP) Graduate Strength and Conditioning Program recognizes and distinguishes academic institutions that offer at least a Master’s degree with standardized, approved graduate strength and conditioning curricula that is designed to prepare students for the NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® (CSCS®) certifications. Recognition can be achieved for applied curriculum, research curriculum, or both. A full list of required content areas can be found in the Graduate Strength and Conditioning Program application.

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Concurrent training (CT), which combines resistance exercise and energy systems conditioning, is the default approach to preparation in high-intensity intermittent (“stop and go”) team sports. This review provides an overview of CT, emphasizing its complexities and challenges in managing fatigue and optimizing performance. These complexities are specifically compounded by the variability in game demands across the season, where the presence of intensified and nonintensified competition periods necessitates a flexible and adaptive training approach. In this context, there are essential training variables to consider, including intensity, volume, session order, and recovery intervals between sessions. In addition, nontraining variables such as travel, sleep, and nutrition play a role in the fatigue experienced while training and competing. These variables interact to influence acute performance and training adaptations and can be strategically adjusted by strength and conditioning practitioners. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive understanding of fatigue management for practitioners in team sports, emphasizing the complexities and challenges of CT and offering simplified practical recommendations for adjusting training variables within any given microcycle.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association is governed by a Board of Directors that is elected by the NSCA membership. The board is comprised of eight members of the NSCA and one elected public member.

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The implementation of long-term athletic development (LTAD) aims to improve health, physical activity, and performance of all youth. Contemporary LTAD models suggest that a broad range of physical and psychosocial competencies should be developed in youth, but few resources are available for coaches that describe “how” to achieve these outcomes. This article overviews a coaching session framework built around the following components: raise, activate, mobilize, prepare, activity, games, evaluate (RAMPAGE). The framework provides practitioners with information on what can be planned and delivered and when within a coaching session, across multiple ages and stages of development within multiple contexts (e.g., physical education and talent development).

The first step in preparing a comprehensive periodized strength and conditioning program is the needs analysis —that is a formal process for determining the general and specific needs of the athlete based on their sport or task. It involves many more pieces than most consider and is not simply about goal setting. Depth and specificity of event requirements and details are important because there will be variability in needs and program design due to the task and level of prior experience and participation. The specifics of the task and the particulars of the individual athlete may lead to the need for significant study and reading of evidence-based research. The benefit of a well-developed needs analysis is that it can lead to better program planning with greater opportunity for success.