Nicole Rodriguez always knew she wanted to pursue strength and conditioning, but the extent of her journey — spanning 44 countries and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games — is nothing short of inspiring. During her time at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, Rodriguez recognized the value of experience and environment, later joining the EXOS International Program to coach globally. Eager to test her skills and help standardize coaching education, she sought out developing countries to advance their sport infrastructure. Rodriguez outlines key differences between U.S. and European approaches: while the U.S. excels in strength methodology, Europe enhances sport-specific application through tactical periodization. Additionally, she highlights Europe’s emphasis on rehabilitation and an “inverse relationship” between time in the weight room versus pitch-side with sport coaches. Rodriguez also describes her work with Poland’s Ministry of Sport and Tourism to pursue NSCA Global Chapter status, aligning with her passion for improving strength and conditioning education and implementation worldwide. Connect with Nicole by email: nicole@coachnicolerodriguez.com and online at: coachnicolerodriguez.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Learn more about NSCA international programs mentioned in the episode at NSCA.com/Global.

A vast majority of athletes you coach will not become professional athletes, but the major components of Achievement Goal Theory (AGT) carryover outside of sport into any achievement-based setting. It can be argued that coaches helping athletes adopt a more productive set of achievement orientations is the single greatest contribution that coaches can make to the athletes’ lives.

This article provides a sample six-week, non-linear program for improving muscular strength, power, endurance, anaerobic capacity, and aerobic capacity. However, this is not a “one-size fits all” program, and manipulation of the program variables may be warranted for some individuals.

NSCA Coach 11.3 is an exercise research article providing strength coaches, considerations to design effective sports performance programs for collegiate soccer.

The purpose of this article is to provide personal trainers reading the strength and conditioning research the knowledge necessary to better understand the statistical data commonly reported in research manuscripts.

The importance of physical fitness is never greater than when lives are at stake. Specifically, professionals in law enforcement, fire/rescue, and the military need fitness and tactical athleticism to efficiently respond to calls and complete missions regardless of the obstacles, mixed terrain, interference, and dangerous environmental conditions involved

Learn how to evaluate the performance model of non-traditional, freestyle sports, and subsequently design the preparation framework that will positively influence performance. In this session from the NSCA’s 2017 National Conference, Jeremy Sheppard explains how to provide an effective training environment that is embraced by the athletes, as well as the mindset of athletes who are rule makers and rule breakers, not rule followers.

Completion of the following assessment will renew your current status within the NSCA Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC) Program

Completion of the following assessment will renew your current status within the NSCA Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach (RSCC) Program

This article explores what a facility-level culture may look like, identifies some of the expected benefits of purposely developing that culture, and discusses some misalignment between what coaches say they want the culture to feel like and the message the athletes are likely to receive.