Key performance indicators (KPIs) are commonplace in business and sport. They offer an objective means to link data and processes with performance outcomes. Yet, their application in sports performance, particularly team sports, is not without issue. Here, we review 4 key issues relating to KPI application in team sports; lack of a universal definition, complexity of performance, drifting from on-field performance goals with off-field targets, and agency issues across different key stakeholders. With these issues relating to sports performance KPIs in mind, we propose a complementary approach to help practitioners focus on implementing the conditions that create performance environments and opportunities for success in a complex sporting environment. Ongoing process trackers (OPTs) are quantifiable measures of the execution of behaviors and processes that create the environments, cultures, and conditions for successful performance outcomes. This approach equips sports science practitioners with key questions they can ask themselves and their team when starting to select and use OPTs in their program.

In this session from the 2016 NSCA Coaches Conference, the Sports Science and Performance Manager for the Seattle Sounders Major League Soccer (MLS) team, David Tenney, discusses the “high performance model” in the American elite sports environment. Tenney delves into how this model impacts hierarchy and daily decision making, as well as the obstructions that many organizations face, how this model can help to drive decision making and optimize training strategies, and the different strategies that can help make this happen.

From the 2021 NSCA’s Coaches Conference, Assistant Athletic Director for Loyola Marymount University and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Los Angeles Sparks Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team, Kelly Dormandy, discusses how wearable sports technology can help coaches make more informed decisions for programming and training.

The purpose of this article is to outline the three general formats in which sports science programs are implemented within intercollegiate athletic departments and to provide pros and cons of each situation.

This article focuses on interprofessional collaboration for optimizing athlete return to sport (RTS).

Early sport specialization is often characterized by intensive training and is becoming increasingly common. Adolescent female athletes who train excessively and adopt poor diets are at risk of the female athlete triad, overuse injury, mental health issues, and overtraining.

In this session from the 2015 NSCA Coaches Conference, Cal Dietz, MS, presents the best applications in training of several sports that can be applied to most sports at various times of the year. The systematic approaches and the reasoning behind the step-by-step approach to block training, and the application of specific needs in the sport and energy system training also are covered.

This NSCA Coach article explores how neck training programs can reduce the severity of sport-related concussions. Visit NSCA online to read more on sports science and athletic performance.

"Absolute strength affects speed and athleticism," according to world record powerlifter Matt Wenning. "You get strong to get faster." In this lecture from the NSCA's 2015 Coaches Conference, Matt discusses using powerlifting as a training method with athletes. Matt debunks myths and explains how training athletes to get stronger and more powerful benefits everyone, no matter the sport.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently recognized the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as one of the first organizations to join the National Youth Sports Strategy (NYSS) Champion℠ program. HHS released the NYSS in September 2019 in response to Presidential Executive Order 13824, which called for a national strategy to increase youth sports participation. The NYSS is the first Federal roadmap with actionable strategies to increase participation in youth sports, increase awareness of the benefits of youth sports participation, monitor and evaluate youth sports participation, and recruit and engage volunteers in youth sports programming.