TAT22

Early sport specialization involves physically immature children participating in intensive year-round training and/or competition for a single sport. The lack of sport exposure and diversification during the developmental years may underlie the increased risk of overuse injuries, blunting of motor skill development, psychosocial issues, overtraining syndrome, burnout, and potential dropout from sport. With increasing number of youth choosing, or being encouraged, to specialize at an early age, we aim to provide evidence based recommendations for the integration of strength and conditioning into the development programs of young athletes who participate in sports with a culture of early specialization. In addition to the principles of programming, strategies are provided relative to monitoring of growth, maturation, and training load to illustrate the potential complexities of attempting to optimize long-term athletic development in early specializing athletes.

This article is part of a continuing series on practical, evidence-based approaches to reducing the risk of injury while developing tactical strength and conditioning.

This article is the eleventh in a continuing series of tactical strength and conditioning (TSAC) research reviews. It is designed to bring awareness to new research findings of relevance to tactical strength and conditioning communities.

This article contains a sample progression to use with high call volume fire departments to help maintain mobility while building job-specific strength and avoiding a hyper-fatigued state.

The purpose of this article is to describe the cause of hamstring injuries in sprinters and present a biomechanical intervention, or drill, that can be used to prevent hamstring injuries while transitioning sprint athletes toward the utilization of frontside mechanics.

It is paramount for tactical facilitators to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of a concussion, as well as grasp when it is safe to return to normal activities after an injury such as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This session from the 2015 TSAC Conference covers the foundational knowledge that tactical facilitators should know in order to help minimize potential complications associated with traumatic brain injuries.

Tactical facilitators need to understand the movement patterns that first responders encounter because they can have a profound effect on underlying biomechanics and may contribute to excessive tissue loads.

Football is a high intensity collision based sport that has an inherent risk of injury in both competition and practice. The focus of ACL injuries and the development of injury prevention programs have been key in the development of youth athletes to keep them participating in sport with reduced risk of injury.

In this Bridge video, Loren Landow, from Landow Performance, demonstrates exercises and techniques of various plyometric movements for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) strength and injury prevention.