Your start in strength and conditioning starts with the NSCA's comprehensive Career Guide. Packed with advice and guidance from industry leaders, you'll get a head start on taking the next step as a strength coach, fitness professional, researcher, educator and beyond.

This article discusses baseball-specific strength and conditioning techniques, focusing on lower extremity training and improving shoulder mechanics.

This excerpt briefly explains myofascial release, self-myofascial release strategies, and benefits of these techniques.

Your career can accelerate when you ask, offer, and say yes. For Morgan Smith, that approach led to a postdoctoral fellowship with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford University. Smith recalls how coaching sparked her interest in the science behind performance. Working across academic and practical settings, she encountered challenges with research feasibility firsthand. Today, she focuses on blending coaching with sport science. At Stanford, she began by building relationships and trust within the athletic department. She describes collaborating with coaches and staff to identify research interests, gaps, and low-burden contributions. Smith also highlights opportunities to support club sports, campus recreation centers, and community programs. These roles can help fund education while building your resume, network, and practical skills. She reinforces the value of education as a time to maximize experience and explore interests. Discover how to gain applied experience early, drive cross-department buy-in, and cultivate relationships that move your career forward. Reach out to Morgan on Instagram: @goldenmo_ and LinkedIn: @morgan-smith-sportsscientist | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs | Learn more about the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at: humanperformancealliance.org. Interested in bridging coaching and sport science? The Certified Performance and Sport Scientist® (CPSS®) credential can help you expand your qualifications, open new career paths, and strengthen organizational collaboration.

This article provides a firsthand account with knowledge and advice for personal trainers looking to start and grow their business.

Bobby Smith, owner and Director of Sports Performance at Reach Your Potential Training, talks to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about the transition to owning his own facility and his impact on youth athletes. Topics under discussion include Smith’s education and previous athletic experience that led him to sports performance, being the owner of a sports performance facility, and his impact on youth athletes.

The aim of this article was to systematically review and provide practical recommendations, where possible, for recovery strategies that are currently in use in soccer-specific practices among adult male professional players. A systematic search was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines on Web of Science, SPORTdiscus, Scopus, and PubMed databases. The effects of cold-based recovery techniques on performance recovery and attenuating the muscle soreness were evident. Complementarily, some evidence was found that favors foam rolling and massage and compression garments. The active recovery and electronic recovery instruments presented little evidence supporting their usefulness in accelerating the recovery process of soccer players.

This NSCA Coach article examines strength and conditioning strategies for collegiate distance runners to build performance for outdoor competition. Visit NSCA online to read about sport science.