Learn, participate and network with colleagues at (location) while earning CEUs. Hosted by the state, provincial and regional directors, this local event brings cutting-edge research and application to your backyard.

Agility is a key and complex concept within team sports performance. Because of its multidimensional nature, agility benefits from perceptual and cognitive skills as well as physical capacity (e.g., ability to exert acceleration, deceleration, and changes of direction). Agility should be integrated in different and complementary ways in team sports training. From more analytical to more ecological tasks, there is a need to comprehend the respective adaptations and identify how to integrate such a spectrum and, eventually, combine them in the training process and manage it accordingly to the player’s needs. Based on this premise, the purpose of this article is to present alternative methods and recommendations that may help to develop agility in field-based invasion sports. The main concepts pertaining to agility and associated capacities will be explored. Afterward, a proposal for a more analytical approach based on the use of cones and ladders will be introduced, as well as approaches based on small-sided games. Finally, an integration of agility training and a combination of approaches will be presented using soccer as an example.

Long-Term Athletic Development (LTAD) models have provided a youth sport framework for more than 2 decades, aimed at improving skill progression, training outcomes, and athlete preparation. Although influential, traditional LTAD approaches are limited by their sport-centric orientation, linear design, and focus on elite performance, leaving them less relevant for most youth and adults who do not pursue competitive sport. In response, we propose reframing LTAD as Long-Term Activity Development (LTActD), an accessible and flexible model designed to promote lifelong engagement in physical activity, including recreation, exercise, and sport. LTActD emphasizes 5 dynamic phases—Explore, Develop, Apply, Sustain, and Thrive—that accommodate diverse pathways, periods of inactivity, and opportunities to re-enter active living at any age. Represented as a curvy road, the new model underscores that participation in physical activity is rarely linear, more like a winding journey shaped by health, motivation, environment, and social context. LTActD bridges sport science and public health, positioning physical activity as a lifelong resource for health, independence, and fulfillment. LTActD offers a practical framework to empower individuals of all ages and abilities to discover meaningful ways to move, re-engage, and embrace active living throughout the life course.

Exercise is an effective tool for managing and treating type II diabetes (T2DM) and may be a useful component of a diabetes management program. Both short- or long-term exercise interventions can improve physical fitness, metabolic health, and cardiovascular function in individuals with poor glycemic control. Incorporating aerobic and resistance exercise as part of a comprehensive diabetes management plan can play a vital role in the fight against this chronic metabolic disease. Progression and individualized exercise programming are critical for an effective and enjoyable exercise experience in a gym setting. With respect to safety, exercise professionals should be aware of special considerations and potential complications persons with T2DM can experience when exercising.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a result of disease or injury that results in the loss of sensory, motor, and autonomic function, or a combination of these functions below the level of injury. Research suggests that, along with medical treatment, exercise may aid in the maintaining of cardiovascular, muscular, and osteogenic health in individuals with an SCI. Practices, contraindications, special considerations, and general recommendations for whole-body cardiorespiratory and resistance exercise programming and progression for individuals with an SCI are discussed throughout.

Adequate nutrition generally promotes training adaptations and thus optimal performance. Adolescence is characterized by a pubescence growth spurt, increasing energy and nutrient needs. Most team sports literature focuses on male athletes, with little on adolescent female team sports. Adolescent female athletes are at an increased risk of inadequate energy, and micronutrient intakes because of the pursuit of high fitness levels, and society pressures. This may cause hormonal irregularities, delayed development, poor bone health, and increased risk of injury. This review synthesizes information on the nutritional needs of adolescent female team sport players for performance and health.

In today’s digital era, nutritional information, and misinformation, is readily available for most people by media outlets, social media, and on-line streaming videos. Nutrition is of utmost interest because of its role in health, fitness, weight management, and athletic performance. Because of the public interest and information availability, qualified health care providers and exercise professionals can be an excellent source of evidence-based nutrition counseling for appropriate clients to improve overall health and athletic performance. The goal of this article is to provide a source of practitioner and client evidence-based education regarding nutritional strategies to improve athletic performance

Todd Miller, PhD, CSCS, TSAC-F, FNSCA and professor at George Washington University discusses body composition measures and techniques and understanding body composition ranges and their effect on health and performance in this session from the NSCA's 2023 Personal Trainer's Conference.

An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear is one of the most frequent injuries experienced by athletes of all levels. Because so many variables are at play, there is a great deal of controversy about how and why this occurs. In addition, there are various suggested appropriate steps to take to return to sport in the fastest and safest possible way. However, a major issue in injury recovery and return to sport practices is the lack of a gold-standard method or a consistent course of action that an athlete should undertake after suffering an ACL injury. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the literature to determine evidence-based methods for return to sport after ACL reconstruction and provide practical recommendations to guide the process.

Various methods of eccentric training that aim to increase muscle mass or reduce ground contact time during a landing task have been extensively researched and practically examined. However, multiple methods to implement eccentric training currently exist; they differ in execution and intended training adaptions. There is a clear differentiation between an eccentric muscle action and an eccentric motion whereby a motion alludes to a downward movement of an exercise. The proposed eccentric motions are dissipating eccentrics, deceleration eccentrics, overcoming eccentrics, maximal eccentrics, and rebound eccentrics. These motions formulate into training methods and cues to allow practitioners to clearly differentiate the various eccentric training methods used in research and practice. This review proposes a new conceptual framework that clearly outlines the different forms of eccentric motions that fall into a desired eccentric training method.