Nick Savage, Director of Football Strength and Conditioning at the University of Florida, demonstrates warm-up complexes and Olympic-style lifting progressions to improve force development.

This infographic summarizes how varying sled-loads increase different characteristics of sprint performance in male high school athletes.

As Director of Sport Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Heather Farmer spearheads comprehensive integration efforts. This includes ensuring every stakeholder, from sport performance staff to academic advisors, has a seat at the table. Farmer also outlines developing an internship and graduate assistantship program to meet staffing needs and offer opportunities for practical experience. She recounts how leveraging relationships — not data — has been her key to scalability. Additionally, Farmer recognizes that to make an impact, she must meet athletes and sport coaches where they are, which she uncovers through “highlights” and “hurdles.” She suggests that sport scientists with strength and conditioning backgrounds, like herself, are uniquely equipped to excel due to their communication skills. Farmer and McMahon also discuss avoiding “analysis paralysis” and how to incorporate data to elevate the student-athlete experience — an unignorable factor as athletes bring an element of “self” in the age of name, image and likeness (NIL). Reach out to Heather by email at: heather.farmer@unlv.edu | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

This infographic details sprint profiling and reviews possible resistance training exercises that help along the force-velocity curve.

Tim Suchomel, Assistant Professor of Exercise Science and the Program Director for the Sport Physiology and Performance Coaching graduate program at Carroll University, discusses the literature surrounding the force-velocity curve, identifies potential periodization and programming strategies to improve these characteristics in athletes, and provides example programs to show how to implement different resistance training methods.

This info-graphic describes research on velocity decrements to increase propulsive and horizontal force applications to increase acceleration kinetics.

It is important for coaches to understand the relationship between commonly measured variables (e.g., displacement, velocity, and force) and their relationship to the derived variable of power.

This NSCA Coach article explores how combining strength and plyometric training can improve volleyball hitters’ vertical jump and power. Visit NSCA online to read more on athletic performance and sports science.

CC 2020

This article breaks down periodization into sequencing and integrating training factors to optimize training outcomes.