Two factors that determine running speed are stride cadence and stride length. Because athletes propel themselves forward only when their foot is in contact with the ground, the stance phase of the running stride should be the focus of speed enhancement programs.

Knowledge of metabolic rate can help athletes as well as health-conscious people improve their exercise performance or obtain the fat-to-lean-mass ratio optimal for their personal situations. Two examples of how this works follow.

If manipulation of the training variables is not tailored correctly to the desired adaptations and specific training goals, an athlete can experience symptoms of nonfunctional overreach. If this process continues, the athlete can develop overtraining syndrome.

This book excerpt explains how to perform the box step-off landing assessment, which is used to determine an athlete’s readiness before beginning a program in agility and quickness.

Regeneration and Recovery for Combat Athletes

Line drills can be an excellent way for athletes to improve their footwork, speed, and coordination. This article contains examples of several easy-to-implement line drills.

CC2023

Jon Carlock, MS, CSCS, *D, spoke at the 2013 TSAC Conference about pulling movements for the tactical athlete.

In this lecture from the NSCA's 2016 Coaches Conference, Caitlin Quinn discusses how to implement simple techniques for creating a disciplined (yet enjoyable) team lifting environment. Quinn talks about how to hold athletes to a high standard of knowledge and movement accountability, how to teach simple physiology to achieve desirable technique, how to instill a level of ownership within each athlete, and how to place a large emphasis on an athlete's mental engagement throughout a lifting session.

Research shows that the appropriate integration of resistance training into the endurance athlete’s training can result in significantly better performance when compared to classic endurance training plans that focus only on aerobic endurance.