This excerpt from NSCA’s Essential of Tactical Strength and Conditioning explores the neural and muscular adaptations to training over time.

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 addresses low back pain in first responders by examining three relevant studies.

This article provides a background on the benefits of plant-based nutrition for athletic performance, recovery, and overall health.

A fundamental training program at a young age gives the athlete the opportunity to develop many skills needed to succeed. The implementation of agility and coordination training can help reduce the risk of injury and elevate a young developing athlete.

This article focuses on exercises that strengthen the gluteal muscles for abduction to help reduce knee pain in full range of motion and promote proper movement in the primary knee joints.

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

This consensus statement provides specific conditioning recommendations with the intent of ending conditioning-related morbidity and deaths of secondary school athletes. Most deaths in sports are preventable; our charge is to meet this expectation.

The expression of mechanical “muscle power” and the advanced training methodologies used to optimize it are explained by Duncan French in this session from the 2015 NSCA National Conference. By overviewing training strategies utilized with world-class athletes, this session links science with advanced training techniques designed to augment muscle power.

An organized, science-based, and evidence-based periodized program that is guided by capable and competent professionals is the most efficient and effective way to accomplish the task of returning from a shoulder injury to full active duty. The concepts of periodization paired with evidence-based strength and conditioning interventions provides the framework needed for tactical facilitators to accomplish this task.