This article is intended to provide an understanding of the demands of football from a bioenergetic perspective and provides a framework in which strength and conditioning professionals can design conditioning plans that focus on preparing athletes for competition.

Lance Walker, Global Director of Performance at Michael Johnson Performance (MJP), talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about being unselfish in your work, developing your people skills in order to be a better coach, and mapping out your professional path.

Learn training principles for general physical preparation of swimmers, and understand how to utilize weekly planning to best aid in the expression of physical performance. Keenan Robinson also discusses how to differentiate between readiness strategies to best apply stress in this session from the NSCA’s 2017 National Conference.

In this session from the 2018 NSCA National Conference, Lance Walker talks about how to create and develop age-specific strength training programs for ages 9 – 18 and how the programs change and progress. He also discusses how to get the most out of each program for young individuals.

In this session from the 2015 NSCA Coaches Conference, Cal Dietz, MS, presents the best applications in training of several sports that can be applied to most sports at various times of the year. The systematic approaches and the reasoning behind the step-by-step approach to block training, and the application of specific needs in the sport and energy system training also are covered.

This article articulates important independent personal trainer and employee personal trainer differences, research and planning guidelines moving forward, important marketing considerations, financial literacy, and the importance of moral support.

Building athletes who are strong, healthy, and resilient requires more than sets and reps, starting with a shift in mindset. Christi Edson, Head of Performance for the Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), shares how she integrates strength and conditioning with sport science to sustain athlete health and performance. She reflects on the field’s evolution from the well-known “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” program to a training culture emphasizing resilience, active recovery, and durability. Drawing from her experience coaching high school athletes to NWSL professionals, Edson highlights the adaptability and creativity coaches need. Those qualities help her to develop athletes who can thrive through a demanding 11-month season. She details how tools like GPS, force plates, and velocity-based training sharpen communication and reshape expectations in the gym. Her story points coaches toward the future of athlete development: collaboration, precise load management, and long-term health as the foundation of strength. Connect with Christi on Instagram: @christiedson and LinkedIn: @christiana-edson | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Read the article, “A Creative Mind in the Professional Development of a Strength and Conditioning Coach,” from NSCA Coach, 11(1), February 2024 — referenced in this episode’s return-to-play discussion. NSCA Members enjoy full publication access. 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 cross-department collaboration.

Development of grip strength is often overlooked in traditional resistance training programs, but small program adjustments that target grip strength can be of benefit athletes.

This excerpt from NSCA’s Guide to Sport and Exercise Nutrition discusses the research surrounding the timing of hydration and its impact on sport performance for those participating in aerobic endurance exercise.

This article presents two football-specific speed drills in detail—the single-leg box explosion and the mountain climber.