When working with athletes who play team sports, your main goal as a strength and conditioning coach is to ensure that your athletes arrive at a competitive peak in a predictable way, Dave Hamilton says. No matter the athlete's level - college or elite - training loads impact the ability to perform. As coaches, we need to remove the subjectivity and use monitoring tools that are effective.

This article provides a sample six-week lumbo-pelvic hip complex strengthening program with the intended goal of improving vertical jumping ability and landing mechanics without the addition of plyometric or jumping/landing drills.

In this session from the 2015 NSCA TSAC Conference, Matt Wenning explains the sumo deadlift, a foundational exercise for maximal strength development and a tool that is essential to the tactical population due to its movement pattern. The ability to learn proper technique and progressions with this exercise can help to improve a tactical athlete’s performance and decrease the likelihood of injury because it trains major muscle groups and multiple joints at the same time.

This PTQ article shares a real-world story to give inspiration and practical advice on creating your own sport performance business. Visit NSCA online to read more on athletic performance and professional development.

Oxygen uptake (or consumption) is a measure of a person’s ability to take in oxygen and deliver it to the working tissues, and the ability of working tissues to use oxygen. During low-intensity exercise with a constant power output, oxygen uptake increases for the first few minutes until a steady state of uptake is reached.

This excerpt from Developing Speed demonstrates a fun drill aimed to develop the ability to make a cut step in response to a stimulus and to accelerate from this direction change.

Some positions within the fitness industry can be tricky to classify. This article helps businesses decipher the difference between a hired employee and an independent contracted position.

On-field success in sports requires the ability to solve sport-specific problems and utilize speed and agility within the specific context of the game. In this session from the 2015 NSCA National Conference, Ian Jeffreys explains how adding a task-based approach to an athlete’s speed and agility training can help ensure optimal transfer from training to game performance.

High standards improve the quality of professionals working within the fitness industry. This article provides steps that may help to increase income for personal trainers.

This PTQ article discusses a Mini Quality System (MQS), an ISO 9001-inspired framework designed to help small and growing fitness centers establish better operational control. Visit NSCA online to read more on fitness management.