Josiah Igono, Director of Peak Performance for the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball (MLB) team, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about what defines performance. Topics under discussion include the importance of coaching mental skills, diversifying your skillsets as a coach, and leaving a legacy. Find Dr. Igono on Instagram: @josiahigono or Twitter: @JosiahIgono | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

Lawrence Herrera, owner and founder of LH Performance, talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about how strong is strong enough, keeping the training simple, and relating to athletes and coaches.

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

Learn how to identify the performance benefits associated with weightlifting and effective teaching progressions for weightlifting. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 National Conference, Bo Sandoval discusses effective weightlifting methods to address common training errors and common concerns practitioners have with weightlifting.

In this Career Talk session from the 2019 National Conference, West Point Senior Associate Athletic Director for High Performance, Jonathan Oliver, shares principles for effective interviews and how to put your best foot forward in front of your future employer.

USA Football's senior manager of education and training, Andrew Ryland, discusses the long-term athletic development (LTAD) model and its growth and application in the United States, as well as the breakdown of what it looks like for youth football players, in this session from the NSCA’s 2019 Coaches Conference.

In this 2018 coaches conference video Todd Hamer describes his experience working with collegiate football players, and his methods for targeting appropriate energy systems to increase athletic performance in speed and conditioning.

Field tests have become popular in applied exercise science and sport performance enhancement programs because of their simplicity and ability to generalize results. However, numerous confounding factors may influence the validity of test data from such evaluations.

In this session from the NSCA Coaches Conference 2020, Bo Sandoval, Director of Strength and Conditioning for the UFC Performance Institute, discusses the processes in which they assess their athletes, provide individualized training programs to make weight or build performance, and the various ways they are collecting vital information and research pertaining to fighters.

This article is the 12th in a continuing series of tactical strength and conditioning (TSAC) research reviews. It is designed to bring awareness to new research findings of relevance to tactical strength and conditioning communities.