Athletes in field and court sports require reactive agility—they must accelerate, decelerate, and change direction in a constantly changing environment. These requirements result in technical differences between sprinting in a field or court sport and sprinting the 100-m.

Traditional lower-body resistance exercise alone may not be an optimal means of developing agility. Further, the effectiveness of straight-sprint training on agility performance has not been well established. In contrast, jump training, including loaded jump squats and horizontal and lateral jumps, holds promise.

This is an excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Sport Science by NSCA -National Strength & Conditioning Association, Duncan N. French & Lorena Torres-Ronda.

In the first of a two part series, this article explores the possible benefits for strength and conditioning coach development and discusses how mindful meditation can improve reflective practice and the coach-athlete relationship.

Joe Siara, Manager of Peak Performance Programs for the New York Yankees Major League Baseball (MLB) team, joins NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, to discuss the path from Minor League Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coach to sport scientist. The discussion includes a recap of the 2021 Professional Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society (PBSCCS) Baseball Sport Science Virtual Clinic, an explanation of the Certified Performance and Sport Scientist™ (CPSS™) exam development process, and practical applications of technology across a variety of performance settings. Find Joe via Email: jsiara@yankees.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

This book excerpt is an overview of the fundamentals to sprinting mechanics and technique. It also covers starting, acceleration, drive phase, recovery phase, and deceleration.

This article summarizes the adaptations of cartilage via anaerobic training.

It is important for tactical athletes to be aware of their fluid intake and hydration status when training for or performing job duties. This article explains several ways this can be accomplished.

The Physical Readiness Training Manual includes many exercises intended to keep military personnel in optimal physical condition while staying at a low risk to injury. Additionally, the application of progressive overload may be beneficial to periodization programming in ROTC cadet preparation for the Army Physical Fitness Test.

The aim of this article is to provide those working with tactical populations an introduction into tracking training load to mitigate injury risk while concurrently optimizing fitness.