The “coach’s dozen” is a collection of 12 principles that will help youth coaches, physical education teachers, and pediatric exercise specialists maintain inclusive, sustainable, and enjoyable participation in exercise and sport.

This article emphasizes environmental and nutritional dimensions in which there is enough robust evidence to make meaningful recommendations for sustainable nutrition practices.

This excerpt explains the role that lactate plays in exercise metabolism and how that information is useful for athletes to predict things like pacing, fitness, and efficacy of training programs.

How do you build a sustainable high-performance culture despite yearly assistant coach rotations and demanding schedules? Alice Read, Assistant Athletic Director for Sport Performance at Vassar College, shares expertise from managing 29 teams and 600 student-athletes while continuously "riding the rollercoaster" of Division III scheduling. Read explores strategies for maintaining program continuity, including matching assistant coaches to sports based on strengths and growth areas. She emphasizes advocating for daily staff lifts to test and refine programs firsthand. In a full-circle moment, Read, once an NSCA Foundation Assistantship Recipient, now serves on the committee awarding these opportunities, demonstrating the value of early professional involvement. She also discusses collaborative problem solving within the Liberty League Strength and Conditioning Committee and explains how the College Coaches Professional Development Group (PDG) provided boots-on-the-ground guidance for the 2024 NSCA Strategic Plan. Tune in for actionable insights on mentorship, collaboration, and longevity in collegiate strength and conditioning. Connect with Alice via email at aread@vassar.edu and on Instagram: @ajpr3 and @vassar_strong | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

This Personal Trainers Quarterly article promotes the benefits of walking to boost physical activity and improve overall health outcomes. Visit NSCA online to read more on health science and low-impact exercises.

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.

The VO2max test is the most effective measurement of the body’s ability to deliver and use oxygen for producing energy that can be used by the muscles. VO2max (i.e., maximum aerobic power) simply stands for the maximal volume of oxygen that can be used.

It is incumbent on all youth coaches to provide youth with the very best opportunities to succeed and develop to the best of their potential. The 10 pillars of long-term athletic development and recommendations provide coaches with the information they need to help all youth reach their potential.

This article is the eleventh 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.

This PTQ article discusses current research examining the relationship between training volume and muscle hypertrophy and provides guidelines for optimizing training outcomes. Visit NSCA online to read more on exercise science and sport performance.