This article in NSCA Coach examines whether athletic coaches, educators, and institutions are adequately prepared to support athletes through athletic retirement. Visit NSCA online to learn more on LTAD and coaching strategies.

Isolated muscle training methods do not necessarily transfer to better sports performance, because technique as well as strength contributes to successful performance. Resistance training for dynamic sports must involve ground-based movements that incorporate the coordinated stabilizing and dynamic functions of multiple muscles.

This article discusses the influence of lower-body power on soccer performance in collegiate female soccer players. It also covers testing for muscular power qualities, different training modalities to use, and sample training programs as examples.

This article provides an understanding of the role the core plays during execution of athletic movements, as well as provides evidence-based concepts that help to strengthen the core and maximize movement performance.

This NSCA Coach article focuses on the in-season resistance training and mobility exercises designed for the 100-m sprint track and field high school athlete.

In order to develop athletes who can move optimally in multiple planes of motion, training should include elements that can challenge them in multiple planes while providing various resistance and proprioceptive challenges.

When choosing whether to purchase new technological advances, strength and conditioning coaches should consider price, practicality, and credibility in order to maximize the training of their athletes.

Research on the benefits of using goals to increase athletic performance has shown that performance generally increases for athletes that use goals consistently. Learn how to move beyond generalities and see how a systematic goal setting approach can be paired with training athletes.

This article considers some of the main differences between the training of Olympic weightlifters and the use of Olympic weightlifting exercises in strength training for sport.

Considering the great popularity of eccentric-based training, the purpose of this review is to first provide the scientific rationale for its use; second, summarize the eccentric-based training modalities that can be used; and finally, offer practical recommendations on how to implement eccentricbased modalities to enhance sports performance. The molecular and neural mechanisms underlying eccentric actions are partially distinct from those of concentric and isometric actions. During eccentric actions, theories suggest a strain-induced modulation of actin-myosin interactions at the crossbridge level, activation of structural protein titin, and winding of titin on actin. Eccentric acute physiological responses differ from concentric exercise responses, including variations in neuromuscular, metabolic, hormonal, and anabolic signaling. Eccentric training elicits greater improvements in muscle strength, power, and stretch-shortening cycle function compared with concentric-only or traditional resistance training. Therefore, eccentric-based training can lead to unique neuromuscular (e.g., improved coordination of motor units) and morphological (e.g., increased muscle fascicle length and enhanced distal cross-sectional area) adaptations that could play a key role in sport performance. Practitioners may implement eccentric exercises with external loads, fully eccentric-based exercises (e.g., Nordic hamstring curl), accentuated eccentric loading, flywheel resistance exercise, and plyometrics to develop specific physical adaptations in line with their goals. Eccentric work (e.g., for hamstrings) can be obtained during other exercises such as downhill running tasks, decelerations, and sprinting activities. Practitioners need to be aware that no single “silver bullet” training modality exists; consequently, practitioners should use a combination of eccentric-based training approaches with their athletes to obtain the desired adaptations.