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.

The focus of this article is to describe the physiological needs of soccer athletes and then provide assessments for testing endurance of athletes of various ages, abilities, and genders.

Through a well-designed resistance training program, firefighter recruits can gain the movement skills, confidence to exercise, and foundational strength/physiological adaptations that they need for a long and healthy career.

The hip hinge and squat exercises, and their variations, are used in many strength and conditioning programs to develop athletes of many sports. The listed progressions are examples of practical implications used to develop athletes, but there may be additional practical and effective methods used by strength and conditioning coaches for similar purposes.

The purpose of this article is to describe the content and format of a collegiate introductory strength and conditioning course to induce behavioral changes in college students for lifelong physical activity and fitness.

This article focuses on interprofessional collaboration for optimizing athlete return to sport (RTS).

As a Strength and Conditioning Coach with the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), Jared Siegmund prepares athletes for the apex of achievement and perseverance. Siegmund shares that, contrary to public belief, the Olympic competition cycle is not every four years — Team USA athletes face fierce competition in World Series events along the way to qualify. He also speaks to the creativity required to coach Paralympic athletes, where missing limbs create unique biomechanics and hearing or visual impairments impact cueing. Siegmund touches on his principles-based programming architecture, sample adaptations, and USOPC’s interdisciplinary support team. Additionally, Siegmund and McMahon discuss the new generation of modern athletes who are more in tune with data and can control their preparation experience. The discussion concludes with the importance of a growth mindset and getting out of your comfort zone, as well as opportunities to enter elite sport. Connect with Jared on Instagram at: @jaredsiegmund_ or LinkedIn: @jared-siegmund | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs

Investing a small amount of time into nutrition education and proper fueling for athletes can have a very large payoff. Grocery shopping and food preparation are key components of an athlete’s training that should be prioritized in order to optimize body composition and maximize performance.

A qualified strength and conditioning professional in the high school environment can benefit both the school and the students in a number of ways, including injury reduction, improved performance, and risk management.

This article focuses on a program for a Paralympic athlete born with a congenital limb deficiency (transradial peromelia) of the right arm.