The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) is proud to announce the recipients of the organization’s 2024 Tactical Awards. Nominated by the NSCA community, these distinguished awards honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the tactical strength and conditioning community.

Colorado Springs, CO – The National Strength and Conditioning Association is proud to announce that Jay Dawes, PhD, CSCS,*D, NSCA-CPT,*D, TSAC-F,*D, FNSCA, has been selected as the NSCA’s Tactical Strength and Conditioning Professional of the Year for 2021. Award winners are selected by a volunteer committee, the NSCA’s Awards Taskforce, who determine the winner based on their contributions to the NSCA and their community, and whose influential contributions to the field result in its advancement in a measurable way that exceeds the outcomes achieved by others.

The NSCA is proud to name new strength and conditioning coaches who have obtained the prestigious Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach® Emeritus (RSCC*E) designation in 2024.

This article features the recharge skate—an in-season hockey conditioning drill, designed by the authors, to maintain hockey-specific energy system fitness throughout the competitive season.

There is no argument that periodization is successful, and that different models can be applied with success in different fashions. The question of how shift work really affects a periodized program—more specifically firefighter shift work—is less clear.

This article will highlight an intervention involving mental skills training and virtual reality (VR) to address acrophobia with this population.

The purpose of this article is to review the physiological determinants of police work, provide the strength and conditioning professional with an overview of comm on constraints associated with training police officers, discuss the role of autoregulated training, and provide programming recommendations for training police officers around their patrol shifts.

As consumers embrace technology, they are also expecting that same incorporation of technology into their exercise programs. This article shares how some top trainers are meeting this need.

This article aims to bring awareness to the importance of sleep and recovery for first responders, as well as providing strategies to optimize sleep specific to their occupational demands.

The extent to which a special operator’s training schedule can be planned in advance is often limited due to their unpredictable operational demands. However, there may be opportunities to plan for specific training during certain periods.