The importance of physical fitness is never greater than when lives are at stake. Specifically, professionals in law enforcement, fire/rescue, and the military need fitness and tactical athleticism to efficiently respond to calls and complete missions regardless of the obstacles, mixed terrain, interference, and dangerous environmental conditions involved

This article provides a list of items that affect the ability to develop and retain quality fire fitness trainers and provides possible solutions to common challenges for program managers that make decisions for a facility or agency.

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.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently recognized the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as one of the first organizations to join the National Youth Sports Strategy (NYSS) Champion℠ program. HHS released the NYSS in September 2019 in response to Presidential Executive Order 13824, which called for a national strategy to increase youth sports participation. The NYSS is the first Federal roadmap with actionable strategies to increase participation in youth sports, increase awareness of the benefits of youth sports participation, monitor and evaluate youth sports participation, and recruit and engage volunteers in youth sports programming.

This article provides a personal perspective on the art of coaching that stems from acquired knowledge, education, and real-world application through professional sports experience from working in human performance.

Strength and conditioning coaches that temper their posterior chain exercises with some threshold training and specific trunk exercises designed to break the extension/compression stabilization strategy (ECSS) to restore proper stabilizing strategies may find their athletes will move better, get injured less, and actually perform better.

The lack of specific training for tactical athletes during long deployments poses a significant issue. This article addresses mitigation strategies that can help them perform at their best and reduce the risk of injury.

This article provides a sample six-week, non-linear program for improving muscular strength, power, endurance, anaerobic capacity, and aerobic capacity. However, this is not a “one-size fits all” program, and manipulation of the program variables may be warranted for some individuals.

In recent years, performance and prevention strategies have grown to include monitoring training load (TL) to understand fatigue and the potential effects of fatigue on training adaptation and performance.

The purpose of this article is to provide education surrounding the importance of recovery in tactical populations, identify key aspects of the mental recovery process, and identify strategies Tactical Strength and Conditioning Facilitators® (TSAC-F®) can implement to promote mental recovery when working with athletes.