This article provides medicine ball exercise progressions to help build athleticism in youth athletes.

Nicole Rodriguez always knew she wanted to pursue strength and conditioning, but the extent of her journey — spanning 44 countries and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games — is nothing short of inspiring. During her time at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning, Rodriguez recognized the value of experience and environment, later joining the EXOS International Program to coach globally. Eager to test her skills and help standardize coaching education, she sought out developing countries to advance their sport infrastructure. Rodriguez outlines key differences between U.S. and European approaches: while the U.S. excels in strength methodology, Europe enhances sport-specific application through tactical periodization. Additionally, she highlights Europe’s emphasis on rehabilitation and an “inverse relationship” between time in the weight room versus pitch-side with sport coaches. Rodriguez also describes her work with Poland’s Ministry of Sport and Tourism to pursue NSCA Global Chapter status, aligning with her passion for improving strength and conditioning education and implementation worldwide. Connect with Nicole by email: nicole@coachnicolerodriguez.com and online at: coachnicolerodriguez.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Learn more about NSCA international programs mentioned in the episode at NSCA.com/Global.

It is important for strength and conditioning coaches, sport coaches, athletic trainers, and administrators to recognize and address the evidence of stress within student-athletes in order to avoid chronic stress-related anxiety and injury.

This article takes a closer look at training strength and stiffness in connective tissues.

This article examines using the sled as a dynamic correspondence exercise for increasing on-ice acceleration.

Strength and conditioning professionals who incorporate a properly designed and supervised training program can help their young athletes train, compete, and reduce the likelihood of injury.

This article explores the concept of how lifestyle behaviors encouraged at the high school-level could affect fitness during adulthood, with a focus on both sport and strength and conditioning participation.

One challenge is to critically examine your own successes and failures to find a way to attribute the outcomes to something you can control and can change for the future. This could be as small as how you deal with a single person, or it could be a more in-depth examination of how you provide feedback to athletes and how you work with your own staff.

This article seeks to explain the differences between males and females in training and adaptations, as well as provide actionable guidelines to improve performance.