This article is part of a continuing series of tactical strength and conditioning (TSAC) research reviews. It is designed to bring awareness to new research findings of relevance to tactical strength and conditioning communities.

The following erratum, a correction to a published article, appears in the October 2015 issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

This article explains the quadrathlon and how it can help strength coaches measure linear speed, speed-strength (power), and elastic or reactive qualities efficiently.

In addition to standard health, fitness, or sport assessment guidelines, several guidelines exist for the fire service. Since each agency is different in its preferences, capabilities, and philosophies, applying a standard recommendation may not be possible. This article introduces basic decision-making considerations for fire service assessment batteries.

This article discusses the importance of upper body power training for protective security personnel and its potential for an occupational performance marker.

Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists® (CSCS®) are professionals who apply scientific knowledge to train athletes for the primary goal of improving athletic performance. Learn more about becoming a strength and conditioning coach with the NSCA certification! Visit NSCA.com for more information on strength and conditioning jobs, strength and conditioning internships, continuing education and CEUs.

This article examines how training the core and performance are connected. This article seeks to help propose how to best use the literature to maximize understanding and use of the current concepts.

The strength and conditioning profession involves combined competencies for the application of sport/exercise science, administration, management, teaching, and coaching. Its professionals must also comply with various laws and regulations while responding to instances of potential injury, and related claims and suits. This creates remarkable challenges, and requires substantial experience, expertise, and other resources to effectively address them, especially in multi-sport (e.g., collegiate and scholastic) settings.

Multidirectional ground reaction forces (GRFs) and jump tests within baseball pitchers provide insight into athletic ability and coordination to produce lower-body force and power. Lower-body power is a biomechanical feature that denotes physiological capacity through dynamic and passive tissue stretch-shortening in transferring energy from the ground through the kinetic chain. Optimized lower-body power may lessen the magnitude of forces on the upper extremity. Insufficient lower-body power may create a greater risk of upper-body injury. Lower-body power and its relationship to ball velocity have been minimally investigated, yet some research points to a correlation between jumping ability and fastball velocity. Because pitching is unilateral, practitioners should consider unilateral jumps to determine the extent of bilateral asymmetry or stride to drive leg differences that can guide training to remediate deficiencies. The purposes of this brief review are to (a) examine factors that influence vertical jump performance among baseball players, (b) examine research on pitching multidirectional GRFs, and (c) examine literature concerning jump performances to baseball pitching performance. Collectively, this review can assist coaches and practitioners in lower-body power testing and training for baseball pitchers.