Hi Matt, I think having access to some type of jump tracking technology can be incredibly helpful. I realize that's not available at every institution, but when it is, it provides valuable insight into jump counts and overall workload for each practice. From there, you can begin to identify what a low-, moderate-, and high-volume day looks like for your team. That information can then be used to better prepare athletes during the offseason and to structure training throughout the preseason and in-season. In the offseason, I typically incorporated a progression of low-, moderate-, and high-intensity plyometrics within the same session, usually before lifting or agility work. For example, we might start with jump rope (low intensity, higher volume) to prepare the tissues, progress to hurdle landings in multiple planes of motion using both bilateral and unilateral variations (moderate intensity, moderate volume), and finish with more explosive movements such as box jumps, broad jumps, or approach jumps (high intensity, lower volume). The biggest goal was to progressively build the athletes' capacity to tolerate the demands of volleyball before preseason, rather than exposing them to a sudden spike in jumping volume once practices began. Here's a great article that discusses managing plyometric intensity and volume for volleyball athletes: https://simplifaster.com/articles/plyometric-training-womens-volleyball/ I'd be happy to discuss this further if it would be helpful. Hope this gives you a few ideas!

Hi Michael, This is a great topic to bring up as the school year begins and teams start ramping up for training and competition. I especially liked your point about keeping the athlete at the center of every decision by focusing on " getting it right vs. being right". That mindset creates trust across the performance team and encourages collaboration instead of letting individual egos drive decisions. I also liked how you separated collaboration and communication because they are related but require different approaches. Being proactive and establishing expectations early is critical, especially once the demands of the season increase and it is easy for meetings and conversations to fall by the wayside. I've been fortunate to collaborate with several high-performance teams throughout my career. As a Sports Performance coach in the collegiate setting—particularly with Olympic sports, you often work with multiple performance teams, each with its own culture and communication style. One thing I have found valuable is establishing recurring meetings throughout the different phases of the seasons. Whether those meetings happen weekly, monthly, or quarterly often depends on the head coach, but having a consistent schedule helps everyone stay aligned while also creating accountability. From a communication standpoint, I completely agree that every team is going to be different. Some groups communicate primarily through in-person conversations, while others rely on group messaging platforms or shared athlete management systems. Being flexible and understanding how each discipline prefers to communicate helps information flow more efficiently and ultimately benefits the athlete. From the Sports Performance Coach perspective, information I find valuable to bring to both initial and ongoing performance meetings includes: Performance Trends Team and individual performance trends Objective metrics such as Force Plate data, GPS workloads, and weight room and non-weight room performance Athlete readiness, wellness, and overall energy levels Programming & Periodization Weekly training schedules and session objectives Competition week modifications Planned transitions between training phases Position-specific or developmental programming differences Return-to-Play Progressions How a RTP athlete's program differs from team training Performance metrics used to determine readiness Practice modifications and daily plans while progressing back to full participation Having a framework like this helps create productive discussions, ensures everyone is working toward the same objectives, and keeps the athlete at the center of the decision-making process. I would also be interested to hear how others structure their performance meetings and what information they prioritize throughout the year!

Katie, This is an awesome topic! Professional baseball deals with quite a few different climates and it sometimes changes in the same week, especially at the Major League level. The minor leagues can also deal with hydration issues as there are leagues and teams in some pretty hot places. Here are some strategies and some additional questions from the professional baseball space: Love the use of the urine color charts in the bathrooms (above the urinals / in stalls). Easy way to gauge hydration. "Hydration Cart" outside of the clubhouse or on the way to the field - Especially in Arizona, we will set up a cart full of water, gatorade, electrolyte mixed drinks, fruit, quick snacks for players to grab on their way outside for a "fool proof" method to get athletes to hydrate. Gamify hydration - we used a USG tester to track pregame urine USG. Players would track this on a sheet and we would have a winner at the end of the week. MHP (Most Hydrated Player)! Pre and post practice / game weights - have a scale and chart for players to track pre and post game weights so they start to become familiar with how much they lose in a game. It can also bring awareness the need to replenish over night as baseball is an every day competition. It is not unusual for us to have to remove players with dehydration / cramping symptoms in games. For those chronic offenders, we will premix hydration cocktails / water bottles with their names on it and put them in the dugout. This ensures they have access to proper hydration and can't use the excuse of "I forgot to make one for myself". These are a few pretty low cost ways we push hydration in the professional baseball space. Another thing we love to do is present information to our players and teams. I am curious what is the most effective presentations you or other members have used to really get the importance of hydration through to your athletes? We haven't figure out the best way to have the message land, but would love to hear some of the things everyone has used?

Hi everyone! My name is Ashley Christy, and I am a Strength and Conditioning Coach in the tactical setting, currently supporting the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). This is my second year working with the Air Force, and more than 10 years of experience in the strength and conditioning industry. My background includes collegiate athletics, where I worked with both strength-power and endurance sports, as well as coaching general population clients and youth athletes in the private sector. My primary areas of expertise include periodization and long-term training strategies across diverse populations, return-to-play programming for athletes recovering from injury, and the implementation and analysis of sports performance technology. I’ve worked extensively with Hawkins Force Plates and GPS tracking systems to monitor performance, guide training decisions, and support both strength-power and endurance athletes. I also enjoy collaborating within interdisciplinary high-performance teams to help optimize athlete performance and reduce injury risk. Some of the most common challenges I see in sports performance include unstructured periodization planning, communication gaps between performance and medical staff, and overreliance on technology at the expense of coaching observation and meaningful athlete feedback. I’m excited to connect with this community, exchange ideas, and learn from the diverse experiences represented here. If you’re interested in topics like periodization, return-to-play, tactical strength and conditioning, or integrating technology into performance programs, I’d love to hear your perspective and discuss what’s working in your environment!

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How do you get players ready for late-season play while still keeping them mobile, moving well, and ready for explosive, high-velocity play? In professional baseball, players have already played close to 100 games over the course of 3.5 months and, yet, have two more months to play. It is important to support them with an approach of preparation and recovery to be ready for each day. Below are some of my favorite ways to approach this critical time in the season to manage workload, keep players active, and mitigate injury risk. 1. Taking care of the basics: Fueling, hydration, and sleep. At this point in the season, players have their routines and are making adjustments as needed to ensure they are ready to go. Making sure they are taking care of their fueling needs with the proper nutrition is key to bouncing back appropriately. By staying on top of these three components, we can keep players ready to go and recovering well. This is a large part to the recovery process not only post game, but the morning before a game as well. When we play every day, we need to make sure we are replacing what we are utilizing. This is a major focus for our players. 2. Manual therapy - The utilization of manual therapy for recovery purposes is something I harness a lot, but will tend to increase this time of year. Targeting tissues in the arm which already have a large amount of innings under them is important to help preparing for throwing each day. One of my favorites is the use of cups on the posterior shoulder coupled with active movements. To me, this helps give an active release to the tissue, brings blood flow, and prepares the tissue for the movements they will undergo. On the flip side, dry needling is a technique to employ post game to help jump start the recovery process and prepare for the next day. This can be done in various different ways depending on the desired outcome. 3. Targeted breathing based exercises - Breathing is a great way to down regulate the system and prepare for the next day. Coupling that with motion based exercise can help restore ranges, coordinate rib cage mechanics, and promote recovery all in one. Typical exercises that I will have our players use including sidelying arm bars with rotation, seated or inverted prayer positions, and supine reaching. The results have shown themselves with improved ranges of motion day 1 post outing and ability to bounce back better. Looking forward to hearing other strategies! Let me know what you all are using or seeing. Let's help our players prepare for the late season push. Andrew Staehling - Minor League Medical Coordinator, Milwaukee Brewers

Calling all Los Angeles Athletic Trainers! I’m looking for 4 Athletic Trainers to provide medical coverage for a high-level basketball camp in Thousand Oaks, CA. 📍 Location: Sports Academy 📅 Dates: August 5–7 🕗 Hours: 8AM–12PM & 3-6PM 💲 Pay: $50/hour Responsibilities include: • Taping • First aid and injury evaluation • Emergency response and management

Hello, Sounds like you are an extremely dedicated Athletic Trainer, and super hard working! A few things come to mind when thinking about doing more Pour more into the roles you already fill. How can you make the processes at the high schools and summer baseball league better? EAPs, prevention programs (i.e. arm care for baseball - I can provide some ideas if needed), strength and conditioning routines, informational sessions for the students and coaches, proper warm ups, recovery options, nutrition Pour more into yourself!! Make sure that you are filling your own cup and developing yourself. Professionally with your skills and knowledge, as well as personally. Make sure you are honing in your communication, leadership, presence - read books, podcasts, etc to expose yourself to those things Please let me know if this helps and if there is anything I would be able to be of assistance! Good luck Mike

Hi everyone, Along with @Floriswardenaar and @DanaWhiteNutrition , I had the chance to present "Evaluating Dietary Supplements for Athlete Safety and Performance" at NATA 2026, and wanted to bring the conversation here since supplement questions come up in the athletic training room almost daily. Why this matters: the grand majority of competitive athletes are using supplements in some form — multivitamins, sports drinks, protein powders, caffeine, creatine — and on average athletes report using around four different products. But supplements aren't premarket-approved by the FDA (DSHEA puts the burden on manufacturers before sale, with FDA/FTC enforcing after the fact), so adulteration and spiking are real risks. Studies estimate roughly a quarter of supplements carry some risk of unintentional doping, and dietary supplements have been linked to a meaningful share of doping violations over the years. Practical framework for reviewing a product with an athlete — "Is it Safe? Is it Legal? Does it Work?" Is it safe? Is it third-party tested? Not all certifications are equal — a "certified" label doesn't automatically mean it's been screened for banned substances, so know the difference between quality-control certifications and sport-specific banned-substance testing (NSF Certified for Sport, Informed Sport, BSCG, HASTA, Cologne List, NZVT). Check for known side effects/interactions using Examine.com , ConsumerLab , or the Natural Medicines Database . Report adverse events at www.safetyreporting.hhs.gov . Is it legal for your athlete's governing body? Olympic/Paralympic/Pan Am athletes: WADA Prohibited List ( wada-ama.org ) and GlobalDRO.com to check medication status. Collegiate athletes: current NCAA Banned Substances List . Pro leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.) each have their own PED policies negotiated with their players' unions — don't assume NCAA/WADA rules apply. Does it work? The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Supplement Framework (ABCD classification) is a great starting point for grading evidence — Group A (sports foods, medical supplements, and performance supplements like caffeine, beta-alanine, nitrate, creatine) has the strongest support; Group D is banned/high contamination risk. A practical, real-world example: if an athlete is choosing between Pre-workout/caffiene products, it's worth knowing that some mainstream options do carry NSF Certified for Sport status — for instance, Gatorade's Fast Twitch is NSF Certified for Sport. Tell your athletes to check specific products against the NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport Database BEFORE purchasing. Bottom line: ATs and Sports Performance Coaches are often the first point of contact when an athlete asks "can I take this?" You don't need to be the supplement expert — but knowing this framework, and knowing when/how to loop in a sports RD, protects both the athlete's health and their eligibility. Heads up: a full peer-reviewed article on this exact topic is set to publish in the Journal of Athletic Training this August. I'll come back and link it here once it's live — it'll have more detail than we could fit into the NATA session. What’s showing up on your desk?? Is it mostly creatine and protein questions, or are athletes coming to you with riskier stuff like pre-workouts and "fat burners"? And where do you get stuck: identifying what's actually in a product, figuring out if it's legal for your athlete's level, or something else?

Curious to hear from the community on this topic - I have thought a lot recently about leadership and what it truly means to be a good "leader". A lot of people have said the phrase "lead by example". I am wondering if that is good enough. Can just leading by example make you a great leader?? I think there is more than that phrase to being a great leader and if that is what you would love to be, I'd argue that you must go beyond just leading by example. Maybe I am wrong though, maybe you can just put your head down, lead by example, and be a great leader amongst your team / organization. Some questions for the community: What does leadership mean to you? How do you like to be led in your group / organization / team? What have been some of the qualities of the best leaders you've been around / worked for? Can we lead from a middle management position (i.e up and down the chain of command)? What are some "red flags" in a leader? Would love to hear from the community on this one. It can be a polarizing topic and there is definitely more than one way to skin the cat so to speak about good or great leadership. Excited to hear from you guys!