NSCA’s Foundations of Coaching Lifts Online Course, Academic Version

This course is designed for adoption for college and university activities classes. Students enrolled in the course through their institution are eligible for a complimentary one-year NSCA student membership.If you are an instructor considering adoption of NSCA's Foundations of Coaching Lifts Online Course, please contact your Human Kinetics sales representative.

Prepare your students for the weight room so they can coach foundational movements with confidence. Designed by the best and brightest in the strength and conditioning industry, NSCA's Foundations of Coaching Lifts Online Course guides students through the basic skills to effectively coach four primary lifts: the squat, bench press, push press, and power clean.

Students will learn the anatomical and physiological concepts related to the lifts, their purpose and application, and how to identify technique errors to ensure safety and effectiveness. They will also learn fundamental progressions and regressions and how to use verbal and physical coaching cues to improve lifters' performance.

In addition to step-by-step progressions and coaching cues for each lift, students will also have access to eight exercise videos—two for each lift, with one depicting correct technique and the other showing technique errors.

Course also available packaged with the NSCA's Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning!
NSCA's Foundations of Coaching Lifts Online Course also works well in tandem with the widely adopted Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning text, also by the NSCA. The course serves as an excellent supplementary tool to help students master the finer points of coaching foundational movement as they prepare for future careers in the strength and conditioning field or personal training field.

• Chapter 1. Introduction
  • Overview
  • Requirements
  • How to Use the Instructor Manual
  • Learning Objectives
  • Practice Teaching
• Chapter 2. Conducting the Course
• Chapter 3. Facilities and Equipment
  • Recommendations for Resistance Training Areas
  • Printed Material
  • Sample Course Schedule
• Chapter 4. Detailed Course Outline
  • Section 1. Course Overview
    • Key Concepts
    • Anatomy
    • Equipment Terminology
    • Assignment
  • Section 2. Squat Progression and Errors
    • Utility
    • Squat Anatomy
    • Teaching Progression
    • Spotting
  • Section 2a. Squat Hands-On (part 1)
  • Section 2b. Squat Errors
    • Coaching Cues
    • Key Takeaways
  • Section 2c. Squat Hands-On (part 2)
  • Section 3. Bench Press Progression and Errors
    • Utility
    • Bench Press Anatomy
    • Teaching Progression
    • Spotting
  • Section 3a. Bench Press Hands-On (part 1)
  • Section 3b. Bench Press Errors
    • Coaching Cues
    • Key Takeaways
  • Section 3c. Bench Press Hands-On (part 2)
  • Section 4. Push Press Progression and Errors
    • Utility
    • Anatomy
    • Teaching Progression
    • Missing a Lift
  • Section 4a. Push Press Hands-On (part 1)
  • Section 4b. Push Press Errors
    • Coaching Cues
    • Key Takeaways
  • Section 4c. Push Press Hands-On (part 2)
  • Section 5. Power Clean Progression and Errors
    • Utility
    • Anatomy
    • Teaching Progression
    • Missing a Lift
  • Section 5a. Power Clean Hands-On (part 1)
  • Section 5b. Power Clean Errors
    • Coaching Cues
    • Key Takeaways
  • Section 5c. Power Clean Hands-On (part 2)
• Chapter 5. Assessment
  • Overview
  • Assessment Length
  • Safety
  • Performance Assessment Overview
• Appendix A. Performance Assessment
• Appendix B. Lifting Performance Checklists

Founded in 1978, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) is a nonprofit association dedicated to advancing the strength and conditioning profession and related sport science professions around the world. The NSCA exists to empower a community of professionals to maximize their impact through disseminating evidence-based knowledge and its practical application by offering industry-leading certifications, research journals, career development services, networking opportunities, and continuing education. The NSCA community is composed of more than 60,000 members and certified professionals throughout the world who further industry standards as researchers, educators, strength and conditioning coaches, performance and sport scientists, personal trainers, tactical professionals, and other related roles.

All ancillaries are free to adopting instructors through HKPropel.

Instructor guide. Includes an instructor manual featuring a performance assessment tool checklist, a sample course schedule and syllabus, and an instructor training video.

Quizzes. Contains five ready-made quizzes (10 questions each) to assess student comprehension of the most important concepts in the course. Each quiz may be downloaded or assigned to students directly through HKPropel. The chapter assessments are automatically graded, and instructors can review student scores in the platform.

Presentation package. Features a PowerPoint presentation to aid in teaching the course.

Online videos. Includes eight exercise videos demonstrating correct and incorrect technique for each lift. (These are the same videos available to students.)

Instructors also receive access to all student materials in HKPropel.

"Completion of this course tells hiring managers that these young professionals meet NSCA's standards for strength coaching, giving them a step-up in the job market."
—Tim Suchomel, Associate Professor at Carroll University

"I really enjoyed the course because it not only showed us how to coach the lifts but also gave us all of the background information on functional anatomy and biomechanics."
—Jose Alcantara, Minor League Performance Coach for the Seattle Mariners

Sample Course Schedule (PDF)