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Background: Youth populations benefit from neuromuscular training; however, the extent to which training frequency, baseline fitness, and maturity status moderate the response to long-term neuromuscular training in male youth remains unclear.Hypothesis: Twice-weekly training (G2x) would induce larger improvements in movement competency and strength and power kinetics compared with once-weekly training (G1x). Maturity status and baseline fitness would also moderate the training response in strength and power kinetics.Study Design: Nonrandomized, repeated-measures design.Level of Evidence: Level 3Methods: Ninety-five male athletes of varying maturity status (pre– or post–peak height velocity) were divided into G2x, G1x, or control (CON) groups. Training groups received G2x or G1x for 28 weeks. Back squat assessment (BSA) movement competency and isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP), squat jump (SJ), and countermovement jump (CMJ) kinetics were measured pre- and postintervention.Results: The G2x achieved significantly greater adaptations in BSA total score, IMTP allometrically scaled peak force (PFallo), IMTP peak rate-of-force development (PRFD), SJ PFalloand PRFD compared with G1x and CON (P< 0.05; d= 0.3-0.9). Baseline fitness, training frequency and maturity status were significant predictors of IMTP PFallo(R2= 27.5%) and PRFD (R2= 42.9%), while a combination of training frequency and baseline fitness explained a small amount of variance in SJ PFallo(R2= 12.2%) and SJ PRFD (R2= 6.5%). There were no significant predictors of CMJ kinetics.Conclusion: G2x achieved significantly larger improvements in movement competency, isometric strength and concentric jump variables compared with G1x, with the training response greater in those youth with lower baseline fitness and more advanced maturity status.Clinical Relevance: Exposure to neuromuscular training twice-weekly elicits a greater response than G1x in young male athletes. Practitioners should take maturity status, training frequency, and baseline fitness levels of young male athletes into account when interpreting testing data, as these variables appear to moderate training responsiveness.

Dobbs, IJ, Oliver, JL, Wong, MA, Moore, IS, Myer, GD, and Lloyd, RS. Effects of a 4-week neuromuscular training program on movement competency during the back-squat assessment in pre– and post–peak height velocity male athletes. J Strength Cond Res35(10): 2698–2705, 2021—The back-squat assessment (BSA) is a novel movement screen to detect functional deficits; however, its sensitivity to detect meaningful changes in movement competency after exposure to short-term neuromuscular training remains unclear. Twenty-six pre– and 22 post–peak height velocity (PHV) males were divided into experimental (EXP) and control groups (CON) and performed the BSA before and after a twice weekly, 4-week neuromuscular training intervention. Intra-rater reliability was determined by rating both EXP group's baseline BSA on 3 separate sessions. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) revealed very strong agreement for BSA total score in pre-PHV (ICC ≥ 0.81) and post-PHV (ICC ≥ 0.97) groups across all sessions, but systematic bias was evident in the pre-PHV group for sessions 1–2. Analysis of kappa values for BSA individual criteria showed greater variability for pre-PHV (K ≥ 0.31) than post-PHV (K ≥ 0.62) across sessions. At baseline, there were no differences in total score between the EXP and CON cohorts (p> 0.05). There were significant within-group improvements in total score for the EXP pre-PHV (5.0 to 3.0, effect size [ES] = 0.68) and post-PHV (2.0 to 1.0, ES = 0.82) cohorts, with no changes in total score for either CON groups (p> 0.05). Hip position was the criterion with the greatest improvement for both the EXP pre-PHV (12.0 to 7.0) and post-PHV (7.0 to 0.0) groups. The BSA seems to be a reliable screening tool for measuring movement competency in youth male athletes and was sensitive to adaptations in movement competency after neuromuscular training.