COACH'S QUESTION "I was trained in basic research methods during my master's program, but we never covered systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or narrative reviews. Lately, I've seen more of these review papers in the Strength and Conditioning Journal, but I'm unsure how to interpret them. As a coach, how can I tell if a review paper is worth my time? How do I know if it's high quality?" WHY THIS COLUMN Over the past decade, journals have published an increasing number of systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs). They look impressive, filled with charts and statistics. But just because something is labeled as an SR or MA does not automatically mean it is correct, useful, or relevant to your athletes (1,6,13). This column is written to help coaches cut through the complexity. The goal is not to make you a statistician, but to give you a simple way to judge whether one of these reviews is worth your time.
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