Just as any athletic team can benefit from sport-specific training, tactical professionals can benefit from occupational task-specific training as well. Combining pushing, pulling, pressing, and total body movements into complexes may help mimic the demands and movements of job tasks that tactical personnel may encounter.
By examining a practical approach to programming fundamentals based on a needs analysis and training objectives relative to the program, a foundational plan can be laid that may lead not only to the appropriate progression of a given officer but also to the mutual satisfaction of the trainer and trainee alike.
This article provides a list of items that affect the ability to develop and retain quality fire fitness trainers and provides possible solutions to common challenges for program managers that make decisions for a facility or agency.
Several obstacles can derail women from reaching or succeeding in the elite combat schools and will need to be mediated. The main obstacles this article focuses on are the current standard fitness requirements for attending an advanced combat school, the high absolute strength and power demands required by these combat schools, and the unique physiology of women compared to men.
There is no argument that periodization is successful, and that different models can be applied with success in different fashions. The question of how shift work really affects a periodized program—more specifically firefighter shift work—is less clear.
This article is the eighth in 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. On this occasion, the focus is on new research presented at the 2016 NSCA National Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 7 – 8, 2016.
TSAC FacilitatorsExercise ScienceProgram designTesting and Evaluation
Military and law enforcement needs analyses are not specifically matched to firefighting, but those training styles are better than basic fitness regimens or no regimen at all. For firefighters who are attracted to other styles of training not specific to firefighting, there are ways to train for all the demands of firefighting without making the firefighter use training modalities that they dislike or are not comfortable using.
Tactical facilitators are especially well-positioned to integrate mental skills training that may develop more complete tactical athletes who are prepared for dangerous environments. This article offers recommendations for mental skills training based on reported views from a tactical population.