A physical assessment continues to be one of the best ways to evaluate and measure physical preparedness and readiness of a military unit for job-related tasks and future missions. Tactical facilitators must consider multiple factors when developing testing protocols and programs, including leadership support, limited resources, and training cycle time constraints.
For emerging athletes to move properly and develop athletic skills, they must first develop proficiency in fundamental motor skills. The ABCs of athleticism, therefore, must reflect the development of fundamental motor skills first, and specific athletic skills second.
Personal trainersCoachesExercise TechniqueProgram design
USA Football's senior manager of education and training, Andrew Ryland, discusses the long-term athletic development (LTAD) model and its growth and application in the United States, as well as the breakdown of what it looks like for youth football players, in this session from the NSCA’s 2019 Coaches Conference.
CoachesExercise TechniqueProgram designProfessional Development
Coaches can help children and adolescents develop athletic ability by including motor skills training into sports practice and training. This approach is called integrative neuromuscular training.
In this session from the 2015 NSCA TSAC Annual Training, John Hofman covers many common ailments that are specific to firefighters and how they are brought on by overuse, poor compensation, and improper motor patterns. Hofman shares effective strategies that can help improve a department’s health, wellness, and injury prevention programs, as well as corrective exercises.
Develop a better understanding of the brain’s role on exercise and recovery for the tactical athlete, and learn how to identify and implement heart rate variability (HRV) markers for prescribing recovery strategies. Presented by Mark Stephenson, Director of the Human Performance Program at a special operations unit for the Department of Defense, at the NSCA’s 2016 TSAC Annual Training.
The article discusses the talent crisis that is currently plaguing United States first responders, public safety agencies, and military organizations, and concludes with highlights of select successful programs.
Learn about the unique culture that comprises tactical performance, to include the unit-specific subcultures within it, and how to adopt both intuitive and research-based methods to more strategically impact military personnel. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 TSAC Annual Training, Nate Palin explains effective and ineffective approaches to influencing the physical training within a tactical setting.
From the 2019 Tactical Annual Training, Rob Orr, co-lead of Bond University’s Tactical Research Unit, explains how the backs of tactical personnel can be compromised. He also details the systems that affect the back and how to construct programs to optimize physical conditioning and reconditioning.
TSAC FacilitatorsExercise ScienceProgram designBasic Pathophysiology and Science of Health Status or Condition, Disorder, or Disease