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.

The path to actual integration of mental and physical training for the tactical athlete is paved with growing empiricism. The current challenge is to sustain creative development of functional approaches and demonstrate that integration can deliver potential benefits.

Lanier Coleman coaches from a simple truth: intent drives intensity. Now in his role as Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the National Football League (NFL) Jacksonville Jaguars, Coleman brings the same determination he embodied as a collegiate defensive lineman. He shares how early adversity shaped his standards, teaching him to lead with discipline, cultivate deeper relationships, and “build a fire” in every athlete he coaches. During his coaching tenure at Florida State University, mental and emotional endurance became cornerstones of team development — these are lessons he now carries into professional football. Coleman describes the shift from building collegiate foundations to coaching with precision at the NFL level, where he fine-tunes elite qualities to manage injury risk. He also stresses the importance of unified performance staffs to support athletes through this fast-paced and demanding sport. Gain inspiration to strengthen daily purpose, be a spark in your facility, and support athlete readiness across high-performance environments. Reach out to Lanier via Instagram: @l_coleman98 | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs and LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs Join the NSCA Football Special Interest Group (SIG) and explore 24 other specialized communities designed to support your development on the Special Interest Groups page.

This article will discuss specific measures of stress that can be monitored, as well as coping skills to mitigate the negative effects of stress.

This column reviews recent literature that investigated the appropriateness of a commonly utilized on-duty exercise training modality for firefighters and describes the occupational demands of specialist tactical police officers.

Brice Long, Director of Human Performance Experience at O2X, talks to the NSCA Coaching Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about O2X’s holistic approach for fire, police, military, and federal agencies. Topics under discussion include the value of training as a firefighter, physical tests and assessments in the National Guard, and being diverse in your skill sets as a coach. Find Brice on Instagram: @o2xhumanperformance or Twitter: @o2xhp | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

The purpose of this article is to identify and discuss the difficulties that can arise when performing physiological-based research with firefighters.

This article provides methods used by tactical facilitators, related research articles, and professional interviews to demonstrate how physical conditioning facilitates the transition from practice to duty for service members, including law enforcement and fire and rescue personnel.

Keynote Presentation

The purpose of this article is to explore trauma-related mental health issues and help human performance professionals more effectively train tactical athletes.