Dawes, James

Holmes, Ryan

Kornhauser, Charles

Orr, Rob Marc

Pope, Rodney R

English

Research suggests that law enforcement is primarily a sedentary occupation. However, officers may have to respond rapidly to unpredictable situations and this can dramatically increase their physiological loads. The aim of this study was to investigate the physiological demands placed on Australian state police officers carrying out operational tasks

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Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryDifferences in initial fitness scores between highway patrol cadets who successfully completeor fail to complete a 27-week training academyDawes, James; Orr, Rob Marc; Kornhauser, Charles; Holmes, Ryan; Pope, Rodney RPublished: 01/11/2016Document Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Dawes, J., Orr, R. M., Kornhauser, C., Holmes, R., & Pope, R. R. (2016). Differences in initial fitness scoresbetween highway patrol cadets who successfully complete or fail to complete a 27-week training academy.Poster session presented at ASCA National Conference on Applied Strength and Conditioning, Melbourne,Australia.General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright ownersand it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.For more information, or if you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact the Bond University research repositorycoordinator.Download date: 10 May 20191,2J.Jay Dawes, 2Robin Orr, 3Charles Kornhauser, 3Ryan Holmes 2Rodney Pope1Department of Health Sciences, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO. USA2Tactical Research Unit, Bond University, Robina, QLD, AUSTRALIA3Colorado State Highway Patrol, Golden, CO., USA                                                                       Email: jdawes@uccs.eduBLUFHighway patrol cadets with higher levels of fitness upon entering the training academy have a greater likelihood of successful completion when compared to their less fit counterparts. INTRODUCTIONResearch in tactical populations suggests that new recruits are more likely to be injured during recruit training1The sudden increase in physical conditioning requirements, the complexity of new physical tasks, reduced opportunity for recovery, and resulting increased risk of overtraining are leading reasons for this increased risk of injury2There is a significant fiscal, administrative and logistical investment involved in recruiting and training new law enforcement officers. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if significant fitness differences exist between cadets who successfully complete training and those who do not.RESULTS•Descriptive data for completers and non-completer groups is presented in Table I. •Results suggest that non-completers were significantly older and exhibited poorer mean scores in all fitness tests when compared to completers.METHODSArchival data for ninety-nine (♂=89:♀=10) cadets belonging to three different training academies were analyzed in this study. These data were collected prior to the commencement of a 27-week training program at a law enforcement academy. The physical assessment was conducted at the beginning of the second week of class by the academy training staff. Data included: self-reported age (yrs); height (in); weight (lbs); and push-up, sit-up, vertical jump and 20 meter multi-stage fitness test (20m-MSFT) scores. Injury was defined as any musculoskeletal damage that resulted in the cadet being assigned to altered training duty or that led to their exit from the training academy. Cadet results were then separated into two categories, “completers” (n=81) and “non-completers” (n=18). Data were entered into SPSS version 23 (IBM 2015) for analysis. A series of independent t-tests were performed to determine if mean score differences existed between these groups. The level of statistical significance was set a priori at 0.05.DIFFERENCES IN INITIAL FITNESS SCORES BETWEEN HIGHWAY PATROL CADETS WHO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE OR FAIL TO COMPLETE A 27-WEEK TRAINING ACADEMYPRACTICAL APPLICATIONCoaches responsible for conditioning cadets, both pre-enlistment, and during training, should focus on improving the fitness levels of cadets as a means of injury and risk mitigation. Acceptable, and legally defensible entry level standards should be developed to reduce injury rates and improve cadet retention.DISCUSSIONCadets who are injured or fail to complete training tend to be older and less fit. Measures to increase fitness, especially prior to joining, or ensuring entry standard fitness levels are adequate, may provide solutions to mitigate cadet injury and / or failureREFERENCES1. Pope R, Herbert R, Kirwan JD, and Graham BJ. Predicting Attrition in Basic Military Training. Mil Med 164: 710-714, 19992. Orr RM and Pope R. Optimizing the physical training of military trainees. Strength & Conditioning Journal 37: 53-59, 2015.Table I: Descriptive data for police academy ‘completers’ and ‘non-completers’VariableCompleters n=81Mean ± SDNon-completersn=18Mean ± SDAge (yrs) 33.52 ± 11.91† 39.22 ± 13.54†Height (in) 70.06 ± 2.60 69.41 ± 3.31Body weight (lbs) 186.3 ± 24.89 189.16 ± 42.86Push-ups (n) 48.67 ± 11.87† 37.39 ± 7.86†Sit-ups (n) 44.17 ± 5.91† 40.50 ± 5.31†MSFT Shuttles(n) 61.20 ± 16.98† 49.33 ± 18.31†Vertical Jump Height (in) 22.06 ± 3.49† 18.92 ± 2.97†. † Significant differences at p ≤ 0.01

Differences in initial fitness scores between highway patrol cadets who successfully complete or fail to complete a 27-week training academy

https://pure.bond.edu.au/ws/files/27454207/2016_ASCA_Diffrences_in_intitial_fitness.pdf

Differences in initial fitness scores between highway patrol cadets who successfully complete or fail to complete a 27-week training academy

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