Bock, Claire

Orr, Rob Marc

Stierli, Michael

English

Introduction: The occupational task requirements of the tactical athlete (e.g. military personnel, firefighters and police officers) impose significant physiological stressors in diverse and challenging environments. Poor performance of these tasks has the potential to cause injuries and reduce the chance of mission success; both of which impact on the ability of the tactical athlete to maintain optimal performance across the lifespan. Poor movement quality has already been associated with increasing the potential for injury. What is not yet known is whether poor movement quality is associated with occupational task performance. This association is of importance as the tactical athlete is often required to carry external loads which reduce the movement quality of the carrier and have been known to cause injuries in this population. On this basis, the aim of this study was to determine whether poor movement patterns impact on the tactical athlete’s occupational performance.Methods: A cohort of 53 volunteers was randomly selected from a pool of 173 police recruits attending basic recruit training. The Functional Movement Screen was used to assess movement quality and four occupational measures (marksmanship, baton strikes, defensive tactics and tactical options) were completed as a measure of typical police occupational tasks.Results: Functional Movement Screen scores ranged from 8 to 18 points (mean = 13.96 ± 1.99 points). Of the occupational measures, 11% failed the marksmanship and baton strike assessments, 21% failed defensive tactics and 36% failed the tactical options assessment. Only the tactical options assessment approached a significant difference (p = 0.077) between movement performance and occupational task scores for passing and failing recruits. Similar results were found between Functional Movement Screen scores when graded as pass (14+) or fail (&lt;14) and the occupational measures with the tactical options measure being the only measure to approach significance (p = 0.057).Discussion: The results of this study suggest that a relationship between a police recruit’s quality of movement patterns and choice of tactical options may exist. Conversely, no significant differences were found in quality of movement and recruit passing or failing marksmanship, defence tactics and baton strikes assessments, although this may be due to the low overall numbers of training failures in these occupational tasks

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Bond UniversityResearch RepositoryThe Functional Movement Screen as a Predictor of Police Occupational Task PerformanceBock, Claire; Stierli, Michael; Orr, Rob MarcPublished: 15/10/2014Document Version:Peer reviewed versionLink to publication in Bond University research repository.Recommended citation(APA):Bock, C., Stierli, M., & Orr, R. M. (2014). The Functional Movement Screen as a Predictor of Police OccupationalTask Performance. Poster session presented at Be Active Conference 2014, Canberra, 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: 22 Aug 20191Bock, C., 2Stierli, M., 2Hinton, B. & 1Orr, R. 1 Bond University 2 New South Wales Police Force  Corresponding Author:  clairebock@student.bond.edu.auThe occupational task requirements of the tactical athlete (e.g. military personnel, firefighters and police officers) imposesignificant physiological stressors in diverse and challenging environments. Poor performance of these tasks have the potential to cause injuries and reduce the chance of mission success; both of which impact on the ability of the tactical athlete to maintain optimal performance across the lifespan.Poor movement quality has already been associated with increasing the potential for injury [1]. What is not yet known is whether poor movement quality impacts on occupational task performance.  This association is of importance to the tactical athlete as they are often required to carry external loads which reduce their movement quality and has been known to cause injuries [2]. On this basis, the aim of this study was to determine whether poor movement quality impacts on the tactical athlete’s occupational performance.MethodsA cohort of 53 volunteers was randomly selected from a pool of 173 police recruits attending basic recruit training. The Functional Movement Screen (FMS), conducted  in the first week of the police recruit training program, was used to assess movement quality.Four occupational measures (marksmanship, baton strikes, defensive tactics and tactical options), completed over the 12 week police recruit training program, served as a measure of typical police occupational tasks.SPSS Version v.20 statistical software package (SPSS Inc., Delaware, USA) was used to conduct independent sample t-tests to detect differences in Functional Movement Screen scores between pass/fail groups across all assessed occupational tasks. Chi-square tests were used to examine the significance of relationship between the FMS scores, converted to Pass (14+) or Fail (<14)  and occupational measures. Significance was set at p <0.05Ethical approval for this research was provided by Bond University Human Resources Ethics Committee (BUHREC).ResultsFMS scores ranged from 8 to 18 points (mean = 13.96 ± 1.99 points). Of the occupational measures, 11% failed the marksmanship and baton strike assessments, 21% failed defensive tactics and 36% failed the tactical options assessment.Only the tactical options assessment approached a significant difference (p=0.077) between movement performance and occupational task scores for passing and failing recruits. Similar results were found between FMS scores when graded as pass (14+) or fail (<14) with the tactical options measure being the only measure to approach significance (p=0.057) (Figure 1).References1.Orr, R., Pope, R., Johnston, V., & Coyle, J. (2011). Load carriage and its force impact. Australian Defence Force Journal: Journal of the Australian profession of arms, 185, 52-63.2. O'Connor, F. G., Deuster, P. A., Davis, J., Pappas, C. G., & Knapik, J. J. (2011). Functional movement screening: predicting injuries in officer candidates. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 43(12), 2224-30.3. Chapman, R. F., Laymon, A. S., & Arnold, T. (2014). Functional Movement Scores and Longitudinal Performance Outcomes in Elite Track and Field Athletes. International Journal of sports physiology and performance, 9(2):203-211THE FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENT SCREEN AS A PREDICTOR OF POLICE OCCUPATIONAL TASK PERFORMANCE PurposeCompletion of tasks containing dynamic and functional movement patterns is an occupational requirement for tactical athletes like police officers, with poor movement patterns possibly leading to decreased performance and injury in some of these tasks.Previous research has indicated that the Functional Movement Screen is a reliable tool for identifying poor movement patterns. The current study suggests that poor movement patterns, as measured by the Functional Movement Screen may not predict poor occupational performance in marksmanship, defensive tactics and baton strikes assessments, but may in tactical options assessments.ConclusionFigure 1: Box plot for the Tactical Options occupational measure by ‘fail’ and ‘pass’ sub cohort Functional Movement Screen scores.

The Functional Movement Screen as a Predictor of Police Occupational Task Performance

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The Functional Movement Screen as a Predictor of Police Occupational Task Performance

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