The purpose of this article is to help provide recommendations of overall recovery modalities for tactical athletes.

While no recruitment process will ever be perfect, it is time to address the “legal defensibility” of physical employment standards as the primary consideration in developing recruitment guidelines that are concurrently designed to increase workplace diversity.

Hunter Schurrer, Contracted Human Performance Specialist for Fort Lewis Washington 1st Special Forces Group talks to the NSCA Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, Scott Caulfield, about Coach Schurrer’s experience working with collegiate athletes, his mentors at the beginning of his S&C career, and his transition from D1 athletics to Tactical Strength and Conditioning. Topics under discussion include coaching colligate athletes, transitioning to the tactical setting, and training special forces groups.

If Mission Critical Teams intend to enhance their capability, they must first embrace a learning organizational culture and develop a belief that organizations are required to continually improve and adapt in the current competitive and complex environment in order to survive and prosper.

Given the high prevalence of injuries that occur during rucking, implementing an injury prevention program is paramount. Disseminating information on proper injury prevention training methods and reducing the risk of ruck-related back injuries can improve overall mission readiness with minimal lost training time.

The following article provides a list of tests that could comprise a fitness assessment to measure overall fitness and health prior to, during, and after an academy training program.

In this session from the 2015 NSCA TSAC Annual Training, Katie Sell discusses current research on how perceived fitness in firefighters may be related to injury prevalence (on-duty and in training) and provide recommendations on how tactical facilitators can decrease adverse repercussions of inaccurately perceived fitness levels (e.g., injury, overtraining, and job-related preparation).

Nutrition plays an important role in the injury prevention and treatment of tactical professionals. Nutritional goals for healthy connective tissue are twofold: increase collagen content in connective tissues susceptible to injury and prevent a decline in collagen content to help mitigate injury and facilitate recovery.

Strength and conditioning coaches who systematically progress specific training variables, including games, can help youth improve performance and reduce the risk of injury.