The Tactical Athlete: A

Product of 21st Century

Strength and
Conditioning
Dennis E. Scofield, MAEd, CSCS and Joseph R. Kardouni, DPT, PhD
Military Performance Division, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, Massachusetts

ABSTRACT
OCCUPATIONS IN LAW
ENFORCEMENT, THE MILITARY, OR
RESCUE SERVICES REQUIRE PERSONNEL TO DEVELOP GENERAL
PHYSICAL PREPAREDNESS IN
ADDITION TO TECHNICAL AND
TACTICAL SKILLS THAT ARE CRUCIAL IN ENVIRONMENTS INVOLVING CIVIL PROTECTION, GRAVE
PHYSICAL DANGER, OR RESCUE
SITUATIONS. THE TERM TACTICAL
ATHLETE IS COMMONLY USED BY
THOSE IN THE TACTICAL
STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
COMMUNITY TO IDENTIFY PERSONNEL IN TACTICAL PROFESSIONALS WHO REQUIRE UNIQUE
PHYSICAL TRAINING STRATEGIES
AIMED AT IMPROVING OCCUPATIONAL PERFORMANCE. THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO
PROMOTE AWARENESS AND
PROVIDE RATIONALE FOR USE OF
THE TERM TACTICAL ATHLETE.

he term tactical athlete is commonly used by those in the tactical strength and conditioning
community to identify personnel in
law enforcement, military, and rescue
professions who require unique physical training strategies aimed at optimizing occupational physical performance.
Although the term tactical athlete and

T
2

respective programs directed at

improving tactical physical performance began as early as 2005 (Table 1),
there may be ambiguity in the term
tactical athlete for those unfamiliar
with this subject area. Therefore, it is
important to provide the rationale and
context of this term because it is frequently used by professionals in the
fields of human performance, injury
prevention, healthcare, and health sciences who work with this population.
It is also important to describe the
term tactical athlete so that those
who read human performance and
medical literature understand the
term, especially if they do not regularly interact with personnel whose
occupations lead them to be classified
as tactical athletes. The purpose of this
article is to promote awareness and
provide rationale for use of the term
tactical athlete.
WHO IS AN ATHLETE?

The term athlete is often thought of as

being synonymous with someone who
participates in a competition or contest
that requires a certain level of physical
fitness and skill. The word athlete
comes from the ancient Greek word
athletes which means contestant
(1). By definition, an athlete is a person trained or gifted in exercises or
contests involving physical agility,
coordination, stamina, or strength
(17). Considering the broad context

VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 4 | AUGUST 2015

for which an athlete is defined, it is

conceivable that athlete demographics
are as diverse as the sports in which
they compete. The one common tie
among most athletes regardless of
age or sport is the requirement of general physical preparedness (GPP), on
which the technical and tactical skills
(T/TSs) requisite for the sport or
competition are developed (2,11,15).
GPP can be described as an allencompassing state of physical fitness
whereby cardiorespiratory endurance,
anaerobic endurance, muscle strength,
power, flexibility, and mobility are
developed and maintained. It is the
foundation on which T/TSs specific
to the sport are further developed
and deployed (13). These skills are necessary to perform both the specific
movements (technical aspects) associated with a sport and the ability to
analyze and deploy these skills to overcome a physical challenge/obstacle or
outperform an opponent (tactical aspects) (3). For example, in most team
and combat sports (e.g., football, basketball, soccer, and wrestling) GPP is
a prerequisite for building further on
technical and tactical aspects of the
sport, such as blocking and evading,
KEY WORDS:

tactical athlete; military; law enforcement;

firefighter; occupational
demands

Copyright National Strength and Conditioning Association

DEFINING THE TACTICAL ATHLETE

Table 1
Organizations and commercial entities with their respective tactical athlete
programs
Organization or entity

Program

National Strength and Conditioning Tactical Strength and Conditioning (TSAC)

Association (NSCA)
Program
United States (U.S.) Army
10th Mountain Division

Tactical Athlete Program (TAP)

Schofield Barracks

Advanced Tactical Athlete Program (ATAP)

Fort Bliss

Mission Essential Fitness (MEF) Program

75th Ranger Regiment

Ranger Athlete Warrior (RAW) Program

U.S. Special Operations Command Tactical Human Optimization, Rapid

(USSOCOM)
Rehabilitation and Reintegration (THOR3)
Program. Preservation of the Force and
Family (POTFF)
U.S. Navy
Naval Special Warfare Command
(WARCOM)
U.S. Marine Corps
Marine Corps Forces Special
Operations Command
(MARSOC)

Tactical Athlete Program (TAP)

High Intensity Tactical Training Program
Performance and Resiliency (PERRES)

University of Pittsburg
Neuromuscular Research
Laboratory

Warrior Human Performance Research

Center

Uniformed Services University of the

Health Sciences
Consortium for Health and
Military Performance

Human Performance Research Center

Canadian Forces Personnel Support Tactical Athlete Training Program, CFB Shilo
Agency
EXOS

Tactical Military, Firefighter, and Law

Enforcement Performance Programs

The First Twenty

Fire-service and Tactical Athlete Strength

and Conditioning

This table provides an overview of various fitness programs using a tactical athlete model.
The intent of this list of tactical athlete fitness programs is to disclose the expanding devotion
to specialized tactical fitness methodology.

footwork, grappling, or agility. Some

events, such as endurance sports and
track and field, are more heavily
weighted toward GPP, with less
emphasis on T/TSs, although movement techniques are required to maximize efficiency, power, and speed.
Although the dimension of physical

performance in athletics is well

accepted and understood, many physically demanding occupations require
personnel to develop GPP and T/TS
that are crucial in environments
involving civil protection, grave physical danger, hostile forces, or rescue
situations.

Tactical professionals working in military, law enforcement, firefighting, and

rescue professions require expertise in
their occupational skills concomitant
with GPP, which enables them to perform physically demanding occupational tasks while mitigating injury
(7). Tactical professionals, like traditional athletes, require both a level of
fitness and T/TSs commensurate with
their occupational requirements to successfully achieve short-term objectives
and overcome various threats (human
or environmental) (6,10,14,21). The
heavy reliance on physical fitness is
such that recruitment and initial training of military, law enforcement, and
fire-service professionals is graded on
demonstrable fitness standards requisite for selection or graduation from
initial training schools (4,5,8,24). Moreover, initial training often requires recruits/candidates to adapt to strenuous
physical and mental conditioning for
sustained durations lasting weeks or
months (22).
At the completion of initial training,
recruits/candidates are required to
possess the physical and mental preparedness necessary to effectively operate in their occupation, a foundation
on which further development of
occupational T/TS will be developed
(16,18,19). For military personnel, further development of T/TS may
include skills, such as airborne training,
water survival, reconnaissance training,
or hand-to-hand combat. Law
enforcement professions may require
advanced training in emergency
response or special weapons and
tactics training among other specialized courses that may require development of specific fitness components
(strength, power, agility, etc.) that contribute to optimizing occupational performance. In addition, firefighters may
pursue training in victim extraction,
jump and survival, and tactical firstresponse law enforcement, all of which
require candidates to meet physical fitness standards. Collectively, there is
a common requirement among tactical
professionals to exceed a minimum

Strength and Conditioning Journal | www.nsca-scj.com

The Tactical Athlete

threshold of fitness and to further

develop specific components of fitness
(e.g., power, muscle endurance, mobility) enabling them to successfully execute T/TSs.
When developing strength and conditioning programs aimed at improving
occupational physical performance,
strength and conditioning professionals often use principles, such as progression, overload, and specificity to
strategically periodize training cycles.
Additional considerations should
include the training status/training
phase of the tactical athlete; continual
evaluation of these can provide insight
on recovery status and outcome goals
(Figure). Like traditional athletes,
properly designed strength and conditioning programs are crucial for optimizing physical preparedness in
tactical athletes. Lack or deterioration
of GPP and T/TS as a result of a poorly
designed physical training program, or
no physical training, incurs similar results in both groupsearly fatigue,
a higher likelihood of injury, defeat,
or in some cases death (9,12,20,23).

However, one noted difference

between tactical and traditional athletes is that tactical athletes have no
scheduled start or end to an event.
For many tactical athletes, call to duty,
reaction, and response to events can
occur at any time; as such tactical athletes must always be prepared for
deployment to situations that present
ongoing physical and mental stressors
that last for unknown durations of time.
Front line tactical personnel whose line
of duty requirements include running,
climbing, swimming, or traversing austere and rugged environments can
understandably be classified as tactical
athletes. However, it could be argued
that some personnel within tactical organizations perform primarily administrative or domestic duties and do not
typically rely on GPP. While there are
duties or jobs within tactical organizations that do not routinely require feats
of athleticism, we cannot discount the
fact that tactical personnel are most
often required to meet standards of
physical fitness established by their professional organizations. In addition,

personnel in tactical organizations

may unexpectedly find themselves in
situations where they must rely on the
GPP and T/TS to conduct rescue operations or react to an environmental or
human threat. To offer an example,
examine this from the perspective of
a military personnel clerk. On a daily
basis, the clerk performs administrative
duties typical of many civilian office
workers. However, the clerk is still
required to exceed the minimum standard of physical fitness expected by the
military. To ensure this, the military
tests physical fitness semiannually and
units require weekly or daily participation in physical training. There is also
the potential that a military personnel
clerk will participate in military field
training or deploy to a hazardous environment where reacting to incoming
fire, participating in installation security,
or rendering aid to injured or endangered comrades is required. This example highlights the fact that regardless
of occupational specialty, there is
a potential for unexpected physically
stressful situations to arise where a lack

Figure. Development of the tactical athlete. Physical conditioning of the tactical athlete begins by improving general physical
preparedness. Developed on this foundation is the physical ability to endure the rigors of selection, initial training, and
promote the progression of technical and tactical skills. The tactical athlete continuously endeavors to improve general
and specific physical preparedness, along with technical and tactical skills requisite for optimal occupational physical
performance.

VOLUME 37 | NUMBER 4 | AUGUST 2015

of physical preparedness could pose

a serious liability.
There are several descriptions of traditional athletes that are commonly used
depending on the level of commitment
or participation in physical activity or
sports. The level of commitment to
training or level of competition is used
to broadly classify athletes into categories, such as recreational, competitive,
amateur, or professional. Athletes who
comprise any of these categories are
diverse in their level of physical fitness,
sport-specific skill sets, and occupations. Their lifestyles and occupations
range from mostly sedentary to very
active, and there is generally a clear
distinction to which category they fall
into. When considering their activityspecific training and health care needs,
we still classify these individuals as athletes. Similarly, tactical athletes often
have physical fitness standards, with
diverse frequency, duration, type, and
intensity of physical exertion associated with their occupational specialty
within their tactical organization.
Therefore, it is appropriate to classify
personnel in tactical occupations
broadly as tactical athletes, while recognizing that, similar to traditional
athletes, there may be varying levels
of tactical proficiency training or physical and psychological demands across
occupations that result in different
strata for tactical athletes. The commonality among tactical athletes becomes the explicit requirement of
baseline physical fitness, with the
potential occupational requirement of
confronting and overcoming physical,
environmental, and human threats
with little to no advanced notice. This
underscores the importance of maintaining GPP due to the variability
and unpredictability of threats and
emergencies encountered by tactical
athletes. Another contrast between
tactical and traditional athletes is that
field operations and emergencies can
limit opportunities for physical and
psychological recovery. During line of
duty operations, tactical athletes may
have to endure inadequate sleep superimposed on suboptimal nutrition, with

limited or no access to recovery modalities, such as massage, hydrotherapy,

ice, etc. There are significant differences
in psychological health requirements
between tactical and traditional athletes
as well. Tactical athletes may be
required to make extremely difficult
(life or death) decisions during high
tempo environments that are physically
and mentally stressful, which is an
extremely rare occurrence in traditional
sports. Some key distinctions between
tactical and traditional athletes are
found in Table 2. There are numerous
physically demanding occupations, but
the differentiating factor for classifying
individuals as tactical athletes is the
occupational requirement of providing
a tactical response to a physically
threatening or emergent situation that
may arise without notice and last for an
unpredictable duration of time.
EMERGENCE OF TRAINING
PROGRAMS FOR TACTICAL
ATHLETES

Within the last decade, the term tactical athlete has been used by several

organizations, fitness programs, and

Web sites to define professionals who
rely on novel, occupation specific,
strength and conditioning strategies
as a means to enhance physical performance in their respective profession.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), the U.S. military, and several universities have
developed programs to improve physical training methodologies used by
tactical units, often drawing from strategies used by collegiate athletic training and strength and conditioning
programs. A brief overview of the various organizations and commercial
entities that have developed physical
training methodologies incorporating
emerging best practices in strength
and conditioning and injury rehabilitation and mitigation can be found in
Table 1. An example of this paradigm
shift can be found by examining recent
changes in U.S. Army physical training.
In 2010, the U.S. Army launched the
Soldier Athlete Initiative. Spearheaded
by Lieutenant General (Retired) Mark

Table 2
Distinction of the tactical athlete from the traditional athlete
Occupational or athletic requirement

Tactical athlete Traditional athlete

Capacity to execute physically demanding

tasks

Requires year-round/continuous physical

readiness

Mental resilience to endure stressful, lifethreatening events

Compete against an opponent with

predetermined event parameters

Exceed a minimum threshold for physical

fitness standards

Require sport/occupation specific strength

and conditioning programs

Must exceed minimal standards of fitness for X

advanced technical and tactical skill
development

Extended periods of physical activity with

unpredictable rest or recovery

This table serves to compare and contrast traditional and tactical athletes on representative
fitness requirements. An X indicates that the representation applies to the category of athlete.

Strength and Conditioning Journal | www.nsca-scj.com

The Tactical Athlete

Hertling, who was the Deputy Commander of Initial Military Training at

the time, the initiative sought to
improve physical performance among
initial entry soldiers by upgrading
physical training, injury mitigation
strategies, and nutrition to reflect that
of collegiate athletic programs. This
was a significant move for the U.S.
Army, since physical training and testing had changed little since 1980. The
Soldier Athlete Initiative recognized
that soldiers are tactical athletes, and
as such their physical training should
encompass more than push-ups, situps, and endurance runs. A gradual
overhaul of the way the U.S. Army
conducted physical training led to the
addition of strength, power, agility,
core, and endurance training to effectively prepare soldiers for the physical
demands of full-spectrum operations.

research and education resources

toward the development of physical
training guidelines aimed at optimizing
tactical physical performance and
injury mitigation. This has been the
impetus to identifying another class
of athletethe tactical athlete. As
strength and conditioning research continues, so will the evolution of effective
physical training strategies. This will benefit both the traditional and tactical athlete, whose physical preparedness is of
paramount importance.
Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding:
The authors report no conflicts of interest
and no source of funding. The opinions or
assertions contained herein are the private
views of the author(s) and are not to be
construed as official or as reflecting the
views of the Army or the Department of
Defense.
Dennis E.
Scofield currently serves as
a Research Associate for the Total
Army Injury and
Health Outcomes
Database.

SUMMARY

The term tactical athlete is popularly

used to categorize personnel working
in tactical professions. This is due to
the fact that, like traditional athletes,
tactical athletes rely on GPP and T/
TS for achieving successful and effective operational outcomes. The last
decade has fostered awareness that
tactical professionals benefit from
using strength and conditioning strategies that have been used by traditional athletes to improve athletic
performance. However, for the tactical
athlete there is no off-season. Tactical
athletes are expected to effectively
respond to a myriad of unpredictable,
physically and psychologically stressful
events; tasks only accomplished by
continual physical readiness. In other
words, tactical athletes are always
operating in-season.
The emergence of the tactical athlete
has been driven by knowledge and
principles imparted by ongoing
research in strength and conditioning.
Novel physical training strategies that
improve a tactical athletes ability to
react and mitigate threats and emergencies are developed from methodologies similarly used for traditional
athletes. The NSCA has devoted

Joseph R.
Kardouni currently serves as
the Research
Director for the
Total Army
Injury and
Health Outcomes
Database.

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