Tactical Obstacle Course Is Related To Physical Fitness Assessments: A Cross-validation Study

The physically demanding, psychologically stressful, and unpredictable environments that law enforcement officers work in requires a law enforcement professional to have a high level of physical fitness. Therefore, it is common for the physical fitness levels of law enforcement cadets to be assessed during a training academy. PURPOSE: The primary aim was to investigate the concurrent validity of a newly developed tactical obstacle course (TOC) with previously used physical fitness assessments. METHODS: 287 law enforcement cadets (age 27 ± 6 years) from two separate cohorts (n1 = 122, n2 = 165) completed the following physical fitness assessments: 2.4-km run, 300-m sprint, vertical jump, one-minute sit-up, and push-up to volitional fatigue. On a separate day, the cadets completed a newly developed TOC that included sprinting, change of direction, loaded carries, jumping, stair climbing, ducking under hurdles, getting down and up off the ground, jumping a fence, dummy drag, and single-handed pistol shooting. Cadets wore a 9 kg weighted vest when completing the TOC to simulate a duty belt. Furthermore, cadets were shown a suspect picture for five seconds prior to starting the TOC and asked to identify the suspect among a 32 suspect picture array immediately after completing the TOC. Forward stepwise multiple regression was used to assess the concurrent validity between the dependent variable (TOC completion time) and independent variables (physical fitness assessments). Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: All data were normally distributed (Shapiro-Wilk) and the variance inflation factors ranged from 1.363 - 2.219, suggesting agreement with the multicollinearity assumption. Cadets completed the 2.4-km run (804 ± 109 sec), 300-m sprint (55 ± 7 sec), vertical jump (61 ± 10 cm), sit-up (37 ± 6 reps), push-up (39 ± 11 reps) and TOC (198 ± 20 sec). Moderate relationships between the TOC completion time and all physical fitness assessments were identified in Cohort 1 (R = 0.556, adj r2 = 0.279), Cohort 2 (R = 0.696, adj r2 = 0.468), and combined Cohort 1 & 2 (R = 0.619, adj r2 = 0.372). CONCLUSION: The newly develop TOC is moderately related to the physical fitness characteristics that have been previously assessed, confirming concurrent validity in both cohorts of cadets.