well I got back last night from the 'Tactical Strength and Conditioning Conference' done by the National Strength and Conditioning Conference in beautiful Las Vegas.
I went last year also and for those who Train Law Enforcement, Military or Firefighters its indispensable.For me the best part is to connect with people from all over the world, share experiences discuss what works for them, challenges they face and solutions to issues that come up.
My good friend Rebecca Swan the Fitness Coordinator for the Vancouver Police Department was there for the first time and she found it great as well...I met an exceptionally nice Exercise Physiologist for the Netherlands Royal Army,a Hilarious Female Firefighter from Colorado, assorted prison guards, a gregarious Motorcycle cop from Austin Texas, and a Police Officer from Santa Cruz California, who trains Academy recruits.
There was a greater presence of Firefighters this year and that was great, the conference has doubled in size from Last year.....
So here in point form are some highlights and takeaway 'knowledge bombs' from my three days at the conference...
- Keynote address from Stew Smith former Navy Seal and Trainer of future ones- his keynote was called 'The Need For Physical Training among Tactical Populations'..Stew is an excellent speaker and the thrust was the necessity for testing and also [and this is jaw dropping] the absolutely horrifying increase in obesity in new recruits for any Military,Police, or Firefighting professions.. its getting worse even for those already serving and as much as I hate to say it, the women's stats are worse than the men.
-Fave quote from Stew's speech? 'Obesity is a bigger issue than Terrorism ever will be'
-I went to another presentaion by Stew Smith called Training With No Equipment again just excellent.He also by popular demand went again into the 'Traumatic Exercise release' protocol that was such a hit last year.Great deal of respect for Stew and what he is trying to do
-CPT Tony Soika gave a Hands on session of 'Development of Explosive Power:Plyometrics.Speed ,and Agility..an amazing speaker and he took a whole bunch of people through an entire workout and also pointed out that this would be the same training program for collegiate athletes-none of what he did was new to me but he did it so well-in other words he didn't just get people to go through the motions he 'coached' and made stuff that seemed so familiar look professional organized well thought out and very serious.One of my favourite sessions because of his exceptional coaching skills and attention to proper bio mechanics
-Olympic Lifting technique 'The Snatch' by John Carlock- again nothing new except for how he broke down how to teach in stages..any of my Trainer friends would have loved to have seen how he broke it down..using a dowel,Romanian Deadlifts, then all kinds of excellent cues.well done.
-Pre Screening Injury Prevention Strategies-Patrick Conway- by the book, nothing new, but always good to have things reinforced.The FMS portion was not that good.
-Alternative Training Methods-Dave Sandler and Jason Dudley- another circuit, by the end of the conference I didn't want to see another agility ladder,Kettlebell, or TRX..again this was nothing new, and nothing special about it ,but again for someone who might be new I bet they got a lot out of it.
-A Proven Approach Of Identifying And Reducing Injuries In The Tactical Athlete[Firefighters to be specific] this was presented by Michael Contreras,and of course was all about the FMS [Functional Movement Screen] I'm certified in FMS but it was great to see his approach in applying it.I still say that the FMS is highly subjective and not perfect but with the adoption of it in the Tuscon Fire Department they reduced time loss due to injury by 62%,Total number of injuries by 42%.I do like the FMS but it does take a lot of practice to know what to look for...we use it exclusively at the Oval, and Mike Contreras was a great speaker very much to the point...he stressed to us 'don't overthink it'.I also spoke to him after and he was more than sold on the value of FMS screening and also hilarious as he recounted stories on today's recruits and their lack of fitness, nice guy and totally to the point.
so there you have it-I did a lot of other sessions involving RCMp Training protocols, Kettlebell training and more, a great deal of it reallly isn't anything new to me as a lot of the things are what I do already....but it's always great to have a lot reinforcedHopefully I'll go next year although I heard a rumour it may be held in Norfolk Virginia not Vegas..thats a shame 'cause it's too far away..
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