Page 58 - JSOM Spring 2026

Discussion (including the amount of physical strength and conditioning
training undertaken in the workplace), contributing to key
This research investigated the relationship between age and physical and skill elements of the RUSH protocol. For exam-
the RUSH performance of PTG candidates and officers. The ple, research has found that occupation-specific training (in
results indicate that age was not predictive of RUSH comple- this instance, load carriage), aerobic fitness, and strength (es-
tion times across the combined cohort of PTG candidates and tablished through resistance training) are all associated with
PTG officers, and neither were group nor weight carried.
optimal load carriage performance. In contrast, strength is
29
associated with victim-drag performance. 30-32 Meanwhile,
Few studies have investigated police officer age in relation to aerobic fitness and strength (notably grip strength 33,34 ) have
33
performance on obstacle course types of assessments. Interest- both been found to be associated with marksmanship in police
ingly, of the two studies identified, 25,26 age was found to be a officers. Routine fitness maintenance among the PTG officers
significant factor in both studies. In Jackson et al., general-duty (who were, on average, older than candidates) that addresses
recruits and police officers completing a gender-neutral obstacle these aspects of physical conditioning may explain this study’s
course (GeNTOC), and younger participants had higher pass- finding that RUSH performance was not influenced by age,
25
ing rates than older participants. It should be noted, however, given that RUSH includes elements requiring load carriage,
that the difference in mean ages between those successful and aerobic fitness, strength, and victim drags.
not successful was not large (fail, 28 [SD 7] y) versus pass (27
[SD 6] y), with the mean age of both groups lower than that re- Limitations
ported for the combined cohort in this study (35.9 [SD 6.7] y).
One notable limitation of the current study was the inabil-
ity to ensure that both cohorts carried the same occupational
26
In Dawes et al., of the recruits completing a police Physical PPE. Candidates were required to carry key items of equip-
Capacity Test (PCT), younger recruits generally performed bet- ment as part of their selection, while qualified officers carried
ter than older recruits among both males and females, although and wore equipment and loads that, while drawn from the
there was some variation across age brackets. For example, same list, were those they personally preferred to carry on op-
20–24-year-old males performed better than 35–39-year-old erations. Likewise, differences in body armor brands and sizes
male recruits, whereas the 25–29-year-old female recruits per- may have influenced load weights, with the specialist police
35
formed better than the 35–39-year-old female recruits.
having more modern and lighter armor in this study. Further,
differences in weapons-handling experience (including famil-
Considering the differences in findings between Dawes and iarity with personal weapons and slings) between the two co-
Jackson, it must be noted that the mean completion time for horts may have influenced the study’s findings.
25
the GeNTOC (3:36 [SD 0:22] min:s ) was notably longer
than that for the RUSH (1:48 [SD 0.13] min:s). However, the
PCT completion times were generally similar to those for the Conclusion
RUSH, ranging from 1:47 (SD 0:22) min:s for male recruits In conclusion, age was not a significant predictor of time to
aged under 20 years to 2.0 (SD 0.10) min:s for male recruits complete the RUSH across the combined PTG candidate and
aged 44–49 years. Unlike the current study, neither Dawes nor officer cohort. One notable, likely reason is the potential im-
Jackson involved participants wearing PPE.
pact of the routine physical training of these specialist police
officers, which may not only have mitigated age-associated
Broader literature in general duties police officers has found loss in fitness but also aligned with the requirements of key
20
17
that longer periods of service and age are associated with elements of the RUSH assessment. The results suggest that of-
reductions in physical performance, although this may not al- ficer age may not impact RUSH outcome measures; however,
27
ways be the case. Performance outputs observed in this study further research with a larger cohort of specialist police will be
were not found to be negatively impacted by age. In fact, the of value to confirm this finding, and any such future research
mean older candidate time was slightly faster than that of the should standardize the officers’ loads.
younger officers, though this slight difference did not reach
statistical significance. Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank both the candidates and the
Interestingly, although mean PPE weights carried by PTG qualified PTG officers who assisted in this project.
officers were significantly lower than those carried by PTG
candidates, weight carried was not a significant predictor of Author Contributions
RUSH time across the combined cohort. This reduction in PPE SI conceived of this study; SI, RO, and RP developed the proto-
loads due to experience has been found in the military. Sim- col; JR recruited participants; SI and JR collected data; SI, BS,
28
ilarly, this experience is demonstrated by the PTGs, as PPE RO, and RP analyzed the data; SI wrote the draft; BS, RO, and
loads are directly reflective of the operational nature of each RP edited and reviewed the paper, and all authors read and
occupational task. For example, a low-signature, surveillance- approved the final manuscript.
and- apprehension task requires a different level of dress than
1
a high-risk, counter-terrorism emergent-response operation. Disclaimer
Not applicable.
Noting that age was not a significant predictor of RUSH com-
pletion times in the current study, the fitness levels of specialist Disclosures
police have been postulated as akin to those of elite athletes. The authors have nothing to disclose.
6
If this level of fitness were maintained by these officers, it
may have offset age-related fitness loss. Work by Irving et al. Funding
1
displayed the physical conditioning profile of the PTG cadre No funding was received for this work.

56 | JSOM Volume 26, Edition 1 / Spring 2026