You may have heard the concept, “crawl, walk, run” in a variety of conversations but overall, the message is the same. Build a foundation, improve attributes, polish performance. Start from the very basic of your fundamentals and slowly build up into the performance outcomes you wish to see. Now, why are we not doing that within the academy setting?

You should meet the masses at where they are and figure out a way to start at point A and develop their abilities into where you would like them at point B. The components of Jabai’s ideology to program design is very simple and divided into 3 large phases. Now, depending on the duration of your academy, this can be separated out even further, but… for the most part, these are your 3 tiers.

Phase One – Movement Preparation

The purpose of this phase is to encourage the appropriate mobility required for programming in later phases. This phase typically consists of body weight flexibility and mobility tasks, movement through space without additional load for the sole purpose of learning body awareness, mobilizing body segments to have a higher quality of movement, and teach appropriate warm up techniques. Regardless of the cadet’s training history, Jabai would highly recommend all personnel go through movement preparation as we can never guarantee that everyone has engrained mechanically correct form. Also, mobility is one of the many things we lack with any training population, therefore, incorporation highlights the importance and role that mobility plays within a program.

Phase Two – Foundational Attributes

In this phase, we start incorporating movements with the purpose of using exercises that target body segments (whether those be full body or movement based – push, lunge, row, squat, hinge, etc) to facilitate a desired adaptation. Adaptations are what we want the result or outcome to be, for example, 1) targeting the lower body for muscular endurance to be able to climb flights of stairs for multiple rounds/repetitions or 2) back and lower body strength for victim rescue maneuvers. During this stage, we begin to incorporate additional load, which could be in the form of kettlebells, sandbags, resistance bands, and various other training tools. In some cases, we have used out of commission hose line to rig as additional load for foundational movements when traditional resources are not available. Although not ideal, cadets were still able to still train in a relatively same manner with improvements in attributes. During this phase, we are really trying to target components of fitness, such as muscular endurance, strength, power, and cardiovascular endurance.

Phase Three – Job-Specific Performance

The third and final phase within physical fitness programs is job specificity training. After we have established quality of movement, after we have worked on foundational movements with additional load, we then shift gears to hit the drill field with job-specific tasks. In this phase, we utilize mainly out of commission hose line to perform various job tasks in an organized and systematic manner. For instance, dragging hose, kneeling hose pull, crawling with gear/tools/hose, etc. I emphasize facilitating physical performance adaptation through movements that are as close to job tasks movements as possible.

An example of this for firefighting is as follows:

Set out two 50ft sections of 2 ½ inch hose, coupled together. Start at one end of the section in a kneeling position. Perform a kneeling hose pull (pulling hose) while emphasizing your primary pulling hand. This is usually your dominant hand. Once both sections have made it to you, you can either walk or jog/run the line back out to full length. Once you have full set the line again. Kneel at the end, on the opposite knee, and now pull emphasizing the opposing arm you has originally used.

• Each pull should be powerful and with the intent to pull as much of the section as possible.
• To train lower impact muscular endurance, pull with shorter reach, less drive, and more repetitions.

An example of this for law enforcement is as follows:

• include a sprint or assault bike to simulate approaching pursuit
• incorporate a full-body strength or power driven task
• followed by a transition of elevation/position or location (locomotion)
• followed by another bout of strength or power task

This allows us to work a job task, while also sectioning out specific muscular development. But, in order to do that, you have to improve movement and mobility of targeted joints and body segments. You also have to work foundational exercises and adding resistance to movements before getting to the point of job performance.

Phase 3, is the performance phase, where you put everything together and begin creating that final product.

In between each of these phases, you may decide to incorporate a variety of fitness assessments, movement competency screenings, or overall physical ability testing. The choice is yours, but, progress should be tracked between each phase.