The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 63rd Annual Meeting was held in Boston, MA, May 31 – June 4, 2016. The number of TSAC presentations continued to increase, compared to the last few years, when the Federal Government sequester severely affected attendance.

This article gives a firsthand account of working in a few of the United States Army’s earlier human performance and injury reduction programs as a strength coach and active-duty physical therapist.

The purpose of this article is to provide warfighters and tactical facilitators with an evidence-based approach to improve maximal strength and power using the trap bar deadlift as it relates to combat preparedness.

The importance of physical fitness is never greater than when lives are at stake. Specifically, professionals in law enforcement, fire/rescue, and the military need fitness and tactical athleticism to efficiently respond to calls and complete missions regardless of the obstacles, mixed terrain, interference, and dangerous environmental conditions involved

Learn the basics of conducting a needs analysis for tactical athletes based on the athlete’s goals and desired outcomes, assessments, limitations on workout frequency and duration, equipment availability, health and injury status, and occupational physiological demands.

In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 TSAC Annual Training, Brad Nindl provides an overview the current state-of-the-art physical performance optimization programs, and recommendations for program design based on these programs.

The purpose of this article is to review various gravitational running (GR) techniques from an evidence-based approach, then recommend whether to include GR techniques in the training of tactical athletes.

This research review covers topics such as the effects of police officer equipment loads, military occupational specialties, and the effects of protective clothing and self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighters.

Learn about the unique culture that comprises tactical performance, to include the unit-specific subcultures within it, and how to adopt both intuitive and research-based methods to more strategically impact military personnel. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 TSAC Annual Training, Nate Palin explains effective and ineffective approaches to influencing the physical training within a tactical setting.

This article summarizes several sessions at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 62nd Annual Meeting, held in San Diego, CA, May 27–30, 2015 that examined various aspects of tactical performance.