[[*] Davis, Paul O., Charles O. Dotson, and D. Laine Santa Maria. “Relationship Between Simulated Firefighting Tasks and Physical Performance Measures.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 65-71, 1982.}
When I joined the local Montgomery County Fire Department in 1966, there wasn’t the body of knowledge like the current compendium of occupational or sports physiology. Job-relatedness was a term on the horizon.
In the United States, the federal government got involved in the passage of Employment Opportunity Laws. Physical ability tests (PATs) were seen by some as artificial barriers to employment of otherwise qualified people, based on the misguided notion that anybody could do any job if they just tried harder. Or, if you work with any candidate long enough, they could “do the job.”
We now have protections for age, sex, disabilities, national origin, religion, and race. In the US, if you can’t get a job because you can’t pass the selection criteria based upon your natural abilities, then try legal fiat: i.e., you file suit in federal or local court, claiming “discrimination.”
While well-intentioned, these laws launched my career, as Science is the basis for the BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification) exception: i.e., the actual essential functional requirements of the job. Gravity is the great equalizer, exerting a downward force of 32ft per second squared the World around. And water weighs 8.3 pounds per gallon for everyone. So, you don’t get a pass because of your age or sex. The patient or victim must be moved. And people keep getting heavier.ª
[[ª] Bryan Stierman, M.D., M.P.H.; Joseph Afful, M.S.; Margaret D. Carroll, M.S.P.H.; Te-Ching Chen, Ph.D.; Orlando Davy, M.P.H.; Steven Fink, M.A.; Cheryl D. Fryar, M.S.P.H.; Qiuping Gu, Ph.D.; Craig M. Hales, M.D., M.P.H.; Jeffery P. Hughes, M.P.H.; Yechiam Ostchega, Ph.D., R.N.; Renee J. Storandt, M.T.(A.S.C.P.), M.S.P.H.; and Lara J. Akinbami, M.D. National Health Statistics Reports: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.]
Your basic “go to work uniform” or “business suit” imposes a severe metabolic cost and depending upon your physical size and the tools of the trade you may already be handicapped with 50 to 100 pounds of gear (22-45kg) that must be carried up flights of stairs, and then used once you’ve climbed to your objective.
We have measured with scientific certainty what the job requires. My job as a faculty member in the Kinesiology Department of the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, funded by a federal grant from the US Fire Administration, delved into the morass of essential functions and quantified the physiological human demands of the job. I’ve been retained in ≈72 legal actions where medical and physical standards or issues brought the warring parties into the courtroom.
When in 1975, 100 randomly selected Greater Washington, DC area firefighters visited our Human Performance Laboratory, we met the scientific rigor to conduct a study published in the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) peer-reviewed journal. But the real validation was in the hearts and minds of firefighters everywhere, who gave us two thumbs up because the Challenge resonates in the hearts and minds of firefighters around the globe because the physical demands are identical to what they do on the job.
In the late 1970s and Early 1900’s we were delivering a 40-hour certification course for fire department Fitness Coordinators (CFCs) all over the US. We had introduced into the curriculum the “Combat Test” when the host department had the resources. The course is described thusly:
The Challenge Course
Wearing NFPA 1971-compliant Personal Protective Ensemble (PPE) of helmet, turnout coat and trousers, boots, gloves and breathing compressed air from a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) The five-linked tasks, in order are:
1. Climb a five-story tower to the top deck (41 feet, 12.5m from the ground) with a standard High-rise bundle of attack hose (32 pounds, 15.5 kg); at the top of the tower place the high-rise bundle in the box,
2. Then hoist the 42-pound (19kg) LDH donut roll up and over the railing and place it in the box. Descend the tower touching every step,
3. Walk 20’ (≈6m) to the Keiser Forcible Entry simulator and drive the ≈160lb (72.5kg) beam a distance of 5 feet (1.5m), by striking the trailing end with the Trusty Cook shot mallet. Place the hammer on the mat and move to...
4. Negotiate the delineators, 140’ (42.7m), to the far end of the course; Pick up the 1.5” (mm) smooth bore, ballcock nozzle and advance the charged 1.75” attack line a distance of 75’ (m), go through the saloon doors, open the nozzle, striking the target and place the nozzle on the pad.
5. Walk 20’ to the 170lb (≈79kg) (NascoHealthcare Rescue Randy® mannequin, lift the head and shoulders, causing the dummy to flex at the waist, then keeping the vertebral column stabilized, lift and drag the dummy a distance of ≈100ft (47.2m), crossing the finish line, thereby stopping the timing system.
While there may be some “knockoffs” of the only real Firefighter Challenge, what differentiates us is we have an audit trail back to the laboratory. There is no form of climbing under load, hoisting with a gloved hand, simulating forcible entry with a hand tool, advancing a charged hose line, opening a nozzle with control and using proper biomechanics to move a simulated adult victim that is not a derivative of my original Intellectual Property (IP).
This hyperlink: https://vimeo.com/205602154, created and produced by Jordan Caskey of the Spokane NBC affiliate SWX-TV from the Silverwood ID Challenge, is one of the better descriptions of the course.
It’s easy to copy when you can go to a website and steal the Intellectual Property (IP) of the original scientist. The value of the Challenge is its objectivity because of the precision and attention given to the course. Times are comparable to the World around because of the attention to detail. That’s the basis for sport. We’re all playing on the same field with the same set of conditions.
We continue to cross-validate the Challenge Course with incumbent firefighters who show a post-participation concordance of agreement coefficient with Real Life with greater than 90% agreement.
Think of a run through the course as a “check ride.” It instantly gives you feedback about where you are on the gut check. Are you “Good to Go?” Firefighting is about turning over lactate because everything is heavy, and you’re racing against the clock. Whether it’s a patient who stopped breathing or the fire that doubles in size every 45 seconds, Time is your enemy,
When a firefighter steps out on the course, bunkered up and breathing from their SCBA, it’s “Go Time.” Sometimes, you are in front of hundreds or thousands of your peers or the adoring public. Yes, the pressure is on. But it can be just like another day on the job. There’s no better platform than the Firefighter Challenge to demonstrate to our stakeholders and yourself why the job exists, the objects of our preparedness, training, and focus that you have what it takes. Firefighters tend to be competitive, and the Challenge is the perfect outlet and the proof of the pudding. It’s where training is validated over a course that spans the full range of motion, energy metabolism and oxygen-lactate kinetics.
Every firefighter will have what is about as close as you can get to the real world to analyze every aspect of the climbing, hauling, lifting, slamming, and hoisting against the template in their mind in the after-action analysis of their run. And that is how we improve; “next time, better time.”
In our infancy, circa 1990, Combat, as used in fire station lingo differentiated “Line” guys from “Staff” as in upper management. There’s always been a certain pecking order between the guys who put the wet stuff on the “hot stuff” and the “bean counters” at headquarters.
Ergo the title “Combat’. We don’t fight people, we’re “firefighters” adding Combat is sort of redundant. So, we’ve moved on and dropped the title “Combat” in a lot of cases so as not to confuse the public or infer a likeness to the military’s use of the term.
The immediate response from veteran firefighters across the country told us we had hit the “sweat spot” in fitness testing. As one Fitness Coordinator told me in a phone call, “guys were coming to the academy to run the course on their day off. That never happened when the standard push-ups or 1.5mile run was a requirement.”
Our first Challenge was back to the University of Maryland’s Fire and Rescue Institute in May 1991. CBS’s local affiliate WUSA covered the event and DuPont’s aramid fibers division that makes Kevlar and Nomex jumped on board as Title Sponsor and the first US Championship was held coincidental with the annual meeting of the International Association of Fire Chiefs in Anaheim, California.
Now spanning the globe affiliate licensees hold competitions in New Zealand, Slovenia, Berlin, and Ukraine.
Our Watchword is “Safety First Always”. These are “Industrial Athletes” in the same sense as organized sports, they make their living using their fitness-related skills. Injury prevention is always a consideration. One of the classic occupational medicine studies has demonstrated a quadratic function between muscular strength and back injuries. Meaning, the higher the strength level, the lower the incidence of back injuries.🅧
🅧Cady, Lee D. MD, Dr. P.H. Bischoff, David Strength and Fitness and Subsequent Back Injuries in Firefighters, Journal of Occupational Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 4, April 1979
Challenge Demographics
Years of operations 32
Number of Events in US & Canada: 594
This hyperlink: https://vimeo.com/205602154, created and produced by Jordan Caskey of the Spokane NBC affiliate SWX-TV from the Silverwood ID Challenge, is one of the better descriptions of the course.
It’s easy to copy when you can go to a website and steal the Intellectual Property (IP) of the original scientist. The value of the Challenge is its objectivity because of the precision and attention given to the course. Times are comparable to the World around because of the attention to detail. That’s the basis for sport. We’re all playing on the same field with the same set of conditions.
We continue to cross-validate the Challenge Course with incumbent firefighters who show a post-participation concordance of agreement coefficient with Real Life with greater than 90% agreement.
Think of a run through the course as a “check ride.” It instantly gives you feedback about where you are on the gut check. Are you “Good to Go?” Firefighting is about turning over lactate because everything is heavy, and you’re racing against the clock. Whether it’s a patient who stopped breathing or the fire that doubles in size every 45 seconds, Time is your enemy,
When a firefighter steps out on the course, bunkered up and breathing from their SCBA, it’s “Go Time.” Sometimes, you are in front of hundreds or thousands of your peers or the adoring public. Yes, the pressure is on. But it can be just like another day on the job. There’s no better platform than the Firefighter Challenge to demonstrate to our stakeholders and yourself why the job exists, the objects of our preparedness, training, and focus that you have what it takes. Firefighters tend to be competitive, and the Challenge is the perfect outlet and the proof of the pudding. It’s where training is validated over a course that spans the full range of motion, energy metabolism and oxygen-lactate kinetics.
Every firefighter will have what is about as close as you can get to the real world to analyze every aspect of the climbing, hauling, lifting, slamming, and hoisting against the template in their mind in the after-action analysis of their run. And that is how we improve; “next time, better time.”
In our infancy, circa 1990, Combat, as used in fire station lingo differentiated “Line” guys from “Staff” as in upper management. There’s always been a certain pecking order between the guys who put the wet stuff on the “hot stuff” and the “bean counters” at headquarters.
Ergo the title “Combat’. We don’t fight people, we’re “firefighters” adding Combat is sort of redundant. So, we’ve moved on and dropped the title “Combat” in a lot of cases so as not to confuse the public or infer a likeness to the military’s use of the term.
The immediate response from veteran firefighters across the country told us we had hit the “sweat spot” in fitness testing. As one Fitness Coordinator told me in a phone call, “guys were coming to the academy to run the course on their day off. That never happened when the standard push-ups or 1.5mile run was a requirement.”
Our first Challenge was back to the University of Maryland’s Fire and Rescue Institute in May 1991. CBS’s local affiliate WUSA covered the event and DuPont’s aramid fibers division that makes Kevlar and Nomex jumped on board as Title Sponsor and the first US Championship was held coincidental with the annual meeting of the International Association of Fire Chiefs in Anaheim, California.
Now spanning the globe affiliate licensees hold competitions in New Zealand, Slovenia, Berlin, and Ukraine.
Our Watchword is “Safety First Always”. These are “Industrial Athletes” in the same sense as organized sports, they make their living using their fitness-related skills. Injury prevention is always a consideration. One of the classic occupational medicine studies has demonstrated a quadratic function between muscular strength and back injuries. Meaning, the higher the strength level, the lower the incidence of back injuries.🅧
🅧Cady, Lee D. MD, Dr. P.H. Bischoff, David Strength and Fitness and Subsequent Back Injuries in Firefighters, Journal of Occupational Medicine, Volume 21, Issue 4, April 1979
Challenge Demographics
Years of operations 32
Number of Events in US & Canada: 594
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