Latest News
Tactical Annual Training
Professor Rob Orr will be presenting again this year at the NSCA's Tactical Annual Training talking on his favourite topic 'Load Carriage' Hope to see you there: 6-9 AUG in Norfolk, VA, USA (and online)
Professorial presentation with giants
Professor Rob Orr was honoured to share the stage with some giants in their field, Dr Karl Friedl (USARIEM) and Professor Michael Matthews (West Point) at Buckinghamshire New University. The team presented individual professorial sessions and answered questions from tactical professionals during an interactive panel. The evening session followed on from, and culminated, presentations given on the Tactical Athlete Performance Centre (TAPC)'s MSc in Human Performance Optimisation program.
Optimising Human Performance Podcast
Professor Rob Orr joins human performance experts Martin Jones and Jonpaul Nevin from the Wavell Room to discuss Tactical Physical Performance for Peak Performance. Listen to the Podcast here: https://shows.acast.com/65e07fa5dfdd5a0017dd8296/666802671ac9090012ae96…
7 Minute Science
Dr Rob Orr recently joined Annette Zapp as one of three fellow scientists to present their research for those working as, or working with, firefighters. Dr Orr presented his work and thoughts on Firefighter load carriage in 7 minutes flat. The video recording is here: 7 min Science Round 3 (youtube.com)
Human - System Integration with THALES
The TRU recently spent time with Alvaro Carvajal from Thales looking at the human-system interface for rifles. The team spent time firing variants of the F90, Army Combat Assault Rifle (ACAR), and LA105 and took a tour of the manufacturing areas. Lots to discuss, notably the biomechanics of the user, the engineering of the rifle, and the merging of the two.
Heart Rate Variability and Specialist Police
An overview of PhD student, Dr Colin Tomes's work with specialist tactical police and heart rate variability (HRV). See an overview of his work here:
https://pure.bond.edu.au/admin/workspace/personal/overview/
Treating Tactical Personnel with Physio Network
Proud to work with Physio Network to put all our Tactical Research Unit research together with the wider research in the field to help physiotherapists and other allied health professionals best support tactical personnel (be they military, law enforcement, fire and rescue, or search and rescue).
Load Carriage Presentation
Professor Orr was recently invited to present on Load Carriage for Tactical Personnel at the Public Safety Athletic Trainers' Society (PSATS) Conference. The PSATS site can be found here: https://www.psatsociety.com/
The session looked at load carriage and its various similarities and differences between military, law enforcement, firefighing, and search and rescue. Load weights and variables like speed of movement and terrrain were discussed as were performance decrements and injuries. Optimising the conditioning process to better help these personnel survive the rigours of their occupations were highlighted,
Back in the Field
The TRU team recently returned from spending a week with the NSW Police Force conducting a series of studies into stress and performance. Police personnel underwent various scenarios based on previous incidents with the most complex involving driving ‘under lights’ at speeds of up to 176 km/h while talking calmly and relaying information to despatch before jumping out of the vehicle and sprinting on foot wearing 10kg of load after an offender and dealing with subsequent complexities that arise during an arrest. Tactical skills performance, physical fitness, and biomarkers of stress were collected and will be triangulated to inform relationships between stress and performance.