Fitness Snapshot of a Part-Time Rural SWAT Team

By Rob Shaul, Founder

Background

In early May, a Sheriff’s Deputy from a small rural department in the Southeast reached out for help developing a fitness program for his part-time SWAT team.

Across U.S. law enforcement, the vast majority of SWAT and SRT teams are part-time. These units are typically composed of patrol officers and detectives who are pulled from their regular assignments when the team is activated. In my experience, part-time teams generally consist of 10–20 members and see little attrition.

Selection for these teams is typically conducted once or twice per year and lasts 2–3 days. It usually includes a gate PFT (Physical Fitness Test) and 48 hours of intense physical and tactical evaluation. Selected candidates serve on a probationary status for up to a year. If they perform well during this period, they are brought on as full team members.

Part-time teams typically train together once a month. Few of them have dedicated fitness assessments, and most rely on general department-wide PFTs—if any at all. Continued membership is based primarily on tactical performance and training participation, not fitness standards.

These part-time teams exist at every level of law enforcement: local, county, state, and federal. For example, most FBI SWAT teams are part-time and staffed by special agents who are selected annually and train together 1–2 times per month.

This stands in contrast to full-time SWAT/SRT units at the local, state, and federal levels, which tend to have more robust selection processes (3–7 days), annual PFT requirements, their own training facilities, and daily fitness sessions built into their operational schedules.

Assessment Design

In conversations with the Deputy, it became clear that the most effective approach wasn’t to implement a base fitness program, but rather to design a Part-Time SWAT Fitness Assessment that could be used as a foundation—followed by a focused training plan.

The assessment was developed specifically for part-time tactical teams with limited shared training time. It is concise, highly functional, and designed to reflect mission-direct fitness demands. A follow-on 4-week training plan was created, with athletes completing the assessment before, midway, and after the cycle to track progress.

MTI Part-Time SWAT Fitness Assessment

4-Event Assessment:

1. 1RM Back SquatTotal body and core strength.
2. 1RM Bench PressUpper body pressing strength.
3. Max Rep Strict Pull-UpsUpper body pulling and core strength.
4. 9-Minute AMRAP in Kit (full duty gear):
   • 2x In-Place Lunges (4 total reps)
   • 4x 25m Prone-to-Sprint Shuttles
   Tests mission-direct work capacity, core strength, and lower-body endurance.

Scoring:

Each event is worth 10 points, for a maximum total score of 40 points. The strength events (Back Squat and Bench Press) are standardized using bodyweight—each athlete’s 1RM is divided by their bodyweight to calculate a strength ratio, which is then converted to a 10-point event score.

Pull-ups and AMRAP rounds are scored on a raw performance scale, with clear thresholds separating Poor, Good, and Excellent tiers.

The scoring system provides a balanced, objective look at each team member’s tactical fitness profile.

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Initial Results and Implementation

Below are the initial assessment results for this team. While there’s room for improvement, the most encouraging finding is this: the assessment was voluntary, yet all but one team member completed it. That level of participation speaks volumes about the team’s buy-in and pride.

Beyond improving fitness, one of our main goals is to establish a culture of fitness within the team—a shared standard and identity around physical readiness.

The team is currently in Week 1 of the 4-week, 4-day-per-week training plan. The program uses each athlete’s assessment scores to set starting loads and progressions, so it automatically scales to individual fitness levels. The training also includes chassis integrity work and non-assessment work capacity events.

The team will be re-assessed at the conclusion of the 4 weeks. As important as the improvement in test scores will be the completion rate of the training plan itself. These officers are balancing this effort with full-time patrol or investigative work, often training early in the morning or after long shifts – most are training alone.

More to follow…