Pushing limits
Performance centre puts people through their paces

May 22, 2009

By Mark Ferguson

By the time I arrived at the bag carry, the final obstacle in the Police Officer’s Physical Abilities Test (POPAT), my breath had already started to leave me.

I reached down to grab the awkward 100-pound weighted bag and struggled to bring it into my arms. Since this is the only part of the POPAT that is not timed, I concentrated on keeping my balance as I walked slowly around the pylon 10 metres across the gym, then back to my starting point. Gingerly, I rolled the bag out of my arms onto the ground, careful not to make any noise.

“You wouldn’t drop a person down on the ground,” says Jason Weber, co-ordinator with the Human Performance Centre (HPC) in the College of Kinesiology, explaining how the bag is designed to simulate a human body. “If the bag makes any noise when it hits the ground, you fail the entire test.”

The POPAT is a standard test used by the Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert city police forces to assess candidates. In addition to administering the test, the HPC has been offering training since 1994 to help recruits prepare for the physical component of the police college entrance exam. Since then, some 2,200 people have taken the eight-week training program.

Huskie athletes and teams, the Saskatoon Hilltops and many professional and amateur athletes in Saskatoon rely on the HPC for physical training, says Weber. The POPAT, however, is for anyone wishing to enter the police force.

“This program is great. There is a real support network… everyone helps out each other.”

There are two 90-minutes POPAT practices per week with over 90 per cent of the trainees passing the test. In this particular session, 12 men and women, ranging in age from early 20s to late 30s. Some are taking turns running through the obstacle course while others are being led through core strength and endurance workouts by HPC staff members. There are a lot of smiles considering the difficulty of the test.

The POPAT test itself is divided up into four sections designed to simulate a chase, two fight sequences and a carry to safety.

The first section of the POPAT – “the chase” – is a six-lap circuit in the shape of a figure eight. Starting from the top of the course, we must run and jump over a six-foot long mat without landing on it. Then we navigate a six-step staircase, up one side and down the other, twice in each circuit. And the last part of the chase sequence is a pair of hurdles raised 18-inches off the ground. Each lap, according to Weber, should take around 20 seconds in order to complete the entire course in the required time.

The second part of the test simulates a struggle between two people using the “push-pull machine”. To complete this phase of the course, I have to push a lever forward to lift 100 pounds of weight off the ground. The lever rotates on an axis so while moving laterally, I must complete six “arcs” (180 degrees) without dropping the weight to the ground. “The trick here is to keep your shoulders square,” Weber tells me. The next part of the test is to pull the lever back, lifting the weights off the ground using a rope attached to the lever.

Part three is a “belly-back bar” which looks like a high jump bar three-feet off the ground. Starting on my stomach, I jump up, vault over the bar and land on the opposite side on my back. Then I pop up, vault the bar and land on my stomach – back and belly five times each. After I’ve completed this section of the POPAT, the clock stops and I get 30 seconds to ready myself for the final stage.

It’s the “carry to safety” – the bag that simulates a human body and the bag that can’t be dropped. No matter how successful you are in the first three sections of the test, the carry to safety can make or break your entrance into police college.

After running through the entire course, Weber grabs my hand and congratulates me for completing my first POPAT in a time of three minutes, 50 seconds, about a minute under the minimum required time by Saskatoon Police Service.

My blurred vision and shortness of breath aside, I mumble something like, “Geez, that was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.”