title: The effect of acute exercise on pistol shooting performance of police officers.
abstract: Previous studies indicate that rifle shooting performance while standing is compromised when fatigued. Apprehension of suspects by police officers may involve foot pursuit and firing a weapon from a standing position. The purpose of the current study was to investigate pistol shooting performance in police officers under similar conditions of physical fatigue. Participants (mean age: 30.1 years; 4.4 years of experience as police officer) completed two shooting trials separated by an acute bout of exercise on a cycle ergometer to voluntary exhaustion. Each trial consisted of three rounds of five rapid-fire shots at a target, each round separated by a 15-s rest. Participants' backs were turned to the target between rounds. Despite physical exertion, with an average heart rate of 164 bpm, shooting accuracy (mean distance of the closest 4 shots from the center of the target) and precision (diameter of the tightest 4-shot grouping) remained unchanged on postexercise trials relative to preexercise trials. This suggests that automatic shooting reactions override the adverse consequences of fatiguing exercise on shooting performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology & Nutrition Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Tandy
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wulf
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005389:Firearms; D044709:Forensic Ballistics / Q000379:methods*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology*; D016495:Police; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis