Here’s How Sports Medicine Is Transforming Battlefield Airmen’s Training

After 10 years of intense combat and regular deployments, many of the Air Force’s most skilled and elite troops often are “held together with duct tape and bailing wire,” said Maj. Sam Schindler, director of operations for the 350th Special Warfare Training Squadron.

But now, the Air Force is trying to change that with the help of cutting-edge technology, new thinking and an intense focus on injury prevention and rehab inspired by college sports medicine programs.

The 350th is tracking everything from trainees’ body fat, to what muscles they use when they work out, to their sleep cycles and moods, in order to lessen the wear and tear on their bodies. And if the new philosophy at the prep course works, the Air Force hopes it will instill good habits in these special warfare — until recently known as battlefield — airmen that will last throughout their entire careers.

“We’re trying to bring in as much technology as we can, and as many experts as we can, to get the best that we can out of the airmen coming to us,” Schindler said.

Air Education and Training Command said the techniques being pioneered at the Special Warfare Preparatory Course at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland could be used to help refine training for other, non-special warfare airmen.

Read full article here: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/11/23/heres-how-sports-medicine-is-transforming-battlefield-airmens-training/