You may be thinking, I want to go to the Police Academy but how can I possibly prepare for what is next?

Well here it is in a netshell… You better prepare for the ride of your life.

The Police Department is a paramilitary organization and the training is such that you are required to be physically and mentally challenged.

The first thing you will want to do is to prepare physically.  You will want to be able to run 1.5 miles in less than 11 minutes and 30 seconds.  This may sound easy, but trust me it is not as easy as you think if you do not prepare in advance.  You should be running at least 3 months before the academy begins.  You should start with .5 miles and work your way up to 2 miles.  This way you are more than ready to do the 1.5 miles that is required by many academies.

You should be able to do 60 sit-ups, in less then 2 minutes.  You should be able to do 60 pushups in the same amount of time.  If you can get this down you are in good shape.

The next area you will want to concentrate is the mental aspect.  Don’t show up thinking you know anything, because you soon learn that you don’t.  Remember this is a mental game and as soon as you think you know what the rules are, they will change.  You will never be able to move fast enough, and think quickly enough.

The name of the game is stress.  You will put under an inordinate amount of stress to see what your reaction is.  If you are able to handle stress then you will make it through much easier than a recruit that cannot.

The best preparation is to control what you can control and being in shape is one thing that you can most certainly control.  So if you can get the physical stuff out of the way and make that portion of the police academy a non-stress then you are way ahead of the game.

You will be required to memorize a lot of information while under extreme stress.

Surviving under stress is what will make you survive in the field as a Police Officer.

So now, stop reading and start running…