The days start early for the recruits of the 82nd Basic Training Class at the Niagara County Law Enforcement Academy.
But when it comes to physical fitness and wellness, the work begins when the sun comes up.
On a morning in mid-June, the 26 recruits in the class huddled in a parking lot in the Falls’ South End. Then they took off running, around Goat Island, through the Niagara River Gorge, up and down the former Rainbow Mall parking ramp and back to their starting point.
All of that before they ever opened a book at the academy’s SUNY Niagara campus.
“Yeah we start at 7:30 a.m.,” said Falls Police Narcotics & Intelligence Division Det. Kevin Maluchnik, the academy’s lead fitness instructor. “They want to get the recruits up and get them moving. When you get your blood pumping and mind alert you’re ready for the rest of the day in the classroom.”
When it comes to physical fitness, Maluchnik knows what he’s talking about. He was the 2013 Men’s Physique Overall Champion in the National Physique Committee (NPC) Battle at the Border Competition.
“I think physical fitness is one of the most crucial things in law enforcement,” Maluchnik said. “To have a successful career, you have to be fit. Your physical body and your mind is what gets you safely to retirement.”
All the recruits in the 82nd class had to pass a pre-academy physical, but that doesn’t mean they’re in the kind of shape to hit the streets as a law enforcement officer.
“They come in and they know what’s required of them, push-ups, sit-ups and the run,” Maluchnik said. “But the first day, when we test them, 80% will fail.”
The number of push-ups and sit-ups that recruits must demonstrate they can do are scaled to their age. By the time graduation day arrives they need to run a mile and a half in just a little over 14 minutes.
Maluchnik said the fitness instructors believe those initial failures are largely the result of “nerves” and “people yelling at them.” But over the course of the six-month-long academy training, he says the recruits improve their fitness levels dramatically.
“By the end of the academy, they all pass,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting them comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.”
Maluchnik and the other instructors accomplish that by setting an example themselves.
“I try not to yell and shout, I try to lead by example. I do the (exercises) right along with them,” he said.
And even when a day’s instruction schedule doesn’t call for a period of physical training, Maluchnik will often show up and lead exercises during breaks or during the lunch hour.
The camaraderie the recruits build as they work their way through the academy also plays an important role in getting everyone through their physical fitness testing.
“They really come together as a group (during the training),” Maluchnik said. “And they help each other to get better. With this group, as we get to the end of the academy the reps (sit-ups and push-ups) are all up and their (run) times are down.”
