Psychological Self-Report Questionnaires Are Not Associated With Decrements in Physical Performance Following Special Operations Forces Unit Training

Abstract Rooks, MDL, Winters, JD, Royer, SD, Hoch, MC, Bergin, R, Morelli, N, Conley, C, Djafar, TE, Sheppard, LR, Flaherty, CW, and Heebner, NR. Psychological self-report questionnaires are not associated with decrements in physical performance in special operations forces unit training. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2025—Special Operations Forces (SOF) unit training may elicit nonfunctional overreaching (nFOR). Although psychological self-report (PSR) tools are commonly used to screen for nFOR, their utility in SOF settings remains unclear. This study aimed to assess performance decrements after deployment training and correlations with PSR questionnaires. Fifty-four male, active-duty SOF operators underwent performance and PSR assessments before and after an 8-month training phase. Performance measures included body fat, agility, vertical jump (VJ), anaerobic capacity, 30 yd sprint and a 10 yd split time, ball toss, isometric midthigh pull (IMTP), and aerobic capacity. Psychological self-report measures included depression, sleep quality, alertness, post-traumatic stress, and the Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale. Spearman's rank correlations were calculated between changes in performance and PSR as well as changes in performance with post-training PSR. Alpha was p < 0.05 a priori. After unit training phase, subjects demonstrated poorer scores in body fat, agility, VJ, anaerobic capacity, 10 and 30 yd sprints; and improved IMTP and pain subscales for sleep, mood, and stress. Agility changes were correlated with changes in alertness and pain affecting mood and stress. Aerobic capacity changes were correlated with changes in alertness. When observing PSR at post-training, changes in agility were correlated with depression, changes in anaerobic capacity were correlated with overall pain, and changes in 30 and 10 yd sprints were correlated with sleep quality. No other significant correlations were observed. Coaches should be aware that SOF operator training could result in nFOR, but exercise caution using PSR as a screen. Future research should identify other screens sensitive to nFOR in SOF.