Original Firebreather Greg Amundson is no stranger to law enforcement.

For nine years, he was a deputy sheriff in Santa Cruz County, Calif., and he worked at the Drug Enforcement Administration for four years. Today, he still serves as a reserve officer in Santa Cruz. In this video, he speaks to members of the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in Columbia, S.C., about what CrossFit can do for them.

“What studies have shown us about lethal confrontations and those cops that survive (is that) many times it’s not just physical fitness or physical ability. It’s the belief they had in themselves—that belief that, ‘I will overcome any threat I face on the street.’”

CrossFit is tough, Amundson concedes. But “what it also does is it builds this tangible belief in the physical ability that the officers and deputies, the agents, the law-enforcement profession needs to win the unknown and unknowable challenge on the street.”

Law-enforcement officers, Amundson argues, are professional athletes more so than UFC fighters.

“When you hit the street, when you’re behind your patrol car, do you know when the fight for your life will be? Do you know how many opponents you will face? Is there a referee? So you tell me, which athlete has more demand?”

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11min 2sec

Additional reading: CrossFit Training for Law Enforcement: Jacksonville Five Years Later by T.J. Cooper and Phil Canto, published Sept. 1, 2007.