The Three-Minute Walk Test: How To Check AED Access At Courts, Parks And Recreation Centers

In September, a pickleball player named Charlie Corle collapsed in cardiac arrest during a session at Udall Park in Tucson. According to KOLD, a retired emergency physician found no pulse and started chest compressions, an off-duty Tucson paramedic joined in, two retired nurses helped manage his airway, and two other players ran for an AED. After two shocks, Corle was responsive. He has since returned to playing, and on October 23, 2026 the people who helped him were honored at a Carondelet ceremony.

The people in that story were remarkable. The other thing worth noticing is simpler: there was an AED close enough that two people could run for it and get back while CPR was still going.

The Same Week, Two Very Different Pictures

Two stories from Kentucky that same week show how uneven access still is. On October 19, WDRB reported that Louisville had installed what it described as the city's first publicly accessible AED, an unlocked public-access station at Bardstown Road and Douglass Boulevard, placed through a Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation contest. The same day, Spectrum News reported that in Lexington, a volunteer effort called Cardiac Cats, co-founded by a cardiac arrest survivor, has mapped about 200 AEDs across the city, up from four when the work began.

Neither story is about a shortage of AEDs as such. Lexington had devices; they were not mapped. Louisville has many AEDs inside buildings; few are reachable from the street. The gap is access.

Why A Walk Test Beats An Inventory Count

A spreadsheet can show that a recreation center owns four AEDs. It cannot show that three are inside a building that locks at 5 p.m., that the fourth is in an office behind the front desk, and that the outdoor courts are two hundred yards from all of them.

Courts, fields and trails are usually the farthest points from a building, and they are busiest exactly when staff are not around: evenings, weekends and league nights. A walk test measures the thing that matters on those days, which is the time from collapse to a device in hand.

We use three minutes as a practical planning target because it keeps the device within a short round trip of the farthest point of a site. It is a planning benchmark, not a clinical standard, and your medical director or local EMS agency may recommend a different target for your setting.

How To Run The Test

1. Pick the worst case. Choose the farthest point people actually use, such as the back corner of the last court or the far end of the outfield, and run the test at the time the site is least staffed.
2. Use two people. One stays at the starting point as the "patient" and timer. The other goes for the AED at a brisk walk or light jog, without shortcuts that a stranger would not know.
3. Retrieve it for real. Open the cabinet, handle any alarm, take the device out, and bring it back. A cabinet that will not open, a key nobody has, or a door that is locked on weekends counts against the time.
4. Note everything that slowed you down. Could you see the AED sign from the starting point? Was there a gate, a fence or a parking lot to cross? Was the path lit?
5. Repeat for every cluster of courts or fields, and record the times so you can measure improvement.

What To Do When A Site Fails

Most failures are placement and access problems, not purchasing problems, and they are often cheaper to fix than people expect.

• Move the device from the office to the point where people actually gather, such as the court entrance or the field house.
• Make it reachable after hours with an outdoor-rated cabinet on the exterior of a building or at the courts, rather than inside a door that locks.
• Fix the signage so the device is visible from the farthest point, not only from the hallway outside it.
• Add a device only when moving one would leave another area uncovered.
• Register every device with your local 911 center so dispatchers can direct callers to it, and list the real access hours.

Outdoor placement raises its own questions about temperature, power for heated cabinets, visibility at dusk and inspection in the off-season. Our outdoor placement guide, linked below, covers those in detail.

Train The Regulars

Udall Park had an unusually experienced group of bystanders that day. Most courts and fields will not. The people most likely to be there when something happens are league organizers, coaches, club volunteers and the regulars who play every week, and they are the most valuable people to train in CPR and AED use. In Tucson, KOLD reported that the Udall players will have the chance to get CPR certified. That is a good model for any recreation program: put a training session on the league calendar and invite the people who are always there.

A Checklist For Parks, Courts And Recreation Programs

• Run the walk test from the farthest point of every court and field cluster, at the least-staffed time of day.
• Record the times and every obstacle you found.
• Relocate devices to where people gather before buying new ones.
• Use outdoor-rated, accessible cabinets where devices must be reachable after hours.
• Check that signs are visible from the farthest point and at dusk.
• Register every device with your local 911 center, with accurate access hours.
• Offer CPR and AED training to league organizers, coaches and regular players.
• Re-run the test after every change, and once a season.

How We Can Help

We have supplied AEDs, cabinets and program support to parks departments, recreation centers, schools and congregations since 2003, and AEDs are our only business. If you want help reviewing placement at a court or park, or choosing an outdoor cabinet, call us at 888-541-2337.

Related Reading

• Outdoor AED Placement: What Parks, Ball Fields And Trails Need That Indoor Cabinets Do Not
• 24/7 Outdoor Public AEDs: What Pittsburgh's First Install Teaches Cities, Parks And Churches
• Is Your AED On The Map? How AED Registration Connects Your Device To 911

Sources

• KOLD News 13, "Bystanders save pickleball player's life with CPR, AED at Udall Park," October 23, 2026: kold.com
• WDRB, "Louisville gets its first publicly accessible AED," October 19, 2026: wdrbwave.com
• Spectrum News 1 Kentucky, "Lexington 'Zombie' turns emergency into AED mapping effort," October 19, 2026: spectrumnews1.com

This article offers general planning guidance for AED placement and is not medical or legal advice. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for your specific AED and cabinet, confirm any state or local requirements that apply to your facility, and make sure the people expected to respond have current CPR and AED training.