The article substantiates the content of the concepts "criterion" and "indicator" for measuring the formation of diagnostic competence of future specialists in physical training and sports of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (hereinafter – respondents) in the process of their professional training. The scientific approaches of foreign and domestic scientists to their definition have been analyzed and summarized. The choice of the author's criteria and indicators was carried out considering the diagnostic function of the military-professional activity of the respondents – future officers as specialists in physical training and sports in military units.
On the basis of generalization of scientific sources and taking into account the specifics of respondents' professional activity, the criteria of assessment of the formation of their diagnostic competence, containing value-motivational (complex of values and motivations of diagnostic activity), intellectual (theoretical and practical knowledge concerning their diagnostic activity), psychological (communication, principality, tolerance, objectivity) and reflective (methods, techniques, methods and means of diagnosis) are determined. For each criterion, respectively, the indicators of measuring the formation of a particular component of the diagnostic competence of the respondents in the process of their professional training at Military Academies and Army War Colleges.
The article presents the criteria and characteristics by means of which the degree of merit of the research goals is evaluated. Diagnosing of physical preparedness and readiness of respondents is carried out on leading provisions of methodological approaches to diagnosing of their professional activity. Criteria and indicators are necessary for measuring the formation of the respondents' diagnostic competence, by which it is possible to find out its formation at different stages of their military-professional and professional training. In this connection the allocated criteria should be impartial and include attributes of their diagnostic competence.