01-17-2007, 19:54
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#1
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Change the PT Program Thread
When To Train Like An Athlete
January 17, 2007: Every time there's a war, things happen that, in hindsight, should have been so obvious. Case in point is the load infantry are carrying in Iraq, and subtle changes in tactics because of the introduction of new weapons and equipment. Turns out that the troops are not in the best physical shape for the loads they are carrying, and the work they do. The physical conditioning the troops have been getting for years needs to be changed. It's a different kind of war, and the troops, despite all the running and weight work they do, are not in the best shape for it.
The latest generation of body armor, and the need to carry around lots of ammo and water, means troops are spending many hours running around in hot weather, carrying lots of weight. Moreover, most of the combat is urban, meaning there's a lot of running up stairs, and jumping through windows. What military physical conditioning experts are also noting are the changes in training among professional athletes. The military has long taken their physical training clues from what professional, and college, athletes are doing. And what those well prepared civilians are doing are exercises to make people most ready for exactly what they have to do. This not only makes the troops more capable in combat, but reduces injuries from sprains, pulled muscles and the like.
Thus the interest in developing new physical training programs that will aid guys who have to hump over a hundred pounds of body armor, weapons and equipment up several flights of stairs, dive over furniture, or quickly hit the ground during a firefight. The U.S. Marine Corps, as is their custom, is in the lead with this, but the army and SOCOM are not far behind.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/hta.../20070117.aspx
I believe that a certain element of SOCOM is well in the lead and it is not the USMC.
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.
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NousDefionsDoc is offline
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01-17-2007, 20:06
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#2
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
I believe that a certain element of SOCOM is well in the lead and it is not the USMC.
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I believe you are right. Many of us for years trained as we expected to fight and PT for PT sake was relegated to only those that placed the AFPT as the be all and end all but for the rest of us it was one of those semi-annual events about as important as the annual reading of Standards of Conduct. 
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Wenn einer von uns fallen sollt, der Andere steht für zwei.
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Jack Moroney (RIP) is offline
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01-17-2007, 21:26
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#3
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Sir,
Pardon the question, but what is the "Standards of Conduct"? Reaper was my TL. 
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Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.
Still want to quit?
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NousDefionsDoc is offline
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01-18-2007, 06:05
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#4
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
Sir,
Pardon the question, but what is the "Standards of Conduct"? )
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Standards of Conduct, AR 600-50 IIRC, was required reading for certain levels of commands and organizations. It was read annually, it required a roster of signatories to "prove" that all those concerned read it, and it had to do with ethical behaviour. It was one of those things that if you read it and found something you didn't know about you must have come to earth through the "Stargate". It changed nothing, created nothing, allowed commands to think that they had done their "ethical" behaviour modification for yet another year, and was filed in the appropriate place where the chain of command could get to it to cover their fourth points of contact when there was an "ethical" breach of some kind. It sort of falls in that group of publications of too little too late for those whose professional ethics were sorely lacking. I group it with some other page burners like FM 23-100 where the philosophy and the how toos of Senior Leadership and Command are laid out as if they could give you an innoculation to wipe away all the things you did wrong getting there or unpack and clean all the baggage you carried along the way.
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Wenn einer von uns fallen sollt, der Andere steht für zwei.
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Jack Moroney (RIP) is offline
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01-18-2007, 08:25
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#5
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc
Sir,
Pardon the question, but what is the "Standards of Conduct"? Reaper was my TL. |
Since we were Sky Gods, we were either given a waiver, or assumed to be incorrigible.
Did you really want another mandatory class?
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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01-18-2007, 09:57
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#6
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Mandatory classes have their place.......most are a waste of time.....their only redeeming value is to provide something to bitch about.
Jim
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Breaking a law or violation of a regulation is not a mistake. It is willful misconduct.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." [Samuel Adams]
Jim
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incommin is offline
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01-18-2007, 10:18
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#7
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With all due respect, I cannot think of a single mandatory class, be it OPSEC, COO, Sexual Harrassment, Drug and Alcohol Programs, or any of the other annual requirements that were worth the lost training time.
As the Colonel noted, if you are the type to abuse your position, sitting through a class is not going to change the way you think.
They might possibly be of value to a brand new soldier, but I cannot think of too many ODAs that benefitted at all from them, and they wasted valuable time.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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