US Army's Changing Training Regimen

[FSTargetDrone]

MSNBC:

Army training: Bayonets out, ‘ab blasters’ in

Five-mile runs also nixed in first changes to regimen in 30 years

The Associated Press

updated 12:00 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 16, 2010

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - At 5 a.m. on the Army's largest training base, soldiers grunt through the kinds of stretches, body twists and bent-leg raises that might be seen in an "ab blaster" class at a suburban gym.

Adapting to battlefield experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Army is revamping its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades by nixing five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and honing core muscles.

Trainers hope the switch will better prepare soldiers physically for the pace of combat, with its sudden dashes and rolling gun battles.

They also want to toughen recruits who are often more familiar with Facebook than fistfights.

The exercises are part of the first major overhaul in Army basic fitness training since men and women began training together in 1980, said Frank Palhoska, head of the Army's Fitness School at Fort Jackson, which has worked several years on overhauling the service's fitness regime.

'Training warriors'

The new plan is being expanded this month at the Army's four other basic training installations — Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Fort Sill, Okla., Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Knox, Ky.

"We don't run five miles in combat, but you run across the street every day," Palhoska said, adding, "I'm not training long-distance runners. I'm training warriors" who must shuttle back and forth across a back alley.

Drill sergeants with combat experience in the current wars are credited with urging the Army to change training, in particular to build up core muscle strength to walk patrols with heavy packs and body armor or to haul a buddy out of a burning vehicle.

One of those experienced drill sergeants is 1st Sgt. Michael Todd, a veteran of seven deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

On a recent training day Todd was spinning recruits around to give them the feel of rolling out of a tumbled Humvee.

Then he tossed on the ground pugil sticks made of plastic pipe and foam, forcing trainees to crawl for their weapons before they pounded away on each other.

"They have to understand hand-to-hand combat, to use something other than their weapon, a piece of wood, a knife, anything they can pick up," Todd said.

The new training also uses "more calisthenics to build core body power, strength and agility," Palhoska said in an office bedecked with 60-year-old black and white photos of World War II-era mass exercise drills.

'A more obese, sedentary generation'

Over the 10 weeks of basic, a strict schedule of exercises is done on a varied sequence of days so muscles rest, recover and strengthen.

Another aim is to toughen recruits from a more obese and sedentary generation, trainers said.

Many recruits didn't have physical education in elementary, middle or high school and therefore tend to lack bone and muscle strength.

When they ditch diets replete with soda and fast food for healthier meals and physical training, they drop excess weight and build stronger muscles and denser bones, Palhoska said.

Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, the three-star general in charge of revamping all aspects initial training, said his overall goal is to drop outmoded drills and focus on what soldiers need today and in the future.

Bayonet drills had continued for decades, even though soldiers no longer carry the blades on their automatic rifles. Hertling ordered the drills dropped.

"We have to make the training relevant to the conditions on the modern battlefield," Hertling said during a visit to Fort Jackson in January.

The general said the current generation has computer skills and a knowledge base vital to a modern fighting force. He foresees soldiers using specially equipped cell phones to retrieve information on the battlefield to help repair a truck or carry out an emergency lifesaving medical technique.

But they need to learn how to fight.

"Most of these soldiers have never been in a fistfight or any kind of a physical confrontation. They are stunned when they get smacked in the face," said Capt. Scott Sewell, overseeing almost 190 trainees in their third week of training. "We are trying to get them to act, to think like warriors."

For hours, Sewell and his drill sergeants urge on helmeted trainees as they whale away at each other with pugil sticks, landing head and body blows until one falls flat on the ground. As a victor slams away at his flattened foe, a drill sergeant whistles the fight to a halt.

"This is the funnest day I've had since I've been here!" said 21-year-old Pvt. Brendon Rhyne, of Rutherford County, N.C., after being beaten to the ground.

"It makes you physically tough. Builds you up on the insides mentally, too."

The Marine Corps is also applying war lessons to its physical training, adopting a new combat fitness test that replicates the rigor of combat.

The test, which is required once a year, has Marines running sprints, lifting 30-pound ammunition cans over their heads for a couple of minutes and completing a 300-yard obstacle course that includes carrying a mock wounded Marine and throwing a mock grenade.

Capt. Kenny Fleming, a 10-year-Army veteran looking after a group of Fort Jackson trainees, said men and women learn exercises that prepare them to do something on the battlefield such as throw a grenade, or lunge and pick a buddy off the ground.

Experience in Iraq has shown that women need the same skills because they come under fire, too, even if they are formally barred from combat roles.

Fleming said those who had some sort of sports in high school can easily pick up on the training, while those who didn't have to be brought along.

One hefty soldier in a recent company he trained dropped 45 pounds and learned to blast out 100 push-ups and 70 sit-ups, he said.

"We just have to take the soldier who's used to sitting on the couch playing video games and get them out there to do it," Fleming said.

I don't really have anything add at the moment, but military vets especially, what do you think?

[KlavoHunter]

It certainly does seem like there needs to be updates to soldier training regimens, since we are neither simply putting the scum of the earth in uniform, who already know how to fight, nor are we training an enormous conscript army of farm boys who are long since accustomed to long days of hard labor.

[Havok]

I'm actually surprised that the type of training that college and pro football players do is not looked at more closely by the military. It provides everything they are looking for: strength, endurance, stamina, explosion and speed.

[Ritterin Sophia]

What? I don't ever remember doing a 5 mile run in Basic and this was in '08 and this is supposedly new?

[FSTargetDrone]

What? I don't ever remember doing a 5 mile run in Basic and this was in '08 and this is supposedly new?

It does say that this involved the work of "several years on overhauling the service's fitness regime." Perhaps it's just now becoming more widespread.

[Knife]

Bayonet training has long been due to be nixed; however, as I recall it was a grueling exercise doing sprints and slamming a dummy with the thing. That said, I can see why they are focusing on sprints and core strength, but I would also recommend they keep the long distance training as well. Sure, when the shooting starts you want people fit and trim to dash here and there, but they might have to march there to begin with and long distance running builds up enormous stamina. Lets face it, the Mogadishu Mile wasn't that long ago to be forgotten.

[Havok]

Are they eliminating the distance running all together or just from basic?

[stormthebeaches]

I doubt they'd eliminate distance running altogether. Surely the military understands that stamina is important for any soldier.

[Pulp Hero]

Hmm.

I think overall the concept is good: Core muscles are important for basic functioning in the military, especially a modern military that wears 30+ lbs of armor. A crossfit type program could very easily be adapted to strengthen soldiers more efficently than the standard military technique of making soldiers repeat exercises from the FM at 25-50 intervals.


Long distance running can physically break down unseasoned people and cause permanant damage, especially when its done day after day and on hard top roads. Ideally new soldiers realy ought to be running 5+ miles two to three times a week, but at a slow pace (5-6mph) and with good running shoes (ones provided by the military are crap, especially for novice runners who don't know their foot type and stride.)

The real problem with BCT, one which this is not going to fix is two fold:
A) There are too many soldiers going through at a time. This destroys any kind of imputus for the individual soldier to exercise fully because they can either get away with shamming the movements or (for soldiers who are more motivated) the knowledge that someone else is shamming and their whole group will inevitably be punished. A 50 man training platoon is just too big for one-on-one training. 25 soldiers is much more reasonable.

B) BCT is basically impossible to fail. Unless you mentally flip out or become permanantly physically broken, you can pass BCT. This hurts the Army because BCT is sending them unmotivated and unqualified soldiers who will fill unit rosters, but drag their unit's efficiency and combat effectiveness down. APFTs and rifle qualifications must be more strigently enforced, as should other events such as a zero day type obstacle course, basic military knowledge, and additional physical requirements; if someone can't hack it- they should be kicked out of the military. Not rolled back into another BCT. Gone. It hurts the Army more to fill it with unacheivers than leave unit rosters light. Also Drill Sergeants should have some kind of discretionary system to allow them to kick soldiers out (something stringent for the DS though, perhaps multiple DS have to agree and forward the recommendations to a CPT or higher)