Making Soldiers Fit to Fight

[joesteph]

In yesterday's (8.30.10) New York Times, there's an article by James Dao, "Making Soldiers Fit to Fight, Without the Situps" on the front page.

It seems that there had been a change in Army training back in '94, but it's recently been revised and put into effect this year. The main problem is the recruit, whether male or female, whose lifestyle has resulted in an overweight and out-of-condition person. According to the article, many yoga and pilates exercises are incorporated into the new regimen, and though long runs aren't eliminated, there's much more emphasis on sprinting. Jumping, crouching, and even climbing exercises have been incorporated, being closer to what soldiers need to do in actual situations.

The article itself explains better than what I've written, above, and there is one quote I found right to the point; an army general said, "This is not just an Army issue. This is a national issue."

[isshinryu5toforever]

The former Joint Chiefs of Staff had a discussion about this before. They said that by their estimate up to 40% of all eligible civilians are currently unfit to fight, and couldn't be made fit to fight in the near future, which makes even the delayed entry program an issue. The US is getting bigger and bigger. The Army feels the problem the most, because they need 80,000 new recruits a year to stay at full strength.

The fitness problem has roots in economics and education. It's going to be difficult to fix all these problems, and I don't see the average level of fitness in the US getting any better in the near future.

[bushido_man96]

I think part of the problem is the near elimination of physical education in the school systems. If it is there, it is a class for underclassmen, or it is relegated to one semester per year. Physical activity is shyed away from, and there are those who just flat don't want to do it.

I think another problem is that teachers are shying away with putting kids in positions to challenge each other in physical skills. They want to eliminate the concepts of winning and losing for fear of making someone feel bad. This needs to be embraced in a way that even though the loser loses, they can still be analyzed and talked to in ways that they have improved, and what they can do to improve further.

Everyone also needs to understand on their own and accept the fact that not everyone will be a professional level elite athlete. But, everyone can be athletic to a point, and can get into basic decent shape.

[sperki]

I agree with Bushido Man. And then to top it all off...How many people play or played high school sports? What is the punishment when things went wrong on the field? Run, push-ups, jumping jacks...exercise almost always. When I was in high school, if we missed a PE class the way to make it up was to walk / run laps. With both examples we are teaching our youth that exercise (particularly the exercises people can realistically continue into adulthood - like running) is punishment and not something that you should do for fun!

[isshinryu5toforever]

I don't think that's such a huge problem. It's encouraging punctuality. People have to learn responsibility. They do the same in the military. If you screw up, you get more PT. I've seen a lot of martial arts clubs do the same. If you're late you do pushups. If you forget your uniform, pushups. Forget your belt, pushups. Do you have other suggestions that would help a coach/instructor make things work?

[bushido_man96]

The PT punishment arguement is one that has been going on for a while. I think the negative aspect of it comes from the more discouraged kids, who aren't good atheltes, who loaf to class, because they hate it and dread it, get there late, and get punished by being forced to do more of what they already hate.

What needs to happen, is to get rid of that negative attitude. It usually stems from frustration of not being good, and also from demoralizing comments from those that are talented. I'm not pointing to one or the other, but neither factors help the matter.

I'll be the first to admit that I am fairly out of shape. If you saw me, you'd probably not think of me as a Martial Artist. I'm 5'8" or less, and carry right around 250 lbs. This is not a good weight for me, and I know it. I've never been super active, except for a stint from my junior year in high school to my second year at junior college that I lifted more weights, and watched a bit more of what I ate, and got to taking some thyroid pills.

I tried to Wrestle my 8th grade year, but I sucked at it, was out of shape, and didn't go back out after that year. Now, I wish I would have. I wish I would have tried out for football, just so I would have been in better shape, making the team be damned!

Also, I'm a video game kid. Loved my Nintendo, and still do! Its not good, and I try to make sure I get exercise in. But still, I don't see results at times, and it does get discouraging. But, I keep on, and do what I can, and try to make a better lifestyle.

Of course, sleeping all day and working all night doesn't help much, either.

[joesteph]

The PT punishment arguement is one that has been going on for a while. I think the negative aspect of it comes from the more discouraged kids, who aren't good atheltes, who loaf to class, because they hate it and dread it, get there late, and get punished by being forced to do more of what they already hate.

When I was a senior in high school, I finally had a phys ed class I liked, and it was because of the teacher. He pulled all the jocks off to one side, forcing them to play one another (instead of allowing them to spread out and claim little fiefdoms while others like me got stuck being ornaments and feeling discouraged). The rest of us would group together and, lo and behold, we now had a chance to be the "stars" of our games!

I'll never forget one time that we were playing floor hockey like we were in a war, and our teacher had to run over to remind us to not to kill one another. Once you feel you've got a chance, you take it, and in his class it was our chance to shine!

BTW, Brian, since you spoke of wrestling, I was way underweight when I was in high school, which still meant that I could fit into a lower weight class division and wrestle others my weight from other schools. I heard announcements that everyone's welcome to join the wrestling team, and that there were different weight classes, but I didn't feel adequate.

I'm a teacher myself, now, and I believe it was the duty of the teacher who was the wrestling coach to approach me. I mean it. The teacher approaches the student and speaks one-on-one in a positive manner, at least making the student feel welcome. There was one other boy in my year who was about my bodyweight, and we could have practiced with one another--if we joined--and then competed against students from other schools.

If my sons remain on the slim side, when they're old enough (say in middle school) to wrestle, I'm going to approach them about it. They don't have to do it, but I want them to consider it. (There's also judo and jujitsu, but I'm thinking about what the school system offers.)

[bushido_man96]

That is what I want my sons to do as well, Joe. Here, we have Kid's Wrestling they can start in at around age 7, and I hope to get them interested in that. At the age I started, being out of shape, it was so hard to get into everything I was learning and applying it, without always being tired. My 4 year old right now abounds with energy, and I think by getting him started early, being conditioned won't be as big a problem for him, and as long as he continues, it will offer him a chance at getting better.

[sperki]

I suppose the age of the participants should be taken into account before deciding if PT is an appropriate punishment. Certainly for a younger crowd making them sit still for a minute is better than making them do push-ups. Isshinryu5, I know the military does it, I was in the Marine Corps, which I love - the brainwashing is powerful, but I know a lot of people that left the service and stopped PTing. And it's safe to say that often the PT in the Marines wasn't fun. Not that it was supposed to be - I think in the military PT as "extra motivation" is appropriate. In a middle school PE class with kids that already hate physical activity? I don't think that's the right setting to force it. Clearly at younger ages we need to teach people that exercise is fun and show them exercises they can practice for a lifetime. However, I don't know at what age it is acceptable to make kids do jumping jacks in football pads and a helmet.

[medomeda]

I think the problem is how to Overcomes the tired that happened from exercise and how to Reconcile between exercises and school.