CFA question

My son has completed everything on his application, except for the CFA. He has completed and submitted nom. requests to MOC's and VP. He is a big "barrel chested" young man. Not an ounce of fat anywhere. However...he is having trouble with pull ups. Because he is a large fellow with very strong (and heavy) legs he is currently unable to do the average of 10 pull ups, he can do about 4 or 5. Is this going to be a problem? Is it serious enough that we should wait to submit the application until he can do 1 or 2 more pull-ups?

Since Texas is a competitive state, you need to strive for above average scores. Hopefully the big guy is above average in other areas of the CFA. The real question here is does your DS have time and opportunity to improve the pull-up total? Is he working on pull-ups everyday? Some posters have put up a pull-up bar in their doorway. Everytime they walk through the doorway, they do pull-ups. Ask DS's coach/PE teacher for other ideas to increase the output.

Fleiger and Christcorp will chime in (I hope) with further (and better) advice, but my council would be to try and max out every event in the CFA. If your son can only do 4-5 pull-ups then it is what it is. Just try to max the other events.

Good luck!

Thanks for your post. He's a linebacker, offensive lineman and defensive tackle on his HS varsity team (which is doing extremely well this year ) I would think that perhaps the AFA has other young men with a similar challenge?

The only way he's going to get good at pullups is by practicing pullups three times a week. (Which is what I do.)

I'm a tall guy, (6'4'' - 6'5'' at 205 lbs) and I just hit 13. The key is to "sprint" when doing this. He cannot go slow or gravity will mess him up. When he's training, have him perform them as slow as possible, as that will help. But don't have him sprint to the point he's swinging and quality is sacrificed. Those won't count.

I'd say wait until he can do at least 7 because I've heard that's the minimum from several prior service cadets. If I get in, I'll be one of those prior service cadets.

Go to Google.com and search for the Push Pull workout by Stew Smith. This will boost his numbers too.

Good luck!

Clarification for previous post. I meant, go slow when training, but fast when taking the actual test. It sounds like a big contradiction above. LOL

Thanks Dagger. I've looked at the workout, and it looks pretty good. I'll share with DS and hope for the best.