Army PT overhaul

Army PT overhaul: Master fitness trainers' will dispatch to all units



http://www.armytimes.com/article/20...trainers-will-dispatch-all-units?sf29029354=1

You could repeat that headline every decade or so. It's a good theory, but it almost always founders on a couple of issues- 1. Time. If you are really going to develop a fitness program that benefits all of the 120 Soldiers in an Infantry Company, then you need to devote a lot of time to it and it needs to be a real schedule driver. That runs headlong into the rocks of scheduling the other- more critical stuff that the unit is doing. 2. Measuring Achievements As long as the unit leadership is measured by it's overall performance on the APFT or whatever they come up with to replace it- then the Commander is an idiot if he doesn't make sure that he trains on the measured events- so most unit pt programs will continue to be lots and lots of pushups, situps and runs, all of which are easy to measure and fast to perform as a group. They may not be the best indicator of overall fitness, but if a Company Commander can get a line on his OER for "leading the Bn with x% of his Soldiers maxing the PT test" 3. Fad factor. Master Fitness trainers have been around a long time- Battalion and Company Commanders will use them or not use them depending on how they mesh with everything else the Battalion wants to do. Way too often they send someone to one of these courses who comes back a "true believer" and then discover that back in the unit - the reality is that PT is alloted 10% of the training day in garrison and garrison time is way less than 50% of the years training calendar. That then combines with the reality nobody is changing the messhall over to Flax Seed and Granola regardless of how much the SMA talks about this as a "critical new initiative" and this quickly start to look like an outsiders "pigeon program" which flys in, bombs the units with their new "insight" and then leave them to figure out how to reconcile all of the competing demands and actually have a program that would conform to the competing and higher priority issues that the unit has to fit into its schedule.
So I don't believe I would suddenly expect the Army fitness program to suddenly start looking like it is a uniformed version of crossfit regardless of what the SMA and Captain Tan say. I know that this sounds cynical, but this subject is definitely not a new one in the long history of the Army.
 
You could repeat that headline every decade or so. It's a good theory, but it almost always founders on a couple of issues- 1. Time. If you are really going to develop a fitness program that benefits all of the 120 Soldiers in an Infantry Company, then you need to devote a lot of time to it and it needs to be a real schedule driver. That runs headlong into the rocks of scheduling the other- more critical stuff that the unit is doing. 2. Measuring Achievements As long as the unit leadership is measured by it's overall performance on the APFT or whatever they come up with to replace it- then the Commander is an idiot if he doesn't make sure that he trains on the measured events- so most unit pt programs will continue to be lots and lots of pushups, situps and runs, all of which are easy to measure and fast to perform as a group. They may not be the best indicator of overall fitness, but if a Company Commander can get a line on his OER for "leading the Bn with x% of his Soldiers maxing the PT test" 3. Fad factor. Master Fitness trainers have been around a long time- Battalion and Company Commanders will use them or not use them depending on how they mesh with everything else the Battalion wants to do. Way too often they send someone to one of these courses who comes back a "true believer" and then discover that back in the unit - the reality is that PT is alloted 10% of the training day in garrison and garrison time is way less than 50% of the years training calendar. That then combines with the reality nobody is changing the messhall over to Flax Seed and Granola regardless of how much the SMA talks about this as a "critical new initiative" and this quickly start to look like an outsiders "pigeon program" which flys in, bombs the units with their new "insight" and then leave them to figure out how to reconcile all of the competing demands and actually have a program that would conform to the competing and higher priority issues that the unit has to fit into its schedule.
So I don't believe I would suddenly expect the Army fitness program to suddenly start looking like it is a uniformed version of crossfit regardless of what the SMA and Captain Tan say. I know that this sounds cynical, but this subject is definitely not a new one in the long history of the Army.

Exactly what I was thinking. In ten years there have been 3 or 4 "PT overhauls" and promises to ditch the APFT.
 
I liked the link because it contains video of the drills.

What I am really wondering are two things. Do Master Fitness Trainers wear ribbons or show achivement weighing different colored belts? The second question is the Master Fitness Trainer a new branch for Army Ascessions? It may be a place for our 22 year old friend with the nervous parents.
 
I liked the link because it contains video of the drills.

What I am really wondering are two things. Do Master Fitness Trainers wear ribbons or show achivement weighing different colored belts? The second question is the Master Fitness Trainer a new branch for Army Ascessions? It may be a place for our 22 year old friend with the nervous parents.

Master Fitness Trainer (MFT) is a an additional skill identifier. It's a four week course. On a side note, least back in the old days (1994), all USMA cadets that completed the MFT class during the interssion got a MFT certificates. My guess is that the old Master Fitness Trainer is the same one this article is mentioning

Call me a cynic also, but there will be no MFTs "dispatched to every installation and every unit, down to the company level in the active force, Guard and Reserve." It's more like units requiring to send soldiers to MFT training.

Call me a cynic again, but I think this paragraph explains why "At Eustis, the course had four instructors; each has by now traveled to teach local soldiers at multiple Army installations. The instructors are, for the most part, certified in personal training and contractors with Anautics, of Newcastle, Okla."
 
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