CFA

Nleon1234

Nleon1234

New Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2015
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I am a currently a applicant going into my senior year of high school. My grades and extracurricular activities are great and my only concern is the CFA, mostly in the form of pull ups. Did anyone have similar issues and what things should I work on to help me with this? If this is even something I should worry about. Anything will help me! thanks
 
I had the exact same issue as you. I was weak on physical fitness, specifically pullups. I started January of my junior year going to the gym every other day and focusing on exercises that would help with pullups. Don't neglect the other parts of the CFA, but if you are weak with pullups, make half of your workout focused on muscles needed for the pullup. Once I got to where I could do one pullup (which took about two months) I built a pullup bar and attached it to my ceiling and did one every time I passed by it. Once you can do two pullups, do two each time you pass it. I did my CFA in August and did five or six pullups and received an appointment for the Class of 2019.

Being able to do pullups is not out of reach, but start training TODAY. I thought they would keep me out of the Academy, but they didn't. It's Saturday, go to the gym, talk to someone who works there, tell them your goals, and get on the machines until you can do pullups (or if you can already do them great! Get a bar and do them until you can't do any more).

And YES this is something you should worry about. If you fail one section of your CFA you will not get in. I'm know I barely passed the minimums for my pullups, but I also know I made up for it in other sections. You have months left to train, you can do it.


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Nleon1234 said:
I am a currently a applicant going into my senior year of high school. My grades and extracurricular activities are great and my only concern is the CFA, mostly in the form of pull ups. Did anyone have similar issues and what things should I work on to help me with this? If this is even something I should worry about. Anything will help me! thanks
Click to expand...


I'm an appointee as well. A female, but not to much of a difference when it comes to exercises you can do to help. UsafaMufasaa is right, you need to be focused on the CFA of thats your weak point.

Exercises that helped me:
Negatives are a wonderful thing. Find a band or an assisted pull up machine. Pull yourself up (itll be assisted hence the band or the machine) into the position as if you completed a pull up and lower yourself down. I try to do it in a 10 count. I raise myself up and lower in 10 seconds until Im fully extended. You will notice the improvement. I do that for 30 minutes with a mixture of assisted pull ups and push ups in between. Then I go lift weights. Lift weights works alot of the muscles that pull ups utilize. It helps. Hit the gym everyday but don't weight lift everyday, you can strain yourself. Run everyday though and pull ups everyday. Good luck to you.
 
All excellent posts!!!!

I can tell you...I saw more than a couple candidates this cycle; candidates with amazing scores, resumes, etc., all lose their chance because of a failed CFA.

This is something YOU control 100%...

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
My advice is to take the CFA early. If you take it before the end of December, you can retake it if you don't pass. Although failing is never fun, a failure on your first go-round on the CFA will not disqualify you from receiving an appointment (speaking from personal experience). Obviously, train hard and do your best, but don't be discouraged if your best is not enough the first time. :)
 
Pull-ups on the PFT(the fitness test cadets take) they give you the best point to rep ratio (1 extra rep is about 6-7 points).

Make sure that you are doing strict pull-ups (hands facing away from you, complete lockout at the bottom of each rep, absolutely no kipping/kicking)

I used a the Armstrong pull-up program to increase my pull-ups from 12 to 19 over about 5 weeks. Make sure you know your body and don't over train causing injury.

http://armstrongpullupprogram.com/
 
Thanks a ton everyone! Glad to see all the support. Best of luck to you all!
 
Nleon1234 said:
Thanks a ton everyone! Glad to see all the support. Best of luck to you all!
Click to expand...

If you're looking for support, you've come to the right place! There are many great people on here willing to help so never be afraid to ask! Let us know how your CFA goes!
 
About this time last year, our DS added a pull up bar in the door way to his closet which helped remind him to to pullups as he passed by. Plus doing pushups/situps during commercials helped. I think one of the biggest things he did was starting in early August, he would do a practice CFA on Saturday mornings (his goal was to have everything in by mid Sept which he did). These is an old saying that "what gets measured gets done.". Doing each event on its own is one thing, but being able to do all of the events in the order/time required, makes it more challenging. By doing practice CFA's he was able to see where he needed to focus, but also showed him that he was making progress. You have time to make significant progress on your CFA, just start now. Good luck.
 
^^^^^

That is great advice! On the test, I lost more than 30 seconds on my mile because I hadn't practiced the CFA events in sequence. Hopefully the aspiring CO'20 will learn from my mistake! :D:cool: If I could do it again, I would definitely suggest training the whole CFA, not just the individual events. I passed, but I could have done even better if I had followed this advice.

(Also, the pullup bar in the doorframe and pushups/situps at commercial breaks are great ideas too! :))

Good luck! :thumb:
 
Can anyone help with the BBall throw? My DD has all the rest pretty down (or better, Crossfit has become her bestfriend)...Still having issues getting the Ball to go just minimum of 41 feet. Any tricks, suggestions?
 
Great information here. Can anyone tell me where you find someone to administer the CFA?
 
Double check with the handbook but I think a high school coach, AOL or JROTC instructor can administer the CFA.
 
I believe a Phys Ed teacher can administer the test also. That's who did DS's. But Boozebin is correct, double checking handbook is always wise.
 
USAFA will accept a coach, PE teacher, ALO, JROTC instructor. These I have all used with candidates.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
PRACTICE! (using proper form)

Negatives are great for starting out, if you cannot do one. They are also good for increasing your rep count, if you can only manage 1-3 real pull-ups at a time. (Do your max set, then a few more negatives)

Lat pull-downs are good, as the motion and muscles used are extremely similar.
One tip that helped me was to arch my back slightly so that my arms were not vertical to my body, but rather slightly forward of my head/neck.
 
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