USAFA CFA Insights

mfrey

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I was wondering if any forum members have any idea about how strict the Air Force Academy is when it comes to Cadet Fitness Assessment regulations? I'm mostly asking because my push-up form is not the prettiest but I can do a good amount of reps. Is it important that I have perfect form or is it only the quantity that matters.

I know that some parts of the military can be more strict on this kind of thing than others (my dad said in his unit in the Marine Corps you had do go down and push your chest into someones closed fist beneath your body for the rep to count.) How far does the AFA expect us to go down?
 
I was wondering if any forum members have any idea about how strict the Air Force Academy is when it comes to Cadet Fitness Assessment regulations? I'm mostly asking because my push-up form is not the prettiest but I can do a good amount of reps. Is it important that I have perfect form or is it only the quantity that matters.

I know that some parts of the military can be more strict on this kind of thing than others (my dad said in his unit in the Marine Corps you had do go down and push your chest into someones closed fist beneath your body for the rep to count.) How far does the AFA expect us to go down?
Just train for both quality and quantity and you'll do fine. But by definition the arms have to break 90 degrees or you'll look like a loser doing half reps. If ur chest taps the ground great, but yes I think for my CFA I had someone put their fist on the ground and I had to touch it. Or that mighta been for some other jrotc thing I did... Whatever the case just be prepared for anything and practice good form
Edit: my instructions to precandidates book didn't mention how low. Really it's up to the observer whether a rep counts but general rule of thumb is arms have to break parallel with the ground
 
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Your body has to be straight, your arms have to be 90 degrees or less at the elbows when you go down, and they have to be fully extended when you go back up.
 
You can pretty much get away with murder on the cfa due to the grader being your pe teacher or the like. Just know that at usafa the cadet pft is on a whole mother level of difficulty and the graders are all the coaches and athletic staff who literally give no leniency. It is quite a tough test. Then you go to the actual Air Force pt test which is a total joke
 
@usafa12 For the academy do they want you to maintain your CFT results around what they were when you entered or near the admissions average? (Or neither) I'm sure they want you to be above some threshold in each event or they will put you on 'Physical Probation' (not sure of the exact term), correct? I'm not worried about the mile because I can max it out, and am above average (near max) with the sit-ups, pull-ups, and Basketball throw... it's just the push-ups that I am worried about.
 
If I recall correctly the minimums for guys was 7 pull ups, 37 push-ups, 60 something sit ups, and a 2:12 600 with around 7 feet on the long jump. Also, if you get the minimum on each event you will fail as you need 200 points to pass and the minus get you 25 points in each event. Yeah I was on athletic probation the first year haha. It sucked
 
Do they change the events for the CFA once you are at the academy or were the events different when you were there? Because the events for the candidate CFA are: 1-mile run, Pull-ups, Push-ups, Basketball throw, shuttle run, and sit-ups if I'm not mistaken.
 
The cfa is a test you take to get into the academy. The test you take while at the academy is totally different and was what I was referring to in my previous post.
 
You take the academy pt test every semester. The cfa is not a factor once you show up to the academy
 
Ah, okay. I was unaware of this -- I thought the same events were used during the test at the AFA as well. Thank you for clearing that up sir.
 


You can pretty much get away with murder on the cfa due to the grader being your pe teacher or the like. Just know that at usafa the cadet pft is on a whole mother level of difficulty and the graders are all the coaches and athletic staff who literally give no leniency. It is quite a tough test. Then you go to the actual Air Force pt test which is a total joke

Well, I am going to take issue with you here, and suggest to anyone else who might be new here to search through all the threads on how many people do not pass the CFA. Recall: you fail one part, you fail the whole thing.

In addition, I would venture to say that the AFT/PFT tests at USAFA aren't exactly a joke. I have a son who scored a 500 on it - a perfect score - and I would venture to say that those whose names are on the wall in the Field House, very few of them who gained that score, would not consider that accomplishment to be a joke. Can you just "get by" by doing the minimum on the CFA, on the PFT, on the AFT? Well, I guess, sure, that's possible. Is that what you want in your military officers? Someone who does just the absolute minimum?

Do your search here and all your CFA question can be answered. But please, never settle for minimum.
 
Please re read what I wrote. I specifically said the usafa pt test that you take while attending usafa is very hard. Getting a 500 is impressive and extremely difficult to do. The cfa is not nearly as difficult and the grading standards I'd say vary depending on the wide range of people that can administer it. The active duty pt test you take after usafa is a joke.
 
The PFT at the Academy is now graded by cadets with Athletic Department oversight. I have graded 3 times and AD generally lets the cadets run the show. In fact, I've had AD step in and back me up when one cadet complained that I didn't count their pull up.

The test really is not a joke. I score in the low to mid 400s and train a decent amount.
 
Who said the academy test was a joke? Active duty and academy are two different things with two different pt tests.... That's interesting to know that Cadets grade the tests now. I would've liked that a lot haha
 
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