CFA question

gavsaumure

NROTC/USNA Applicant
5-Year Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2010
Messages
28
Hello, I'm new to this forum, but I have found it to be loads of help for questions that I have. And I have another question:

Concerning my CFA, what are considerable results for me to achieve? I am
5 foot 10 inches and 170 lbs. I have not participated in high school sports and my BGO stressed that I should try to make a decent score on my CFA, since admissions will be looking at it closely seeing as I have no history in a sport. Although I do not play sports at school, I exercise regularly at home and would not consider myself to be in slovenly shape.

I see that the maximum results a candidate can achieve on the CFA are:

102 ft B ball throw (haven't tried)
18 pull ups (I do 12 on a good day)
7.8 sec shuttle run (haven't tried)
95 crunches (I was able to do 50)
75 push ups (pushed 45)
5:20 minute 1.5 mile run (working on it)

My results as they stand aren't impressive, but I'm training harder. Will I be expected to approach those max results? I probably will not, but for a person in my position; what would be considered "good enough"?

Thank you for your time. :smile:
 
By logic, if you score average or above, you passed. However, it probably better to score high or max than just passing.

You are about the same height and weight as me.

Push-ups are probably the easiest to improve on.

Do them as fast as possible in proper form. Get someone to monitor your form when you do them. Do something like 4 sets of 35 a day, 4 sets of 30 the next day, and 4 sets of 40 on the third day. give it a day break and try to go for max on the fifth day.
(an example similar to what I did, over half a year, I went from 40 push-ups to about 80- some people even improve more)

Lifting weights can help but I don't think you can rely on weights alone, do both for maximum improvement.

Create some type of reasonable plan and stick with it.

For b-ball throw, search around the forums. There was a really good post by an applicant who does throwing events at track.

I thought it was a mile run not 1.5 miles?
Run everyday or so. Go to Google and search for websites that allows you to measure how far you ran based on points you give on Google Earth (search distance ran).

With sit-ups also create a plan where you do at least 3 sets a day and make it somewhat challenging. Take a day of break before trying to max out.
 
By logic, if you score average or above, you passed. However, it probably better to score high or max than just passing.

You are about the same height and weight as me.

Push-ups are probably the easiest to improve on.

Do them as fast as possible in proper form. Get someone to monitor your form when you do them. Do something like 4 sets of 35 a day, 4 sets of 30 the next day, and 4 sets of 40 on the third day. give it a day break and try to go for max on the fifth day.
(an example similar to what I did, over half a year, I went from 40 push-ups to about 80- some people even improve more)

Lifting weights can help but I don't think you can rely on weights alone, do both for maximum improvement.

Create some type of reasonable plan and stick with it.

For b-ball throw, search around the forums. There was a really good post by an applicant who does throwing events at track.

I thought it was a mile run not 1.5 miles?
Run everyday or so. Go to Google and search for websites that allows you to measure how far you ran based on points you give on Google Earth (search distance ran).

With sit-ups also create a plan where you do at least 3 sets a day and make it somewhat challenging. Take a day of break before trying to max out.

thanks for the great advice!
 
What helped me get maxes in pushups, pullups, and situps was "hundredpushups.com"
Just google it; its a full workout, and has everything: Pushups, pullups, situps, and squats. not hard to miss.
Also, "militaryfitness.com" has excellent workouts with everything for the CFA.
As for the sprint time, I did football and the 40's we did helped me get a 8.5s on that, the only thing I would say is just sprint from A to B 10 times after each workout you've done.
And keep in mind, the faster you do this, and in higher concentration, the faster you'll boost up to max reps. Good luck!
 
I don't think that it matters that you haven't done a sport in high school really, there are some people here that didn't do sports in their high school and are doing just fine. I just think that the most important thing to note on the CFA is that there are no minimums in place, only maximums. So they (the admission board) don't want you to worry about doing just enough, they are concerned that you are did the most that you can, strive for the maximum in everything. As to how to work on it, I have heard really good things about the hundredpushups.com workout, there have been numerous posts on this site about it. What I did to get ready for Plebe Summer were ladders starting at 3 and going by 3's, do sets until you reach 15 (so 1st set 3, 2nd 6, 3rd 9, etc...) do that for sit ups too. Go up and down the ladder to begin with, then as you get better go up down and up again. Hope this helps, sorry that there is just no set number I could give you as to how many to do just do as much as you can in every event. Good luck to you and your application process
 
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