60 Failures out of 129 candidates failed PT test

[GAP]

T6 good comments. I believe if I remember correctly, we knew we had basic, knew it involved PT, but there were few that had to train to pass the normal requirements. We were in generally good shape, and needed conditioning and toning, but the general state of the young guys going in was pretty good.

As for quiting, that did not enter the equation!! Yeah, we had the fat farm with the barbed wire fences, etc. and NOBODY wanted to go there. Everyday was spotted with remedial PT because of this or that, but you could always count on having it.

 

[geo]

T6, GAP & all,
Let us all remember that, since the 70s, society has been bombarded with fast food (fat food), we've been maximized, theatres have made their seats wider & airlines have toyed with the idea of charging overweight people the price of two seats, those people who occupy more than one seat. (fat groups have petitioned - saying it is a medical dissability )

Society as a whole will have to address the lousy physical condition of it's kids, turn off the TV, Nintendo & game cubes

 

[toughenough]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the American's run morning PT at their recruiting centers to help people work up to basic? I think that this would go a long way to show the future recruits what will be expected of them, and how they can get from their current fitness level to their desired fitness level.

 

[geo]

Morning PT at the recruiting centres?
Hadn't heard of it & not sure how easy it would be to manage.
Had not heard of the US conducting such a thing.... how are they doing?

 

[Bert]

Yes that right, out of 2 platoons last weeks 60 candidates failed the PT test
So RFT will be busy coming up in the few weeks...

Theres alot of information in various media about life in the Forces, basic training, and
whats expected of recruits.  More accessible information than there ever was.  The
fitness self-test is right in the application package and provides a decent assessment
if used you would think.

Not to get to involved in details, but the original post provides a amazing detail.  Sixty
recruits in two platoons failed the PT test.  Assuming a recruit platoon (when I went
through was about sixty members), thats a 50% failure per-centage give or take.  It would
be interesting to know why they failed.  Is this normal pass/fail for recruit platoons or an
anomaly for that week?

 

[geo]

if you weight a lot a cannot run for 6 minutes and can't do 19 proper push ups stay home another 6 months before joining

would imagine that the failures would "run" the range of failing to:
Shuttle Run thru to level 6
Pushups
Situps
Griptest

 

[karl28]

GAP 

    Sorry if I took  the earlier post about the ninja sniper thing the wrong way .  I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I wasn't one of those people  . 

 

[karl28]

Geo 

    Here is a thought  about RFT . Why not make all recruits go through this before starting basic ?  I wonder if that would help the situation and prevent such high failure rates on the PT test that was stated in the original post of this topic . I also agree with you guys on society getting  larger its not a good thing for sure .   

 

[ixium]

I don't know about some people...but I'd love to have a month of a solid, well made, COMPLETE exercise program that has constant motivators and assistance.

And if the number of yearly recruits hasn't been meeting the needs of the CF, it's more likely to spend money on getting TV ads and radio ads and new promotional videos etc. The money they save from not doing RTF is going to be spent on getting recruitment numbers up to an acceptable level since they narrowed their playing field.

 

[geo]

ixium
at present, the recruit school is jammed full.  We have evicted all other training from the recruit school facilities (moved em to the old Collège Militaire Royal campus).  We have also begun recruit courses in all sorts of places where they aren't supposed to be run from....

Don't think we are having a problem of meeting our needs.  The ones that are enrolled just need a bit of work to get em up to snuff.

 

[NavComm]

60 failures out of 129 is pretty high. I have had my ups and downs with the expres test starting with when I first applied. I was doing the push ups wrong and failed. The tester at the recruiting center showed me the correct push ups. I came back a few weeks later and passed the test with 19 push ups, I don't remember how many the minimum for my age is. Then off I went to bmq a few months later. There we did the test again and I failed the push ups. I half-assed practiced them and on the retest I failed, was sent home with 8 other people from 6 different platoons who also failed the retest.

Once back at my unit, I was helped out by a Master Seaman and I worked my ass off to make sure I never failed that test again. Since then I have completed 13 weeks bmq and achieved the incentives in the expres test the first time around. I've done the expres test again in June as was a requirement for my promotion and passed it again with no problems.

My unit is doing 1 hour of pt on every training Tuesday and the small gym that we have is available to members any time. Physical fitness is a personal commitment a member makes to him/herself and to the CF. Anyone who is not willing to maintain that "fighting fit" level is potentially a danger to themselves and their platoon/ship mates.

I am a very active person but not the type who likes to go to the gym. I like biking and swimming and walking but to do the expres test I have to take it up a few notches - ie: do pushups and run 3 or 4 times a week.  I just signed up for one of those fitness bootcamps just to get myself moving and to build strength and endurance.

I understand they don't rtu people who fail the test at bmq anymore, but in retrospect I think it was a good decision. It forced me to either put up or shut up. I had the choice of releasing or training hard and I decided to train hard. It paid off and my advice to anyone joining is to get in shape. You don't have to be Mr. Universe. You should be able to comfortably run for 5 - 10 km on all sorts of terrain and if they want you to do 7 or 9 or 19 push ups...make sure you can do at least double that many before you sign on the dotted line....and don't forget that grip test - a few people failed on that too. I've never heard of anyone failing the sit ups, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened...anyway that's just my .02

 

[HItorMiss]

All good stuff NavComm but to be clear you cannot RTU a RegF candidate as they have no unit to be RTU'd to.... So in essance it's a make a break pass or back to civi life. Thye can't go back to any mwhere and have the Master Seaman help them as they have no Master Seaman. Hence RFT.

 

[ixium]

Aye geo, but l'm refering to the past couple of years. And how many of them might have failed the pushup or pull-up part of the test by one? Since you can still continue(from what l've read on this site from the stickies etc) if you pass your beep test.

NavComm, you failed the retest at BMQ and were sent home. You trained with a Master Seaman who no doubtably gave you quiet a bit of advice and support. And then went back. I don't know the timeline, but it seems like you spent time and money because you couldn't do the test. Mind you, it might not have be equal to the amount they are spending now, but there was still a cost to the CF. Upping that cost by a little more and they could do whole fitness platoons and increase their recruit numbers.

 

[TCBF]

Whenever they cut Recruit Training in the past, we all said it was a bad idea in part because to train to the same standard in fewer weeks would result in more injuries (some permanent) and more recourses and releases.

I put over 500 recruits thriough Cornwallis and 250 through St-Jean.  Most recruits find it very demoralizing to become injured and removed from their platoon (think "Develpment of Primary Groups") and recoursed or placed in some PAT platoon purgatory.  It is a good way to destroy the will of a potentially good soldier.

It was all very wastefull in terms of money and people, and it was a bloody shame.

Release for pre-existing medical deficiencies or personality disorders are one thing (and we should do more of those!), but - generally speaking - poor fitness can be solved during initial training.

 

[NavComm]

Aye geo, but l'm refering to the past couple of years. And how many of them might have failed the pushup or pull-up part of the test by one? Since you can still continue(from what l've read on this site from the stickies etc) if you pass your beep test.

NavComm, you failed the retest at BMQ and were sent home. You trained with a Master Seaman who no doubtably gave you quiet a bit of advice and support. And then went back. I don't know the timeline, but it seems like you spent time and money because you couldn't do the test. Mind you, it might not have be equal to the amount they are spending now, but there was still a cost to the CF. Upping that cost by a little more and they could do whole fitness platoons and increase their recruit numbers.

In my case I only met with the MS about 3 times on training days so I did a lot on my own. But those 3 sessions got me into a routine that built my strength up and it paid off for the longer 3 mo. winter bmq that I did. If I had done all that before I went to the 8 week summer bmq  it would have saved a lot of money for sure. All together I did 17 weeks of basic training.

Also, I know that when I was in my 20's I had a pretty high fitness level and wouldn't have found the test very challenging - in my  40's it was a little tougher and I needed to accept that I had not trained hard enough. What surprises me is how many of the young people in bmq are not fit at all. They can't even run, how did they pass the initial test? Basis isn't supposed to be like a fat farm, you're supposed to be fit before you get there.

All good stuff NavComm but to be clear you cannot RTU a RegF candidate as they have no unit to be RTU'd to.... So in essance it's a make a break pass or back to civi life. Thye can't go back to any mwhere and have the Master Seaman help them as they have no Master Seaman. Hence RFT.

Yes I know that the reg force don't have units to go back to and that is why they go on remedial training. It's much more intense I'm sure. If it works, great. But what about when it doesn't? Have we spent a lot of money on people who weren't up to the minimum level of fitness when they joined up, or how did they get through recruiting? From the time I did my initial fitness test at recruiting to when I went to bmq was 5 months, is that the same for reg force?

 

[machine463]

Look like a lot of people answer my little points I made yesterday
Against sorry if my english is not a perfect a some other but it is good for me
Now one thing for sure don't thing I am here to bring down the RFT program, that program work
I saw candidate lost over 70 pounds over 90 days, now is it for anybody NO be ready nothing easy in RFT
Go up and down 12 floor about minimum of 8 times a days
Weight training in morning for 2 X 40 min
Cardio 1 X 40 Min
ABS work out 1 X 40 min
On the top of that you can count inspection, military lecture in classes, drill lecture, nutrition classes, PSP lecture and forced marched
Nothing to scare you off but for sure after one month on RFT you a long way ahead of any candidate in week one
In all the other post somebody mentioned something about keeping somebody in until he/she is fit to pass PT test
I thing 90 days is good enough, if after that you still cannot do the minimum standard you it will be now your own responsibility to trained ( Use all the tool you learn while on RFT )

Thank for not hammering me too much on my english and on my post

Have a good one

 

[Kyu]

It's probably a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway.

If a candidate barely pass the expres test, (like barely got level 6, 19 push ups and 19 set ups) can a candidate ask to be put on RFT to get better?

P.S. I know that reserves don't do Regular Forces BMQ, so whatever the answer is, it won't apply to me.

 

[SoF]

I'm not going lie; I saw this coming when they removed the express test from the recruiting process. Too many people showing up at basic in extremely poor physical condition. It's not Camp Snoopy; it's the military. Being physically fit is part of your job; regardless of trade, age, or gender. It all comes down to motivation. Those who are not motivated will meet the minimum physical requirments at the most just to get through basic; then after bmq they will return to the same shape they were in before joining the military. Enough said.

 

[geo]

If a candidate barely pass the expres test, (like barely got level 6, 19 push ups and 19 set ups) can a candidate ask to be put on RFT to get better?

the short answer..... NO!
bessides, you will get plenty of PT throughout the course.  You'll get better at the same pace as everyone else.
RFT is to help people meet the minimum - it's not meant to be a free ride.

 

[machine463]

Geo
Thank for the easy answer for the other question on the top

If lot of you people is wondering is the program work, yes it does normally after one month of training almost 95% of the candidates actually do pass there VO2 max and I seen candidates go from level 4 or 5 up to level 9 even 9.5
Lot of them stay longer to work on there push up which lot of it in technique and a lot of time a lack of ABS
Like I said in the pass RFT is not a free ride it is actually harder than BMQ because of all the physical training 4 X 40 min a day + Drill + Forced Marched + Stair (7 Times up and down 12 Floor) all that 5 time a week