The Soldier Pre-Conditioning Course (SPC) boosts the overall physical fitness of recruits, giving them some protection from subsequent injury in training âand greater confidence in their physical abilities.
Despite having passed the Physical Selection Standards For Recruits(PSS(R)), during such collective training the least fit recruits have to work relatively harder and are more prone totraining-induced overuse injuries.
The three-week SPC has been named Fox Platoon, after Captain Jim Fox who won a gold medal in the modern pentathlon at the 1976 Olympic Games. His career was supported and nurtured by the Army.
The course particularly targets those recruits whose 1.5 mile run times fall into the lowest 20 per cent of their respective entry groups. Aerobic fitness or performance is a consistent independent risk factor for training-induced injuries. Recent figures suggest that British Army recruits in the lowest fitness quintile (20 per cent) forthe 2.4-km run (1.5 miles) are 4.5 times more likely to be medically discharged and 6.2 times more likely to be referred to a remedial instructor with a training-induced injury, compared with the fittest trainees.
As well as working on their overall physical fitness, the course aims to develop the recruitsâ teamwork and confidence by spending time onthe climbing wall, trainasium andworking on section-led command tasks.
They also have three periods working with Darlington College developing basic skills in literacy.
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