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RMR as aspirational model for the integrated TA?

Fitness has to be inculcated into the unit - Barrow in Furness was not East London and so a trip out on a Bedford and run back to the TAC as a formed unit might be a difficult act to re-create in London over 5 miles but then the Reg MP Sgt who came over to Tulse Hill and gave us medicine ball football in resi.s... or the London Irish Sgt who ran with a 30lb pack everywhere...

IMHO, it is up to the individual to be fit. The reserve forces need to be seen as a place to be and a place that society values - don.t get kicked out for being a slob.

Fitness therefore is a personal thing and not one for MTDs.

Oh I agree with you on that; I bang on about it constantly.

I did mention skill levels as well as fitness; rasing the base level of skills brings an MTD cost. C-IED uplift to level one is 5 MTDs, for example...
 
Having failed the RMR course, got to the end of it twice and still been unable to pass the ropes and now being TA I can give you one very good reason why the RMR may be considered aspirational but unfeasible as a model for the TA.

A selection weekend that failed about 60%, a first field weekend that then whittled the numbers down to about 25% who had turned up initially. Weekend on weekend off for 6 months, two weeks at Lympstone, then 6 more months of weekend on weekend off yielded an almost unheard off number of people passing about 14 IIRC. That was considered a bonanza of trained soldiers compared to previous years. This was for the area covering the North West and the Midlands.

So you do get a very highly trained soldier but very very few and at a hefty cost. I can't imagine 15 or 42 Brigade being happy recruiting only 14 blokes a year. I appreciate that you could scale it up as not all TA recruits signed up for that but even so you wouldn't be able to hit the4 numbers required, even without the growth in the TA.
 
Fitness has to be inculcated into the unit - Barrow in Furness was not East London and so a trip out on a Bedford and run back to the TAC as a formed unit might be a difficult act to re-create in London over 5 miles but then the Reg MP Sgt who came over to Tulse Hill and gave us medicine ball football in resi.s... or the London Irish Sgt who ran with a 30lb pack everywhere...

IMHO, it is up to the individual to be fit. The reserve forces need to be seen as a place to be and a place that society values - don.t get kicked out for being a slob.

Fitness therefore is a personal thing and not one for MTDs.

The issue of fitness comes up time and time again so why is not more done about it. Little seems to be done at TAC's although I agree that this should be down to the individual. This however should be monitored and tested more frequently.

I also think that more should be done to help. Is there assistance available to pay gym membership? If not, should there be? This is particularly relevant for people living quite large distances from their unit or nearest army gym. Regular discussions with PT instructors to discuss fitness programs could be useful whilst being tested / monitored. Standard across the TA could and should be raised for many with a gentle kick ***********.
 
I have quite a lot of interaction with RMR and we sometimes get some of their number training with us. Always struck me as pretty professional , keen and switched although got to say, never really come across the TA so I can't really compare like for like. I must admit, here fitness is forced down our throats, to have to do it in your own time and up to this level must, in my opinion, take a lot of comittment no matter if you're TA or RMR.
 
The issue of fitness comes up time and time again so why is not more done about it. Little seems to be done at TAC's although I agree that this should be down to the individual. This however should be monitored and tested more frequently.

I also think that more should be done to help. Is there assistance available to pay gym membership? If not, should there be? This is particularly relevant for people living quite large distances from their unit or nearest army gym. Regular discussions with PT instructors to discuss fitness programs could be useful whilst being tested / monitored. Standard across the TA could and should be raised for many with a gentle kick ***********.

Maybe because in the TA it is endemic throughout the ranks, including the movers and shakers who would be required to enforce an increase in standards. It's hard to see senior bods and officers enforcing a policy of increased fitness when their own phys is in shit state.
 
Maybe because in the TA it is endemic throughout the ranks, including the movers and shakers who would be required to enforce an increase in standards. It's hard to see senior bods and officers enforcing a policy of increased fitness when their own phys is in shit state.

And the same can be said about regular units too - I have seen very recent stats which show that a reg unit had a 55% PFA pass rate... Who is to blame there then? Because it certainly isn't the TA...
 
What Reg unit?

I had a conversation once with an OC of a TA unit. The PFA pass rate of his TA unit was not where he wanted it to be but exactly the same as his last regular unit.

Got a feeling that with the redundancies going through they would have improved now by getting rid of the blokes not up to scratch.
 
I had a conversation once with an OC of a TA unit. The PFA pass rate of his TA unit was not where he wanted it to be but exactly the same as his last regular unit.

Got a feeling that with the redundancies going through they would have improved now by getting rid of the blokes not up to scratch.

I was just curious, not suprised. :grin:
 
I have a feeling that you were responding to the other poster. This information that I was from his last regular posting which was years ago.

A friend of mine is in that regiment now and I don't think that would be the case now, he was telling me that they had got rid of a lot of the lads on sick chits.

I read a post that the USMC were a bit concerned about their blokes putting on weight which would be concelaed by them wearing baggy combats so on Firdays they want them wearing shirts and trousers like our number twos to show any creeping flab.
 
I have a feeling that you were responding to the other poster. This information that I was from his last regular posting which was years ago.

A friend of mine is in that regiment now and I don't think that would be the case now, he was telling me that they had got rid of a lot of the lads on sick chits.

I read a post that the USMC were a bit concerned about their blokes putting on weight which would be concelaed by them wearing baggy combats so on Firdays they want them wearing shirts and trousers like our number twos to show any creeping flab.

My bold, ?

USMC has been wearing baggy combats for as long as I can remember, some muscle bosuns kicking about, but i don't recall any porkers as such, must be a new thing. I have to admit, if the wearer has a barrel chest and a set of shoulders, being "untucked" does give the appearance of "fatty". :winkrazz:
 
And the same can be said about regular units too - I have seen very recent stats which show that a reg unit had a 55% PFA pass rate... Who is to blame there then? Because it certainly isn't the TA...

Which Unit is that, because no unit I've ever served in has been anywhere near that low.
 
Maybe because in the TA it is endemic throughout the ranks, including the movers and shakers who would be required to enforce an increase in standards. It's hard to see senior bods and officers enforcing a policy of increased fitness when their own phys is in shit state.

You speak for your own unit.

I am in a position to bang on about fitness and I do. My subunit has programmed fitness monthly and I have started to publish PFA standards in black and white for all to see. I have made it totally clear to my blokes that fitness is pivotal, and they are stepping up to the mark. They don't all like it, but they know they'll be history if they don't.

My last PFA score was 280, hurrah for me.
 
I also think that more should be done to help. Is there assistance available to pay gym membership? If not, should there be? This is particularly relevant for people living quite large distances from their unit or nearest army gym. Regular discussions with PT instructors to discuss fitness programs could be useful whilst being tested / monitored. Standard across the TA could and should be raised for many with a gentle kick ***********.

To be honest I don't think a cut price gym membership is what is needed.

I'm a strong believer in simply going outside and doing some hard miles in the fresh air, and its totally free of charge.
 
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