RAF Fatness Test

[The B Word]

Just read that the RAF Fatness Test goes to every 12 months for those in the green and 24 months for those in the blues. Also, those that have passed fatness tests in the last 6 months and are in date after 1Jun 16 will get an automatic extension of 6 months.

Apparently the Mirror Technicians and Muscle Mechanics want to concentrate on the 10% that don't present to the RAFFT - 10%? I had no idea that so many did not do the test...

The B Word

[Melchett01]

Given the importance of the oft quoted 'whole force', I can only assume that the decision now to concentrate time and resources on a small percentage of said whole force has less to do with the benevolence of the Service and more to do with the fact that we've been cut so far that we can no longer sustain the effort required to keep personnel in tip top fighting condition.

CCS now 2 years, medical and dentals for the vast majority once every blue moon and now this. We're now well down the slippery slope of force degeneration and I can foresee a time in the not too distant future when, having fallen through a gaping crack, we are caught short by individuals' unpreparedness and inability to sustain high tempo ops over anything other than a very short duration because we have failed to sustain the physical component of combat to anything other than the lowest common denominator.

[GipsyMagpie]

Swimming test

I just wish they would get rid of the annual "no curiously enough I haven't forgotten how to swim since last year" test.

[BEagle]

13 years ago, I did my last RAFFT a few weeks before my PVR kicked in. In those days, those of us over A Certain Age were required to wear cardiac monitors whilst riding the 'bicycle to nowhere'.

The last time I did a swimming test was in 1977, despite the subsequent efforts of eager-beaver CSROs to make periodic dinghy drills more irksome than necessary.

Are those more senior in age made to splash about in the pool wearing cardiac monitors nowadays? If not, in this risk-averse era, why not?

[Mr C Hinecap]

Those who keep themselves at the top end of the fitness scale obviously need less attention. Those in the middle need some. Those at the bottom end need more. It seems sensible to focus the efforts on improving those who need it rather than testing those who don't.

[Ogre]

A former colleague many years ago got on the bike, and found that he has exceeded his prescribed heart rate just doing that! He was built like a racing snake but it turned out he has some underlying health issues that he wasn't aware of.

[huge72]

Having served more than half of my aircrew life with the SH Force alongside our soldier friends, it was obvious why we needed to bring in the test in the early 90's. Even then being over 40 I only did the bike test but as time went by the age limit to undertake that test was raised, the testing levels gradually were raised and the general fitness levels improved. Move on to 2006 aged 53 and sadly I am diagnosed with a medical complaint that precludes me from doing the test. After about a year I have overcome the problem and go along to the PEd Staff and ask for a fitness programme to build up fitness to retake the test. ''Oh No Sir'' they said we can't do that until you fail. I subsequently fail and get lumped in with all the slackers who couldn't be bothered and told by this young Cpl 'Adonis' that ''This failure could seriously effect your career'' to the extent of discharge. I was 54yr old Flt Lt Aircrew who had never failed before and I'm afraid the Master Aircrew in me came out at that point and after he had finished his brief and all had gone we had a one chat with regards check your audience next time. The problem is there is only black and white no grey in their world.

[Melchett01]

Fitness-wise, the blue thinking seems reasonable. I'm not sure about the green extension. I think we'll see more failures from the guys that now stretch their 6-monthly fitness prep out to a year.

Absolutely. Frankly, and based only on personal observation but I suspect not inaccurately so, there are an awful lot of individuals who are technically 'fit' in that they have reached the required standard, but it's quite apparent from the state they are in that they are far from fit and achieving the absolute bare minimum has been a herculean effort involving a good 10 minute breather to recover between each element.

Whilst I'm definitely no gym queen, personal pride and having spent a large chunk of my career in the SH community, an understanding of the benefits of being properly fit seems to be lacking in many and this won't do anything to improve overall effectiveness of the Force. Give it a couple of years and I suspect we'll be back to more regular testing when the failure rate shoots up.

[teeteringhead]

Never quite sure what the "excused test" criteria are ....

Many years ago had a young WRAF working for me who was excused Fitness Tests. Not entitled to know why - Med-in-Conf and all that. Nothing obviously wrong with her .....

Noticed she was away quite a bit and - caring Officer that I am - was concerned if she was suffering from some obscure underlying condition....

"No Boss," I was told "she's away again with the WRAF Rowing Squad - training for the Inter-Services next month!"

So ....... excused Fitness Test and a representative sportswoman

[kintyred]

When fitness testing first reared its head I was on exchange with a foreign Air Force and had to do my test at my parent unit 3 hours drive away. I phoned up the PEd staff to book the test and got chatting to the Cpl who asked what fitness training I did. I told him I played rugby for a local team. He played too and it turned out that we had faced each other in the quarter finals of the RAF cup the previous year. "No need to do the test," says he, "you're obviously fit enough. I'll just update your records". Good lad!

[dagowly]

I await the KPI's this time next year with fitness test failures.

[Tankertrashnav]

1369 time, c 1974

Flt Cdr - Overall a pretty good report TTN but I've marked you down on physical fitness

TTN - Why's that sir, I'm never off sick?

Flt Cdr - well you must admit you're not very fit, and you don't play any sports

TTN - So somebody like Flt Lt Snooks (typical squadron jockstrapper) would get a better score than me?

Flt Cdr - Well I cant go into details, but in general terms, probably yes

TTN - That would be the same Flt Lt Snooks who's been off the flying programme several times this year recovering from sports injuries?

Flt Cdr (curtly) - Moving on!

Quite frankly I'm glad I got out before the fitness fetish took over. Huge72's experience doesn't surprise me in the least.

[4everAD]

So I can be ordered to complete my fitness test at any time by my commander, lets say for the sake of argument I'm a bit hungover and don't pass (out of character) but still have 18 months currency on JPA, what happens? I ask because at my Unit the CO's policy is that everyone is to complete a fitness test every 6 months regardless of currency left on JPA.

[heights good]

Originally Posted by 4everAD

So I can be ordered to complete my fitness test at any time by my commander, lets say for the sake of argument I'm a bit hungover and don't pass (out of character) but still have 18 months currency on JPA, what happens? I ask because at my Unit the CO's policy is that everyone is to complete a fitness test every 6 months regardless of currency left on JPA.

I had a Flt Cdr that demanded that once a month at Sqn PT we would all do a fitness test. Net result, everyone (on paper) regressed as there was no point getting anything but Green.

[Melchett01]

So I can be ordered to complete my fitness test at any time by my commander, lets say for the sake of argument I'm a bit hungover and don't pass (out of character) but still have 18 months currency on JPA, what happens? I ask because at my Unit the CO's policy is that everyone is to complete a fitness test every 6 months regardless of currency left on JPA

As I understand it, a fail is a fail and you would go onto remedial PT - even if you had just got a dark blue the week before and were just doing it for the sake of doing it. That's assuming the PTIs follow the rules to the letter and don't let common sense get in the way.

As 2IC of a tri-service unit in my last job I was constantly having to do fitness tests from a leadership perspective, but it got to the point that I didn't actually mind as it was time out of the office and a bit of fresh air. Minus 7 one winter's morning was a bit more bracing than I would have cared for though. But as far as the Army elements were concerned, it was great to see 'the old man' out running up and down hills with them, and beating me was always a good incentive ... only a few did though as we often had fitness tests on CO's PT which was invariably first thing after a heavy night in the NAAFI. Sheer coincidence you understand, but I did wonder what might happen if I failed one of the many tests I did even though I was still in date.