Thread: Which choice is better for becoming a good sniper- USMC or Army

illusha:

As for your running, remember what your first Mission (goal) is to “complete 3 miles any way you can”, without quitting or stopping!! The first Rule is don’t stop moving forward. Keep your head up & back straight. Bowing your head or hunching your back restricts your breathing!! Run until you start to have problems with erratic breathing or controlling your legs (the wobbles), then drop down to the “Quick Time” (120 paces per minute). Swing your arms shoulder high (like the Brits), this will help getting your breathing back in ‘synic’. As soon as you get your body back in control, Quick March an additional 25-to-50 meters, then start running again. At a minimum your pace needs to be 240, 30 inch (from heel of one foot to the toe of the other foot, have your Recruiter show you) steps per minute (4 per second), which is Double Time. Another words you need to travel 600 feet (2 football fields) every minute, at a minium. When your brain starts telling you to slowdown/stop running, pick out a point a short distance ahead (not more than 100 meters) that you will keep going to, when you get to that point, pick out another point to run to, keep doing this until you finish the 3 miles. Don’t think of the miles left to run (it will mess with your mind), make the run a series of short distance goals. Once you can complete the 3 miles at the Double Time without walking (your second Mission requirement), 3 times in a row, you can pickup the pace and increase your stride to reduce your time.

Run every other day. This allows the leg muscles time to heal from the stress of running. Remember to do stretching exercises before running, this will prevent pulling a muscle. Get good & limber, most people do not stretch enough prior to running. On the days you run 3 miles (say in the morning), you need to do Wind-Sprints in the afternoon/evening (remember to stretch). When you sprint, run as fast as you can. At the end of the sprint you Quick Time ½ the distance you’ve sprinted, then jog ½ the sprint distance. (This is 1 cycle.) Then you immediately start sprinting again. You do this for 5 cycles. Start off with 50 meter sprints, increasing 25 meters each week.. Do not do more than 100 meters per sprint, nor more than 5 cycles a day. Remember, we don’t want to over stress the muscles, you’re working on increasing your endurance.

On the days you don’t run, do upper body exercises. Sit-ups, crunches, crossing toe-touches, leg lifts, arm rolling, push-ups, Duck Walk, bends & thrust (also known as bends & MF’ers), side-straddle-hops, trunk twisters, lunges, and pull-ups. Concentrate on doing each of them correctly, as fast as you can. As soon as you finish one exercise, start doing the next exercise, immediately. After you complete all of the exercises (1 cycle), take a 5 minute rest break. After each break time do another cycle of exercises, for a total of 5 cycles. Start out doing 10 repetitions of each exercise. Each week increase the # of repetitions by 5. For the leg-lifts & arm-rolls, you need to hold each position for 1 minute. You Duck-Walk for 20 meters each cycle, to start with, increasing 5 meters every week until you reach 50 meters per cycle. Have your Recruiter show you the correct way to do each exercise. You do the 5 cycles of exercise in the morning, in the afternoon/evening you do 2 cycles (no more) of exercises.

I see that you’re having problems with pull-ups. Start out with a goal of 5 per cycle. Say you can’t quite make that 4th pull-up. Go up as far as you can go & hold for 5 seconds, then slooowllly come down without letting go of the bar. Then try for the 5th pull-up, again holding your highest position for 5 seconds & slowly coming down. When you can do 5 pull-up for 5 cycles, 3 connective upper body exercise days, increase your goal by 2 pull-ups.

Also if you can, put a pull-up bar somewhere around the house, if you can (a doorway is a good place). Do 1 cycle of pull-ups 3-to-5 times a day, every day.

Now that we’ve taken care of 6 days of the week, do you get to rest on the 7th day? Well....no! As you will find out, there is no rest for the wicked or Marines! On the 7th day you hike, this is a favorite pass-time of Marine Officers & SNCO’s. Your goal is 2.5 miles every 50 minutes, followed by a 10 minute break. Start out with 2.5 miles (remember no stopping), increasing the distance 2.5 miles every other week. You should be hiking at least 10 miles at a time, prior to going to Boot Camp, 15 miles would be ideal. At first it gets boring, then it gets tedious, then you start to understand the concept of misery. The secrete is to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.

You must develop your self-discipline so that you do the above, every day, regardless of the weather conditions. The only exception is if you can see lighting, then you exercise indoors or later (after the lighting stops) outside. Not only will you improve your strength & endurance, you will improve your self-discipline & mental toughness (2 traits we {the Corps} value highly).

A few other thoughts on physical training..... Get yourself a set of hand grip devices. You need to improve your hand grip/forearm strength. Use them several times a day. You’ll be glad you did, come the Obstacle Course & Close Combat Training. Also get your self some wrist and ankle weights. Start out at 2.5 lbs each for 2 weeks, then switch to 5 lb weights (do not use any higher weights). Wear them all the time, even while you’re asleep. The only exception is..... Never wear them while exercising or running. If you do, you’ll mess yourself up. After Boot Camp you can run with wrist weights or exercise with ankle weights on, never both at the same time. For your exercise days, see if you can find a steady platform that will hold your weight, that is 17-to-19 inches (18 is ideal) tall. If you find one, you can do Step-Ups. You step-up on it, 1 foot then the other foot, coming to the full upright position, then you step down, winding up in the full upright position = 1 time. You do as many as you can in 2 minutes, per cycle. Again, you’ll be glad you did, come the Obstacle Course & Close Combat Training time.

Jake

"I thought you were a marine"

You trying to piss me off again?

Don't worry about the PT, you have absolutely no idea what you're capable of physically. The USMC will educate you wrt that topic.

You will perform because the alternative is failure, and that is simply unnacceptable to you.

Keep THAT philosophy in your mind at all times, and you'll handle anything they throw at you. Overcoming pain is mental. Overcoming being winded is mental. Overcoming muscle failure is mental.

As you will find out.

FSV gives good advice. Also get with your recruiter and see if he does Poolie runs or if he would be willing to run with you.

I never was a nose breather when running so don't get stuck on that. Just try to breath normally. I will say that when you first start running you should go at a pace that allows you to talk comfortably. Then when you can do that start pushing it.



And as Sniper said, DIs will push you beyond your self imposed limits. Its mind over matter. The DI doesn't mind and you don't matter

Originally Posted by Gun Grape

And as Sniper said, DIs will push you beyond your self imposed limits. Its mind over matter. The DI doesn't mind and you don't matter

so true.

You trying to piss me off again?

Nope, just wondering. Were you a marine or in the army?

I did the IST today. I got 54 situps in 2 minutes, 2 dead hang pullups and 19 mins in 1 mile. So, the only thing I failed is the mile which I knew I would fail.

Now, I have a big problem, my recruiter and his boss told me today that a infantry position just opened up. He needs to know by today if I want it and if I do I have to ship out tommorrow. My ship out date was supposed to be in 3 weeks but he told me that there might be no more infantry positions left if I don't take this. I want to do infantry but I am not ready to go now so I don't know what to do.

The problem is that my recruiter and his boss have consistently lied to me and my sister which makes me think that they might be lying about this too. Does anyone know how frequent infantry positions open up? Is there usually a lot of infantry jobs?

illusha:

I understand the the Corps is having no problems filling the 03 (infantry) MOS.

Is the Recuiter willing to modify your Enlistment Contract (in writing) to assign you an 03 MOS, if you quilify?? If yes...go for 'it'.

Jake

"Nope, just wondering. Were you a marine or in the army?"

I was in the US Army.

I understand the the Corps is having no problems filling the 03 (infantry) MOS.

The recruiter's boss told me that it is the end of the fiscal recruiting year (or start of it, I don't remember) or something like that and that there is not enough jobs left. He also told me that most a lot of people want to do infantry so that is why there is not a lot of spots left.

Is the Recuiter willing to modify your Enlistment Contract (in writing) to assign you an 03 MOS, if you quilify?? If yes...go for 'it'.

Ok, I will ask him that. I am really pissed off at my recruiter's boss because he told me that I would get a infantry spot and now he is saying that might not happen which is one more thing my recruiter has lied to me about.

Should I put on a icepack on my shoulders and arms if they keep being sore/hurt a lot?

You simply don't have the right mental makeup or background for the job in my opinion. Sniping is simply not for you.

Sorry, gota go with ANON ... der WRAITH also makes incontrovertable point... besides 9 of 10 snipers I've had drinks with, brought thier own skills to school.
And ILLUsha? ... it isn't self deffence ...You wouldn't tell your friends...there is no other reward...Sniping isn't for most people.

Originally Posted by 1 Observer

You simply don't have the right mental makeup or background for the job in my opinion. Sniping is simply not for you.

Sorry, gota go with ANON ... der WRAITH also makes incontrovertable point... besides 9 of 10 snipers I've had drinks with, brought thier own skills to school.
And ILLUsha? ... it isn't self deffence ...You wouldn't tell your friends...there is no other reward...Sniping isn't for most people.

1 Observer,please observe that you are posting in a thread that is two and a half years old.Welcome to the WAB,please post a thread in the "Membership Introductions" forum and tell us a bit about yourself .

"I did the IST today. I got 54 situps in 2 minutes, 2 dead hang pullups and 19 mins in 1 mile. So, the only thing I failed is the mile which I knew I would fail"

Sounds like your head isn't quite right ... 60 and 60 under 13 for 2 ... are you sure you interested?
Be dammed sure you heard ANON, clearly... "in writing" ... he's dam sure right.

Oh, the pain thing ... It's a good sign ... thats pain fighting to become free of your body ... You WILL be in better shape, when if ... you get through with basic ...