Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Entry level fitness requirements?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Entry level fitness requirements?

    OK this is just a spot of curiosity on my part, but I was wondering what the minimum physical fitness requirements for the various Military branches around the world are, and I figured this would be the best place to endulge that curiosity. I'm mainly interested in finding out who different Forces compare to eachother, and how the standards may have changed over the years.
    Anyway, these are the standards for the ADF, you'll note they talk about a multi-stage fitness test, which is just a standard shuttle run of 20 metre shuttles in a decreasing time for each level:

    Army general entry

    Male - 15 push ups, 45 sit ups (feet held), score of 7.5 on the MSFT (Total of 1120m in 6:30), Female - All the same except only need to do 8 push ups.

    Army Special Forces

    30 Push-ups, 60 Sit Ups, 10 on the MSFT. No women can serve in SOCOMD as far as I know, except maybe in the 171st Aviation Squadron.

    Navy/Air Force general entry

    score of 6.5 on the MSFT (pretty much run a little under 1km in a bit under 6 minutes).

    Navy Clearance Diver applicants have to meet the Army male standard, Air Force Defence Guards are expected but not required to be able to do 40 push ups (without their feet being held by anything) 10 chin ups and run 2.4km in less than 10 minutes before they join the Air Force. Evidently this has something to do with them being semi-elite as they recieve counter Special Forces training.

    So, yeah, you really don't have to be very fit at all to get into the ADF. Those are the standards that you need to meet to demonstrate that you're fit enough to start training without endangering yourself, I know for a fact that SF applicants need to be able to do better than that to have a real chance of getting in straight out of their civvies. So, how do other countries shape up?

  • #2
    Your question, as put, is sort of crossing apples and oranges. It's not like a person can decide to join the army or special forces; it's that those in the army can join special forces. One has to be able to get into the army first, pass those requirements, before they can try for the next step.

    I'm not being critical of your question but having gone thru the course work for writing entrance requirements, the legalities, the what is believed versuses what is a reality, I am rather quick to pick up on it (that's being the upper level for you, you are more into making sure you can do it and stay out of court).

    Ie, speaking civilian wise, let's say I have a police boat patrol job and I require people to be able to swim before they apply. Is that unreasonable? No, because the job is about doing boat patrols, not swimming, not teaching people how to swim. A job that will teach people from the 0 level how to do something cannot use that as a requirement for entrance BUT a job that teaches people a more advanced way can require that people know the basics for entrance.

    If I am running an air support unit, I can require a person to know how to fly as an entrance requirement ...... because I am not going to teach them how to fly in that unit.........but it's a pretty fair estimation that in basic police ranks, I will teach people how to shoot, so I can't use the ability to shoot as an entrance requirement.

    It can get rather tricky going thru all that.

    So let's get back to the question. Essentially, IMHO, the army entry PLUS what a recruit gets gives the base level to then go try for special forces. Not every person in the army may have that base level but they may have the knowledge at that time, the physical base level, to advance themselves to that next position of trying.
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    ("Do I have to know how to fly?"--Columbo
    "Oh, no, we'll teach you how to do that."--NTSB investigator trying to lure Columbo away from the LAPD, (w,stte), Columbo: "Swan Song")

    Comment


    • #3
      UK TA (i.e. volunteer reserves) for men under 30 is 44 press ups (elbows next to body), 50 sit ups (legs held), 1.5 miles in under 10:30 OR 10.2 on the MSFT and able to do 4 miles in between 57 minutes and 1 hour carrying between 15 and 25kg including rifle, depending on arm/branch of service.
      This is relaxed considerably to get in (provided you aren't ill you can pretty much get in however fit you are) but you're expected to reach this standard pretty quickly.
      Rule 1: Never trust a Frenchman
      Rule 2: Treat all members of the press as French

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by SnowLeopard View Post
        Your question, as put, is sort of crossing apples and oranges. It's not like a person can decide to join the army or special forces; it's that those in the army can join special forces. One has to be able to get into the army first, pass those requirements, before they can try for the next step.

        I'm not being critical of your question but having gone thru the course work for writing entrance requirements, the legalities, the what is believed versuses what is a reality, I am rather quick to pick up on it (that's being the upper level for you, you are more into making sure you can do it and stay out of court).

        Ie, speaking civilian wise, let's say I have a police boat patrol job and I require people to be able to swim before they apply. Is that unreasonable? No, because the job is about doing boat patrols, not swimming, not teaching people how to swim. A job that will teach people from the 0 level how to do something cannot use that as a requirement for entrance BUT a job that teaches people a more advanced way can require that people know the basics for entrance.

        If I am running an air support unit, I can require a person to know how to fly as an entrance requirement ...... because I am not going to teach them how to fly in that unit.........but it's a pretty fair estimation that in basic police ranks, I will teach people how to shoot, so I can't use the ability to shoot as an entrance requirement.

        It can get rather tricky going thru all that.

        So let's get back to the question. Essentially, IMHO, the army entry PLUS what a recruit gets gives the base level to then go try for special forces. Not every person in the army may have that base level but they may have the knowledge at that time, the physical base level, to advance themselves to that next position of trying.
        ---------------------------------------------------------
        ("Do I have to know how to fly?"--Columbo
        "Oh, no, we'll teach you how to do that."--NTSB investigator trying to lure Columbo away from the LAPD, (w,stte), Columbo: "Swan Song")

        I understand that, but in Australia we have a program to recruit civilians directly into SF trades, and to be eligable for this program you must meet those higher than normal standards. You're still required to undertake recruit training and pass that, and go through subsequent assessment and initial courses to see if you're up to it, and then all in all it takes about 1.5-2 years for a recruit to become a fully qualified commando. Anyone who flunks out I assume is given the chance to undertake another course and be assigned to a conventional unit, but in order to skip out on the normal 2 years of regular service before you're eligible for SF service, one can take this special enlistment.

        Comment


        • #5
          doesn't millitary have pull ups requarements?(you hanging on a bar and pull youself up untill you can put your chin on a bar) in ussr we had that in school gym class min. was 15 times, is even more in russian army.
          "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" B. Franklin

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by omon View Post
            doesn't millitary have pull ups requarements?(you hanging on a bar and pull youself up untill you can put your chin on a bar) in ussr we had that in school gym class min. was 15 times, is even more in russian army.
            Yeah we dont have that to get in, once you've been doing recruit training then they start testing you on them. I don't think you usually have to do too many except in SF where the minimum is 10, but in reality they expect a lot more than that.

            Comment

            Working...
            X