With reference to the military occupational fitness requirements, provide a rational for fitness tests used by Army PTIs.
History has proven that fitness is of huge benefit to the Armed Forces. The Spartan and Roman armies stood out in history due to their physical conditioning in relation to war fighting. There soldiers where constantly being assessed to ensure combat effectiveness throughout the ranks ensuring their solidarity as an army.
“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” (Whitfield, 2013)
There are 6 key physical fitness operational tests that are used by the British Army known as Operational Fitness Tests (OFTs). These tests are used to assess a soldier’s fitness capability before deploying on operations. These OFTs are not part of Military Annual Training Tests (MATT 2) and do not need to be passed or completed each training year. Instead OFTs have been put into place to give commanders a way of assessing the soldiers’ physical readiness prior to deploying on operations. It was identified that current military tests did not replicate the different situations, roles, responsibilities and tasks that each unit undergo whilst on Operations. Each of the 6 tests was designed to mimic a variety of job roles carried out by different units and soldiers (DTrg(A), 2014).
To make sure that each soldier is mentally and physically capable to deploy on operations, units have to make sure that a suitable training program is in place. The Army uses AFORM which is a template for a 2 year periodization program. This form is a basic program to build up to operations and takes into account the intensity and frequency of physical training. Annual test and assessments such as Personal Fitness Assessment (PFA), Annual Fitness Test (AFT) and OFTs are also included. Other types of training are also taken into account such as training exercises, sport and leave. AFORM acts as a guideline to plan training for operations so that a soldier should be...