Physical Fitness Lost

[Goggles Pizano]

Two days ago I was assisting our Academy staff with PT evals for incoming candidates. I have never been so disgusted by the lack of SA toward the Academy staff, fitness in general, and the testing process as a whole by today's youth (twenty somethings)! Some examples if I may:

1) Fat, fat, fat. Christ almighty how the hell can you look at yourself in the mirror and see a beer gut....at age 21????!!!!! Then, seeing that gut, make a conscious decision; "oh yeah man, I want to join the Police Department/Military!"?

2) I lost count of the many applicants who stated prior to performing pushups or situps this gem..."how many do I have to do?". Our response: "the best you can.". Their retort: "yeah but, how many to pass?".

3) Another beaut and I swear to God this happened more times than I care to recall: Instructor; "your not breaking the plane! Go down further or I will not count them." Candidate response; "I'm doing them right man! They count!". Instructor response; "Stop, you have failed." Candidate complains to Academy staff that he/she should be allowed to retake the test because...His grader was unfair! I wish I was making this up folks.

The common denominator I found (in my not so scientific poll during the process) was people who have spent time in the military, or were above the age of thirty were more in tune with what is required of them than their civilian/twenty year old counterparts.

My partner has dubbed these oxygen thieves the "just get by" generation. Sad but true.
Note: 28 percent of the persons tested failed. Average age of failed candidates-26.

Question: Is this a real problem with youth today or did we strike a bad batch of folks? Also, if this is identified as a problem what would be the best approach to increasing fitness awareness without invoking the "nanny state" of government intrusion?

[longrange1947]

Remember, this is the generation of school kids NEVER allowed to fail, given whatever they wanted, and catered to so as not to hurt their itty bitty feelings.

They have yet to have, well until now, any REAL life experiences. Their background has been the same as those wimpering academics that have never had any real life experiences as well.

Yes, I have noted the same attitudes even within the military ranks.

[rubberneck]

Originally Posted by Goggles Pizano

Question: Is this a real problem with youth today or did we strike a bad batch of folks? Also, if this is identified as a problem what would be the best approach to increasing fitness awareness without invoking the "nanny state" of government intrusion?

I can't speak in a military or LEO sense but from a business standpoint I see it as well. When I graduated from college in 1991 my first job paid me $19,900 a year and while I wanted more I never felt that it was due me. Not any more. Todays kids have a raging sense of self entitlement and an attitude to match. I guess that comes from never being told no or being told that if you want something work for it. Quite frankly it makes me sick.

[CPTAUSRET]

SAD!


Goggles, where in De.?

PM me if you like.

Terry

[DanUCSB]

It has been my experience (as a young man of 26) that today's generation of young folks have a fundamental problem (caused by our culture and/or how they were raised): they expect to have all of the comforts of successful, middle-aged life... in their twenties. Before they've actually done anything.

That is, nowadays, people in their young twenties seem to think that it's their 'right' to have a new, sporty car; a nice apartment; a plasma-screen TV; vacations and steak dinners and a wallet full of credit cards that never run dry. Of course, reality often smacks them upside the head with a car payment they can't afford, an apartment they're strung out to pay for, and heaps of credit card debt. But y'know, they deserve it, right?

[Smokin Joe]

Goggles,

I just graduated my second academy. It was a multijurisdicational academy, all I can say is that I really truely hope that FTO will be more difficult because I walked away from this academy feeling unchallenged and still asking a lot of questions. Upon my exit interview I asked. Why was the academy so easy and not more demanding? The response I got was that the high standards have been widdled down due to the low quality of recurits that Law Enforcement is attracting now days.

It is a nation wide problem that is effecting every state.

[beedlesw]

the just get by attitude is quite prevalent in military ranks, and has been growing in the last 3 years, again mostly due to the fact that the army needs people and doesn't want to get picky about it. new soldiers come to our unit knowing exactly how many repetitions equal 60% but couldn't for the life of them tell you how many they need to max the event, and then they think the commander's goal of 270 or above on the pt test for every soldier is unreasonable.

[Monsoon65]

Some guys in my unit have this mindset, too. "If X% is passing, how many pushups do I need to do to get it?" I don't think anyone asks, "What's the max for my age in this event?" and then tries to make/beat that.

[Goggles Pizano]

Originally Posted by CPTAUSRET

SAD!


Goggles, where in De.?

PM me if you like.

Terry

Got your PM Sir and reply sent. I'm in Wilmington.

[Gene Econ]

Originally Posted by Goggles Pizano

Question: Is this a real problem with youth today or did we strike a bad batch of folks? Also, if this is identified as a problem what would be the best approach to increasing fitness awareness without invoking the "nanny state" of government intrusion?

GP:

My view. The physical condition issue isn't a real problem with youth today any more than youth thirty years ago. The attitude of 'what are the minimum standards' is something I can date back to about 1990 in the Army, but for a very small minority.

I believe that fellows of my generation -- growing up in the 50's and 60's -- may have been thinner instead of fatter but it seems like the guys in the Army today who are the right weight are in much better condition than we were. Look at the two mile run scores on an Army PT test today compared to twenty years ago. At my age (50), I would have to run that thing in 16 (?)minutes to max it. When I went into the Army, I had to run it in 14 minutes to max it. I can't say I saw a guy break 13 minutes until I was in IOAC in 1983 where we had one guy run it in 12:30. Today, a whole bunch run it in 12 or less. That is the Army and specifically the Infantry. A guy would get smoked real badly if he talked back to an NCO during a PT test or fell out of a unit run -- no matter how stupid the run is in terms of speed and distance. Guys are given more points for scoring over maximum on PT tests these and IMHO the chain of command has done a good job of giving guys an incentive to do well.

Here is something to think about. I bet the percentage of guys who only want to score minimum is extremely small. Some guys ask this to give themselves an out because they know they are in poor condition. These guys are generally asking for leadership to direct them down a path of success although they will never admit it -- until they meet that success. Chances are you have about 2 percent who are honestly tyring to get over. They probably will as they are also BS artists. I would bet the others know they have a problem and want a leadership example to emulate. I also bet that these two categories represent less than ten percent of the guys and females you are dealing with. They can really piss a guy off and remember that ten percent of your folks will consume 90 percent of your time -- although they still represent ten percent and not ninety percent.

Many of these beer belly 21 year old's are trying to be police officers for a reason and it ain't money or prestige. 98 percent of them want a role model to follow. The problem with the 'system', be it Army or LEA, is that bureaucracies hate leaders. Lead them and they will succeed.

Gene

[Maisy]

I understand your frustration Goggles. I would like to add a couple of thoughts though, if you don't mind.

1. The fat thing is endemic. Your country and mine is fat, adults and children. At the same time schools are cutting back or dropping Phys ed from their curriculums. That is happening around the world, not just the U.S. I think these days kids simply don't know how to stay in shape. I'm not blaming schools for their condition, parents have to take the majority of the blame, but it's certainly not helping matters.

2. My answer to that one is simple. "The max is x, you make anywhere near that, you're doin' good". Forget just sliding through, but I can understand young people needing a set goal to aim towards. For some, "do the best you can" leaves them wondering if they could have done better. There's that little voice in the back of their heads saying, "could I have done one more situp, run just that bit faster? I wasn't throwing up or passing out at the end, so maybe I didn't push hard enough". Giving them a clearly stated goal, any goal, helps.

3. Whingers, the lot of them. If the instructions at the beginning of the test included the words "failure to obey an examiners instruction will result in automatic failure of the test", as I am sure they were, then the whinging little back-talking brats need to go away and learn how to obey simple instructions before they apply again.

Every generation is different from the one before. Every generation has it's virtues and faults. Every generation thinks the one following it is a degraded and degenerate version of theirs.

Of course, there's only one generation who is the exception that proves the rule, with all virtues and no vices, and that would be the 30-something gen-Xer's.

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Actually I guess it is all a matter of perspective. I can see Gene's point but then when I came into the military PT was a joke in most units. The PT test has evolved many times since 1963 when I took my first one and once the Army started to get more serious about it the actual requirements for passing the test seemed to increase every year with each new modification of the test. Now that was not really a problem because I was able to maintain my own standards, which exceeded theirs, but a lot of folks sort of got discouraged because no one seemed to know what to expect from year to year. Not to mention some of the events were absolutely idiotic and had nothing much to do with evaluating your ability to perform as a soldier. Remember the inverted (perverted) crawl? About the only thing that was good for was shuffling yourself across the floor of a Poulis Porter to get into a good door posiiton. I also can see the other points being made and I do think, reflecting back to the 40s and 50s when I was a kid (that's 1940 and 1950 in case anyone wondered) kids are definitely not the same when I grew up. Our heros were real people and when we played as kids it was outside not in. Many of today's kids' icons are fictional and a lot are in cyber space. They can get lost for hours behind a keyboard and never even break a sweat. Now we did have our fictional super heros but even when we imitated them you still had to run real fast to make the cape your mother made out of some old sheet flap in the breeze-the point being you still got some exercise. We played with sticks, rocks, bounced balls off curbs, hit apples with bats and golf clubs, got into a lot of rough neck stuff and fist fights, made our own bows, spears, and assorted weaponry. Kids today don't seem to be able to pretend anymore but they are hell with a mouse, IPOD, MP3, and anything operated by a battery or power not human generated. When we wanted to loose ourselves in some activity we could use our imagination-a lot of kids today use drugs. We settled kid and teenage stuff with fists not guns. Even kids "sports" activities today require "snacks" and a non-combative, low competitive attitude. Hell our snacks were dirt and those that had that non-competitive non-combative attitude were picked last but they worked hard not to be the next time because peer pressure worked. So, I guess from my little corner and limited perspective I can see all points, but the majority of the kids today would rather be spectators in physical activities than participants and society is going to pay the price. Just my .02 cents.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Gene Econ

Look at the two mile run scores on an Army PT test today compared to twenty years ago.

I don't know when the PT uniforms were issued, but, 30+ years ago, we did our two miles in fatigues and combat boots.

Pat

[Razor]

Originally Posted by PSM

I don't know when the PT uniforms were issued, but, 30+ years ago, we did our two miles in fatigues and combat boots.

Pat

The unfortunate result of that is thousands of vets with serious lower back, hip, knee and foot problems that plague them to this day. The line between hard and smart is very thin and often easy to cross, if you're not careful.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Razor

The unfortunate result of that is thousands of vets with serious lower back, hip, knee and foot problems that plague them to this day. The line between hard and smart is very thin and often easy to cross, if you're not careful.

I agree. I was pointing out why the times may have improved. We were high-drag back then.

Pat