Page 47 - Bugle No. 17 Spring 2021

8 RIFLES
VIRTUAL TRAINING
If you had asked the members of E Company if Operating in an Urban Environment could have been taught over Google Meet a year ago, they would probably have said no. If you had asked them if they could keep Army Fit without leaving their front room, they probably would have said no. And finally,
if you had asked them if they could gain qualifications in teaching from the Army without having to go on a residential course, they would have said no!
But with some out of the box thinking, power point wizardry, heaps of dedication from the training teams and much patience, all of this has been achieved in the past 6 months. Virtual training is usually not the ideal solution, but with increasing success and some experimentation, it is becoming a more viable option by the day.
D Company proved this by delivering some virtual training with a difference during the height of the second lockdown. They were due to deploy to Driffield training area for a weekend of Coy level tactics culminating in an over the weekend of 16 – 18 Oct, however due to localised restrictions the weekend was cancelled at the last minute. With direction from the CO to make any virtual training as interactive as possible the training plan task fell to Lt Luke Mazzoni (Plt Commander Mortar Plt). Being a forward-thinking Rifleman, Lt Mazzoni designed some virtual training with
a difference.
On Saturday morning the Riflemen logged
on to the training platform completely unaware of what Lt Mazzoni had planned for them.
After being broken down into groups of four they were briefed on a list of tasks they were to achieve, as a team within a time frame. The aim was to build confidence, problem solve, work as a team, understand team strengths
– all of which help with becoming forward thinking Riflemen.
Some of the 35 tasks set included: receiving a virtual viewing on a £1m+ property (bonus points for the furthest from our Durham and Sunderland ARCS), virtually test drive a sports car, get your group on the front of a magazine,
find the cargo ship Yuuzan, do some research into a family member who has served in one of our forebearer regiments.
Everyone worked hard and some of the results were out of the box “Forward thinking Riflemen” in delivery. A fantastic day was had and absolutely a case of the old teaching the young and the young teaching the old.
The result with the most laughs had to
be the CSM’s “design a RIFLES T-shirt for PT” mankini...luckily this was only virtual training and the Company won’t have to spend the winter months parading for PT in the CSM’s design.
Capt Hoggard
Training continues in 2020, even
if it must be done virtually
Mazzoni designed some virtual training with a difference
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RIFLES The Bugle 47