Page 31 - Chronicle Vol 17

THE RIFLES TRAINING TEAM
Throughout the training year in 2023 the Rifles Training Team has continued to evolve, ensuring that our Riflemen are training to the highest standards, develop- ing them and preparing them for what lies ahead. There are many privileges that come with running the RTT. A few that roll off the tongue are, firstly, getting to work with some of the best instructors the Regiment has to offer - passionate and driven, with a real depth of talent shown amongst the staff this past 12 months. Secondly, the wide variety of Riflemen we get to see, with every course being different and coming with its own ups and downs. Regardless of those ups and downs, being around the modern cheeky, quick witted Rifleman 24/7, is a privi- lege and a pleasure.
As the team set up for a full year of consistent training delivery, we would dis- cover that Serjeant Major, WO2 Rob Hamilton would be selected for promotion and would move on to become a ‘Tanky’ at 5 RIFLES rather sooner than expected! With all the other movements and postings, this caused a few panic buttons to be pressed, contemplating the amount of experience and continuity that was going to be lost in the space of 4 months.
March 2023 saw the first edition of the JNCO Leadership Development package. This package has been put together purely focusing on ‘in camp’ skills. There is an agreed consensus that we may be fantastic at training our soldiers for battle, but perhaps not so good at setting them up for success in barracks, an area that as a regiment we are now looking to work on. The course covered many areas from discipline, report writing, fitness and health plans, visits to RHQ, QM procedures etc. The most impressive area was the digital skills package, where the course was educated on the many courses and systems that are available for them to develop themselves. The majority of them had never seen or been briefed on any of this before.
We received really encouraging news in Mar 2023 that 7 of the 8 Army wide can- didates who attended the RTT Sandhurst CSjt Instructor Pre-Course were suc- cessful, so a huge pat on the back for the team for helping prepare all of these.
The team has worked hard the first half of the year and were starting to run out of steam. We pulled together a team bonding day where we headed to London received a fantastic brief from the Head Up Charity, a new charity doing fantastic things. This was followed by a visit to the Gym Shark HQ, where we were hosted by their team, welded by a civilian physical training instructor that the training team were in awe of as he just seem to resemble a Greek god!!! This was followed by a meditation and yoga session, a great day out for the team.
Pre and post summer leave, the dreaded yearly occurrence of staff change meant that we were joined by three new members. WO2 Hamilton, WO2 Campbell, CSjt Clark, Sjt Deal and Cpl Podmore all left. WO2 Campbell was on his way to
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