Page 58 - Mind, Body and Spirit 2016/17

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Iarrived at 2nd Battalion The Ri es in early July 16 on completion of the RAPTC instructor’s course. Not only was I embarking on a new career within the RAPTC I was also assigned to Northern
Ireland for the rst time. From a non-infantry background I was instantly subjected to the biggest challenge of my military career to date. Nevertheless, I was determined to embed myself into battalion life and become a part of the family. Luckily for me I was greeted by a very supportive CoC, hardworking gym staff and an outstanding WOs’ and Sgts’ Mess
2 Ri es have a number of deployments to Op Shader (Iraq) and Op Trenton (South Sudan), to which they have all been working hard towards. Whilst the remaining troops have commitments to Gabon and an exercise to Kenya.
In Oct 16 I was fortunate enough to be part of a small team of 2 Ri es personnel to attend the rst International Physical Agility Combat Ef ciency System (Paces) competition in Lahore, Pakistan. The Maldives Defence Force, Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Nepalese Army, Malaysian Army and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Army, to name a few of the 12 international teams that took part.
2 RIFLES competing in the sit up event
The competition consisted of the following 5 events spread over 4 days; Max reps pull up, 3.2km best effort run, combat ef ciency test (CET), 30 mins each to achieve max reps sit ups and max reps press ups. The events sound simple enough; however, there were a number of crazy rules we had to abide to such as, on the pull ups we could only rest whilst hanging using one arm. During the press ups we could rest at any time during the 30 min period but we had to keep 3 points of contact on the oor at all times so it turned into press ups followed by holding the long arm plank position.
Before we left for the competition we only had 2 weeks of prior training as the information we had received was very vague. I had to design lessons as speci cally as I could using the limited knowledge to hand.
On arrival in Lahore we were welcomed by a news crew, a reporter and high ranking members of the Pakistan Army. I instantly realised the magnitude of the competition and how under prepared we were. The Pakistan Army were very accommodating throughout and I was shocked at the level of security. Whole streets were
End of competition meal, posing with the Malaysian Army and a member of the Pak Army
Sgt Thomas getting down and dirty during the combat ef ciency test (CET)
2ND BATTALION THE RIFLES
Sgt (SI) D Thomas RAPTC