Page 45 - KRH Regimental Journal 2021

The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 43
The Gymnasium and Physical Development
The start of 2021 saw the return of Aliwal Gymnasium to the Regiment and its personnel. Not without its restrictions though. Officers were unable to rush into the squash courts and the gym queens had tight restrictions on how they could conduct training safely.
SSgt (SSI) Longden RAPTC was now fully embedded within the KRH and getting to grips with the tempo of what a heavy armour regiment looks like. Instigating improvements to the infrastructure along the way. We have seen touch screen monitors go up on the walls within the gymnasium, new PT equipment readily available to all KRH Personnel and delivery of a brand new Strength and Conditioning Centre, which SSgt Longden has driven since his arrival. The S&CC gives an exceptional top of the range training space to improve PT lesson delivery all year round.
This year saw the Regiment take part in a number of sporting activities and physical training days out. The first being the hotly contested inter squadron D’Arcy Hall competition. A sporting event, split across three disciplines: Cricket, Athletics and Battle PT.
The cricket was led by the impeccable umpiring skills of WO2 Steve Pople and WO2 Dave Oakes, seeing all 5 sqns battle it out in sun and with C Sqn winning all their
matches, they were crowned the winners.
Athletics was hosted at the Tidworth Oval Track by SSgt Longden, pushing our per- sonnel to conduct both track and field events (some of which had never been tried before by KRH personnel ... Javelin and Hurdles!). Coming into the 4x100m relay, the final race, once again C Sqn narrowly took the lead and were crowned the win- ners. Battle PT was a feat of tactical endur- ance for our soldiers. Headed up by the PTI team, it saw personnel conduct a 2km with 15kg, an 2km equipment race, followed by a 2km best effort clean fatigue. Everyone taking part showed an incredible amount of grit and determination, but once again, you guessed it - C Sqn took 1st place on the third and final event meaning they had compiled an unbeatable set of results and were subsequently crowned the winners of the D’Arcy Hall Cup in 2021.
The Regiment competed in its first ever British Army Warrior Fitness (BAWF) competition for the 3(UK) Division Warrior games. A divisional competition that saw 32 teams come together and com- plete 5 gruelling CrossFit styled workouts. After a long and tough day led by SSgt Longden the Regiment secured 5th posi- tion.... not bad for a bunch of cherry legs scrambled together at last minute.
Continuing to improve our soldiers’ mental health and resilience. A Junior develop- ment package which covered coping strate- gies and how to employ them whilst deal- ing with negative thoughts was delivered to c140 Tprs and JNCOs. We then put theory
into practise by taking them to the Army school of Physical Training Obstacle course in Aldershot. In which they conducted and Inter-sqn obstacle course race which involved the much feared 50ft Trainasium shuffle bars. Seeing some shaky legs as the guys and girls crossed the bars.
A study was conducted across all five sqns with the use of Garmin smart watches in order to better understand our soldiers. The study looked at sleeping habits and stress levels both in camp and on exercise so that we can best improve their human performance. The aim was to see the dif- ference in stress levels and sleep quality in individuals when they had conducted physical training. The study found that when our personnel conducted PT in the morning, they were up to 30% less stressed during the working day, and their sleep quality improved ... who knew PT was actually a good thing!!
2021 has also seen another three new KRH All Arms Physical Training Instructors (AAPTI) Qualify, with Tpr Crossely (B Squadron), LCpl Cross (D Squadron), LCpl Ridings (HQ Squadron) joining the team. We now look towards 2022 and push towards Op CABRIT 11.