Page 131 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

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Upon completing the RAPTC Instructor Course in September 2017, I was assigned to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) as a Sergeant Instructor. RMAS is broken
down into 3 different terms for the OCdt’s, each lasting 14 weeks. Each RAPTCI oversees one company and 2 separate platoons from 2 other company’s. We are also in charge of the successful running of all of the competitions RMAS conduct throughout the terms. So as you can imagine, it is extremely busy!
On arriving at RMAS, the team had a welcome pack ready for me. Although it was fast paced and always busy, the amount of high calibre ability throughout the team was exactly what I needed to help me get settled in. It was a tough 1st term settling in and a lot to take in, although anytime I was unsure of something, someone knew the answer! My main job last term was the Inter Coy cross country competition, this was the first time I had been fully responsible for an event of this nature but thankfully with a great team around me it was a great success and something that I took some key lessons from, especially as we also hosted a civilian event on behalf of Old Milocarians AC.
At the time of writing I am now in my 2nd term at RMAS, settled in and ready to tackle the challenges ahead. In closing; throughout my 9 years in the Army to date I have never come across a more
Sgt Smith RMAS
EARLY DAYS AT RMAS
Sgt (SI) D Smith RAPTC
RMAS SHORT TERM TRAINING TEAM TO THE AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL ARMY OFFICER ACADEMY
SSgt (SSI) JCG McLellan RAPTC
The Afghanistan National Army Officer Academy (ANAOA) was set up in 2013 to train Afghan Officer Cadets using the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) model. This originally included a training team of RAPTC instructors to help mentor their Physical Training Wing in the planning and execution of all things PT. Two years ago the training team was disbanded and the ANAOA Physical Training Wing were empowered to stand alone and carry on the good work they had learnt from their UK counterparts.
In 2017 and on completion of her time at RMAS Sgt
(SI) Morrow was posted from the RMAS PT Wing to
ANAOA for a 9 month Op Tour into the equivalent of a
Plt Sgt role within the ANAOA Female TOLAY. Upon
arrival and as any RAPTCI of her calibre would, she immediately identified that PT was not being delivered to the female cohort of ANAOA OCdt’s optimally and with her vast experience from RMAS she subsequently filled the capability gap and she took on the post of PTI to the female TOLAY in addition to her primary role. Such was her influence upon the ANAOA UK and Afghan CoC hat prior to her departure the RMAS was requested to send over RAPTC representatives to provide advice and guidance with a view to re-establishing the female RAPTCI post at ANAOA.
During an initial visit in the lead up to Christmas 17, it was identified that there was a wide gulf between the standard of PT being delivered to the male and female OCdt’s due to a lack of qualified female instructors and also a lack of enthusiasm from the ANAOA chain of command to rectify the problem. It was also identified that the test standards for the female OCdt’s selection were not fit for purpose. This was due to ANAOA adopting the UK PFA. Even with the standards being reduced the test was still producing a 100% fail rate which made it impossible to use as a tool for selection.
There were several reasons for the results being so poor, such as ANAOA being situated at 2000m above sea level and the candidates PT clothing (or lack of) being a major hindrance. But the main reason was the complete lack of conditioning due to their lifestyles in comparison to their UK Counterparts.
In late Jan 18, myself and the RMAS SO2 PD – Maj Bob Whitaker deployed to fulfil a Short Term Training Task (STTT) at ANAOA to identify ground truth and offer up guidance to the ANAOA CoC in order to improve the delivery of PT at the Academy. Although we couldn’t watch the females conduct PT in person we were shown videos of the previous female selection PFA. We arrived at ANAOA with an open mind but it was still surprising just how poor the
candidates were in performing press ups and sit ups and it was immediately evident that most female candidates had very little if any core strength, with most unable to support their body position
rewarding job with so many motivated individuals who really want to be here; the RMAS PS and Officer Cadets are a pleasure to work with and it is an environment in which I learn and gain valuable experience every day – 10 weeks leave a year is also pretty good as well.