ACHIEVING NEW HEIGHTS, CONQUERING NEW FEAR

Army belives in progressive training. This means, things will be longer or harder. When you thought it's the end of the world when you march 6km in full battle order, you end up finishing 24km route march. If you are scared of heights, you will still made it through the Jacob Ladder. And the list goes on and on and on and on and on..........


ROUTE MARCHES

It first start with a single SBO marching 3km. The next march will have an extra rifle to carry, Then Full Battle Order. Then the distance increase. 3km, 4km, 6km, 8km, 12km, 16km, 24km.

Commanders all say the most important thing here is the breathing. Take deep slow breath to prevent panting and tireing yourself out. But personally, i think the most important thing is water intake. Something that i mastered only during the 24km route march.

Mid-way during the 16km march, i had a drink too much, literally. If i couldn't sweat excess water out, i'll be punished by means of the bladder. As a result, i took an emergercy pee along the road side. I had so much pee, my platoon was about a good 50m ahead of me when i had finish. Of course, i ran back.


SOC

This is called standard obstacle course. Where your balls are put to the test.

Since i am afraid of heights, i naturally could not do the jacob ladder. Going up was easy. It is at the highest log when the trouble comes in. During, the training, my balls were so loose, i had to hold the PTI hands to walk up and down the jacob ladder.

But when the test came, i ran up and down with ease. Here's why, before you start to cross the low wall (SOC's first obstacle), you need to run 600m to reach it. It is here, that you realise how hard it is to scale a wall slightly taller that you. It is also here you can make the most painful of mistake. For me, when i reached the wall, i aimed to jumped far instead of high.

Luckily, the wall did not break. I simpily do not have enough money to pay for damages of a concrete wall.