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8 - Obstacle Courses and Additional Drills
This chapter describes obstacle courses
as well as rifle drills, log drills, and aquatic exercises. These are not designed
to develop specific components of physical fitness. Commanders should use them
to add variety to their PT programs and to help soldiers develop motor fitness
including speed, agility, coordination, and related skills and abilities. Many
of these activities also give soldiers the chance to plan strategy, make split-second
decisions, learn teamwork, and demonstrate leadership.
Obstacle Courses
Physical
performance and success in combat may depend on a soldier’s ability to perform
skills like those required on the obstacle course. For this reason, and because
they help develop and test basic motor skills, obstacle courses are valuable for
physical training.
There are two types of obstacle courses--conditioning and
confidence. The conditioning course has low obstacles that must be negotiated
quickly. Running the course can be a test of the soldier’s basic motor skills
and physical condition. After soldiers receive instruction and practice the skills,
they run the course against time.
A confidence course has higher, more difficult
obstacles than a conditioning course. It gives soldiers confidence in their mental
and physical abilities and cultivates their spirit of daring. Soldiers are encouraged,
but not forced, to go through it. Unlike conditioning courses, confidence courses
are not run against time.
NONSTANDARD OBSTACLES AND COURSES
Commanders may build obstacles and courses that are nonstandard (that is, not
covered in this manual) in order to create training situations based on
their
unit's METL.
When planning and building such facilities, designers should,
at a minimum, consider the following guidance:
• Secure approval from the
local installation's commander.
• Prepare a safety and health-risk assessment
to support construction of each obstacle.
• Coordinate approval for each
obstacle with the local or supporting safety office. Keep a copy of the approval
in the permanent records.
• Monitor and analyze all injuries.
•
Inspect all existing safety precautions on-site to verify their effectiveness.
•
Review each obstacle to determine the need for renewing its approval. SAFETY
PRECAUTIONS
Instructors must always be alert to safety. They must take
every precaution to minimize injuries as soldiers go through obstacle courses.
Soldiers must do warm-up exercises before they begin. This prepares them for the
physically demanding tasks ahead and helps minimize the chance of injury. A cool-down
after the obstacle course is also necessary, as it helps the body recover from
strenuous exercise.
Commanders should use ingenuity in building courses, making
good use of streams, hills, trees, rocks, and other natural obstacles. They must
inspect courses for badly built obstacles, protruding nails, rotten logs, unsafe
landing pits, and other safety hazards.
There are steps which designers can
take to reduce injuries. For example, at the approach to each obstacle, they should
post an instruction board or sign with text and pictures showing how to negotiate
it. Landing pits for jumps or vaults, and areas under or around obstacles where
soldiers may fall from a height, should be filled with loose sand or sawdust.
All landing areas should be raked and refilled before each use. Puddles of water
under obstacles can cause a false sense of security. These could result in improper
landing techniques and serious injuries. Leaders should postpone training on obstacle
courses when wet weather makes them slippery.
Units should prepare their soldiers
to negotiate obstacle courses by doing conditioning exercises beforehand. Soldiers
should attain an adequate level of conditioning before they run the confidence
course, Soldiers who have not practiced the basic skills or run the conditioning
course should not be allowed
to use the confidence course.
Instructors must
explain and demonstrate the correct ways to negotiate all obstacles before allowing
soldiers to run them. Assistant instructors should supervise the negotiation of
higher, more dangerous obstacles. The emphasis is on avoiding injury. Soldiers
should practice each obstacle until they are able to negotiate it. Before they
run the course against time, they should make several slow runs while the instructor
watches and makes needed
corrections. Soldiers should never be allowed to run
the course against time until they have practiced on all the obstacles. CONDITIONING
OBSTACLE COURSES
If possible, an obstacle course should be shaped like
a horseshoe or figure eight so that the finish is close to the start. Also, signs
should be placed to show the route.
A course usually ranges from 300 to 450
yards and has 15 to 25 obstacles that are 20 to 30 yards apart. The obstacles
are arranged so that those which exercise the same groups of muscles are separated
from one another.
The obstacles must be solidly built. Peeled logs that are
six to eight inches wide are ideal for most of them. Sharp points and corners
should be eliminated,
and landing pits for jumps or vaults must be filled with
sand or sawdust. Courses should be built and marked so that soldiers cannot sidestep
obstacles or detour around them. Sometimes, however, courses can provide alternate
obstacles that vary in difficulty.
Each course should be wide enough for six
to eight soldiers to use at the same time, thus encouraging competition. The lanes
for the first few obstacles should be wider and the obstacles easier than those
that follow. In this way, congestion is avoided and soldiers can spread out on
the course. To minimize the possibility of falls and injuries due to fatigue,
the last two or three obstacles should not be too difficult or involve high climbing.
Trainers
must always be aware that falls from the high obstacles could cause serious injury.
Soldiers must be in proper physical condition, closely supervised, and adequately
instructed. The best way for the timer to time the runners is to stand at the
finish and call out the minutes and seconds as each soldier finishes. If several
watches are available, each wave of soldiers is timed separately. If only one
watch is available, the waves are started at regular intervals such as every 30
seconds. If a soldier fails to negotiate an obstacle, a previously determined
penalty is imposed.
When the course is run against time, stopwatches, pens,
and a unit roster are needed. Soldiers may run the course with or without individual
equipment. Obstacles
for Jumping
These obstacles are ditches to clear with one leap, trenches
to jump into, heights to jump from, or hurdles. (See Figure 8-1.)>
 Obstacles
for Dodging
These obstacles
are usually mazes of posts set in the ground at irregular intervals. (See Figure
8-2.) The spaces between the posts are narrow so that
soldiers must pick their
way carefully through and around them. Lane guides are built to guide soldiers
in dodging and changing direction.
Obstacles
for Vertical Climbing and Surmounting
These obstacles are shown at Figure
8-3 and include the following:
• Climbing ropes that are 1 1/2 inches wide
and either straight or knotted.
• Cargo nets.
• Walls 7 or 8 feet
high.
• Vertical poles 15 feet high and 6 to 8 inches wide.
 Obstacles
for Horizontal Traversing
Horizontal obstacles may be ropes, pipes, or
beams. (See Figure 8-4.)
Obstacles
for Crawling
These obstacles may be built of large pipe sections, low
rails, or wire. (See Figure 8-5.)
 Obstacles
for Vaulting
These obstacles should be 3 to 3 1/2 feet high. Examples
are fences and low walls. (See Figure 8-6.)
Obstacles
for Balancing
Beams, logs, and planks may be used. These may span water
obstacles and dry ditches, or they may be raised off the ground to simulate natural
depressions. (See Figure 8-7.)
Continue to Confidence Obstacle
Course |
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