The armed forces is a rare exception to the protected characteristics stuff. That being disability and age.
So they can force your to Phys. Which is ironic considering injuries mean, despite deploying to sketchy places, I haven’t done a fit test since 2019.
But as (allegedly) civies, no way could they force you to.
But as for time, that’s why I’m up at 0430 when I’m on days to get to the gym, so I actually have time in the evening for a bit of time with the lad. Been in the gym for about 40m at this point.
I get my daily Phys done first thing in the morning - either a run, indoor row, circuit training etc. It gets it out of the way, otherwise it is hard to fit in at any other time.
If the Air Cadets wanted us to pass physical fitness tests, they would first need to have us pass the RAF medical examination, in order to be fit enough to do those tests in the first place. Any of us who are, or have ever been on some sort of prescribed medication, such as asthma inhalers during childhood or blood pressure tablets as a middle-aged adult, would instantly fail it, making us ineligible for military service in the UK Armed Forces.
As far as I’m concerned, they can then pay us at the RAF Reserve rate as well, if we have to make such a commitment.
The ATC had physical fitness tests for its cadets in its formative WWII years, but they were training for war then. I used to run the Blue Badge pre-DoE physical fitness programme as a similar idea for those doing First Class Cadet training. It was a waste of time: no-one ever trained to improve their scores or times on the weeks in between the test days, and we as CFAVs have no authority to enforce such a thing as mandatory PT.
Which is I think why the idea of fitness tests was dropped from OASC in the first place.
Which is all well and good if your job allows you the flexibility to do that, I get up at 04:30 for an early shift, damned if I’m going for a run first!
I’m self-employed, so you’re right: I’ve got the flexibility. I am getting up tomorrow morning at 0345hrs to do half an hour of circuit training before going in to do an early duty as an SPC. I do mostly early duties, so I’m used to the routine of it. I do have to go to bed at around 8pm the night before though.
I fit it in whenever I can, which normally means over lunch. But that’s just because I work from home, so can eat at any time.
The only exception is if I have to go into the office, which is 100 miles away. In that case, I’ll normally stop somewhere en route home and run that area instead.
It’s a shame it’s no longer available, but it does require strict compliance with safe limits set.
At work most of the PTI’s aren’t authorised to take you above 6.4, if you are going for one of the roles that requires advanced fitness such as Public Order Medic (10.2) you need a higher qualified PTI.
I can’t say I have ever known a “sports” night at my current Squadron that would normally have it to question why its been excluded (ie a fitness based sports night rather than dedicated to a specific sport) but I don’t recall seeing any IBN or otherwise indicating bleep tests are not allowed…
We do sprint shuttles at the squadron. They’re an option in the Blue DofE sports section and I’m a UK Athletics qualified running coach, so I didn’t think there’d be an issue.
If anything, sprint shuttles are more dangerous than a bleep test, as the whole exercise is carried out at maximum effort.
Which may be the issue as there will be policy on how the test is to run & conducted included pre-screening health questionnaires.
It will then be a bit like assault course or DCCT where we can use it if we hold the appropriate qualification but we are not enabled to do the training to get the qualification.
I wondered if ACTO 66 might have something in there, but instead I found this:
THE ACTUAL ACTO AND ANNEXES A TO H NEED TO BE IMPORTED BY PHYS ED
This document was last amended in 2017. It needs binning as all the rules are listed elsewhere. Speaking of…
I went to the ACPEDTIs and found nothing. They do have rules for Ass Football though. I’m assuming the abbreviation was intentional…
Must be in a JSP, because I can’t find a mention in any policy that you might expect it to be in. I can’t actually even find an IBN for it, only the original email.
