MTI recently traveled to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to work with small unit leaders at 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines. The intent behind the education was to teach a plug-and-play style methodology of implementing intentionally designed fitness training, specific to military athletes.
We led three classes, one per day, consisting of 40-50 Marines, of Squad or Section Leaders. The majority of the day took place in the classroom with near-constant practical application work, followed by implementing a student-designed training session with the class.
The major blocks of the curriculum consisted of developing an individual training session implemented at the squad level (~12 Marines), developing a 4-6 week cycle, and developing a long-range, 6-month training plan developed around their unit training schedule. Special emphasis was put on looking forward to training blocks, determining their fitness demands, and building the 6-month plan to prepare and complement those training blocks.
For example, the fitness demands of an urban warfare training block (repeated sprinting across danger areas and up stairwells, hurdling, mechanical entry) would be significantly different than an extended patrolling exercise (long, slow movements under load, short work capacity efforts).
Emphasizing the appropriate fitness attributes to prepare for those training exercises ensures a high level of preparedness but also maximizes the training opportunities to learn and improve on MOS and small unit-specific skills.
Current Fitness Levels of 2/6’s Small Unit Leaders
As a group, we were impressed with the baseline fitness level of the Marines we worked with. The vast majority were Corporals and Sergeants, with a few SNCO’s and junior Officers working in.
We completed Strength + Work Capacity or Work Capacity + Chassis Integrity sessions with all participants. The sessions were designed by the Marines, with a few coaching notes integrated to ensure the efficiency of the session.
The Marines displayed excellent foundational strength and conditioning. As expected, there were all kinds of body types present – big, strong Marines and smaller, lean Marines. We were pleased to find that despite body type variety, they all displayed solid foundational fitness.
USMC Infantry Pain Points and Potential Solutions
A major reason for our Roadshow effort was to visit units and determine the biggest obstacles or friction points in terms of profession-specific fitness training. This serves to continue to improve our programming, and potentially assist units in developing solutions internally. Below were the pain points identified specific to this Battalion.
Hiking: The infantry generally has a company or battalion-level hiking schedule that progresses through the lead-up to the unit’s deployment. However, there are uncontrollable variables.
Marines fresh out of boot camp and infantry school, who need acclimatization to hiking the most, are sent over sporadically throughout the unit’s workup. While some sort of hiking progression exists on paper, many Marines will miss out dependent on their arrival date to the unit.
Additionally, the hiking progression varies from unit to unit. Marines from different units reported different, unit-specific approaches. This is expected to some degree as hiking is generally paired with field training events (hike to your training area, execute training, hike back to garrison) which may be varying, non-progressive distances.
An additional reported issue is the terrain of Camp Lejeune. Built on the eastern shore of North Carolina, the base training areas are built on and around very flat marshland. Training for movement over mixed terrain is not possible without a 3+ hour drive to another base, and significant elevation gain is non-existent.
Potential Solutions:
- Improve the School of Infantry hiking training to meet the standards of operational units up to 20k. Based on feedback, it clearly isn’t preparing new Marines well enough across the board.
- Install an individual effort hike assessment for any new Marine arriving at their unit as a Pass/Fail event. Those who pass go to their squad, those who fail go to a holding squad to conduct a 4-6 week hiking focused linear progression plan until they meet the standard.
- Traditional flatland training methods for elevation gain should be implemented within squad-level training.
Strength Movement Familiarity: During our seminars, the Marines designed a training session and then executed it utilizing Beaverfit Box’s located just outside the unit’s barracks.
The Marines executed basic compound movements like Squats and Press efficiently, but total body barbell movements such as Power Cleans were implemented with mixed results. Some Marines know how to do it, some don’t.
Squad leaders need to maximize the time and work done with their Marines in a training session. Learning how to coach Olympic variation technique is a waste if we have simpler options.
Potential Solutions
- Replace Total Body exercises with loaded jumps, sandbag movements, and other total body explosive movements.
Nutrition & Sleep:
We were asked about nutrition and sleep several times over the course of three days. The simple answer is, we don’t have any knowledge that they don’t already have.
MREs are a poor source of nutrition, but ultimately a necessary source of calories while executing field training.
The chow hall’s do have healthy options, but the food isn’t prepared in any appealing way and is served alongside unhealthy (but likely tastier) options. There are obvious financial restrictions to significantly improve the quality of chow hall food which can’t be solved at the Battalion or Regimental levels.
Sleep is a challenge, but it’s also a training mechanism. It’s a requirement that the infantry be capable of their job to locate and close with the enemy when they are exhausted and sleepless. The old quote from still holds true:
“Never run when you can walk, never walk when you can stand, never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down, never lay down when you can sleep, and NEVER pass a supply of clean water.” EB Sledge
Potential Solutions
- Install a schedule imposed on Chow Hall staff to restrict the availability of unhealthy food during the work week. Use the Olympic Training Center and major university football programs as a model.
- The MRE is ripe for competition and potential replacement. Use Danish and French military field nutrition as a model.
S&C Equipment Availability
Access to S&C equipment has improved significantly over the last several years, with each company owning a Beaverfit Box including an assortment of barbells/weights, KB’s, Med Balls, Sleds, etc. There is also a large indoor gym that is fully equipped with lifting platforms and cages within walking distance of the barracks.
There did not appear to be any kind of deconfliction within the companies of squads utilizing the boxes and gym. Some squad leaders reported that they get crowded during morning PT, causing crowding and equipment shortfalls.
Potential Solutions
- Companies should require a 30-day training plan from squads which includes equipment requirements, then hold an internal meeting to deconflict on equipment.
Military-Specific Fitness Programming
PT is generally planned and conducted at the Squad level, with the occasional session at the Platoon Level. While there are programs that have attempted to provide a degree of fitness expertise at the company level, the Marines we spoke to reported it has been generally ineffective.
Potential Solutions
- Programming should be outsourced to SMEs, with annual in-person training for Squad to Platoon level leaders on learning/coaching exercises as well as leading the sessions for maximum efficiency. This is no different than the current approach to marksmanship, combative, etc.
MTI Internal AAR Points
We asked all participants to complete a course review form at the conclusion of the class. These were our major sustains and improves:
Sustains
- Plug-and-play methodology
- Worksheets & Presentation (instruction and as a future resource)
- Interaction w/students (Prac App)
- Simple categorization of fitness attribute training
- Simple cycle design
- Long-range training plan to complement Marine Infantry-specific training schedule
- Knowledge of instructors to demands/pain points of students
Improve
- Long day, with very condensed information. Potentially spreading the course over two half-day sessions might be beneficial.
- Request for more visuals. Our slides were dense with information. Additional visuals might give the brain a break and reinforce lessons.
- Recovery information. We did not address recovery and received several questions on this topic.
- MTI-specific exercise names caused some confusion to those who were not familiar with MTI.
- Nutrition guidance specific to the audience (chow hall, MRE). Simple meal prep or methods to select the right food from the Chow Hall menu.
- Uphill/Mountain loaded movement training. We did not directly address uphill training methodologies. Camp Lejeune is very flat, so preparing for mountain-focused training blocks or deployment areas is a challenge.
- Additional Aerobic Options: Swimming, Assault Bike, Rower, etc. We did not directly address aerobic conditioning substitutes. Additionally, the USMC is by nature an amphibious force and should perhaps have focused swim training blocks to ensure a certain degree of competency or at minimum survivability.
- Remove complicated movements: Approximately 50% of the personnel we trained with were competent in the execution of total body movements like Power Cleans and Turkish Get-ups. Can we implement simpler movements to maximize efficiency while still getting the appropriate training stimulus?
- List of Reading materials for the Small Unit Leaders who want to dive deeper.
- Place a time limit on Practical Applications to increase efficiencies.