Tuesday, October 24, 2006

new series coming up - All singapore men look here: IPPT training

The "joy" of all Singaporean men - Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT). from 18 to 40yrs old, each year we have - At best, the "opportunity" to "earn" up to $400 from the government. Or at worse the chance to avoid spending excess free time in an army camp doing remedial training. Here is my attempt at an IPPT guide. This guide is NOT for expereinced athletes, rather for those tetering on the "pass or fail edge". If you are a super athelte this is not really for you becuase uh.. you should be dominating the test already. For the rest of us keep a lookout on thie blog:)

In this post I will be introducing the items in the test. In subsequent posts I will be going through the training methods and the technique methods for doing well on the tests. As we know well from out acediemic studies, we can STUDY for tests and there are examination "techniques" that we can use to squeeze the last few bits of performance from out brains:) similarly there are certain tricks we can use to squeeze the last ounce of performance from out bodies... anything to avoid remedial training!

What do i think of the IPPT? Its not ideal for military physical prepardness (I would like a test with no 2.4, rather sprints + exercises + decision making at unspecified points in the test to make sure the soldiers can make smart decisions under physical duress) but the IPPT is alright and is not logistically hard to set up.
1. Situps - Bent leg, partner support, elbows touch the knees at the top position. A test of abdominal, hip flexor, lower back strength-endurance

2. Standing broad (long) jump - test of explosive power in the entire body (I will explain later)

3. Shuttle run (4x10m sprints) - test of agility and acceleration/decelration

4. Chunips - A test of relative body strength and upper body strength endurance.

5. 2.4km run - test of aerobic capacity