SinoDefence Forum

sidewinder01

One of my close friend in China recently passed what they called "Living Hell" 4 mouth selection and screening and became a member of the Chengdu Military Region Special Forces.
We talked on MSN the other day and he briefly told me their everyday basic trainning (not including specialised trainning and any other classifed trainning methods.)

1. Day starts at 5: 30 with a 10km cross country run with 25kg and rifle( the weights will be carried through most of the trainning during the day)

2. A brief break is giving after the morning run for tooth-brushing and any other morning-cleaning procedures.

3. Breakfast is served at 6: 30

4. Trainning resumes at 7 with 100 to 150 pushs and 400 to 600 sit-ups in 15 to 18 mintues, and 800m obstacle course 3 times( each has to be complete in under 4 minutes? cant remmeber very clearly)

5. After the obstacle course, each member has to pick up a handiful of raw rice that are spreaded out in front of them(This build up patience and psychological tolorence because after intense exercise, our hands are in a shaky mode and picking up become very difficult.

6. After the rice-picking trainning, each member shots type-95 and various other standard special force weapons for one and half hours in different position and range, each shoting session is timed and recorded for accuracy, constantly failure to meet the standards would result in a discharge from the special force unit.(all weapons are disassembled before practice and the shoting practices sometimes starts before dawn or near dawn.)

7. Speclised trainning and lessons were taught to members that speclise in them.

9. Lunch is served and a after lunch-nap time is given.

8. Another 10km run with 25kg and rifle(May in forest or mountain area)

10. Some more push ups, sit-ups and obstactle courses were required under the time-limit.

11. After a brief rest, a daily rock/mountain climbing course has to be done within a required time period along with weight-lifting on different muscles of our body.

12. An after-noon snack is handed out(usually fruits with other mini-chinese snacks)

13. Another 10km run with 25kg and rifle

14. Dinner is served

15. All members are required to gather and watch the 7:00 CCTV-1 News.

16. Some more push ups, sit-ups and relaxing/after workout trainning.

17. Night-time shotting is done every week or every three days depending on the season of the year.

18. Free time followed by sleep time.

once a week, a 30km to 50km cross country run is served at a random time period. And once a month a wild survival trainning is served in different geographical regions of China, where each member is released into the wild with no food or water for days.

This is the only basic every-day physical trainning for each chinese SOF member, which does not include speclised trainning or any other trainning methods.

Sidenote: My friend told me that during his first month in the Chinese SOF, he pees blood almost everyday for a month. And the new member has their hands tied to a rope and were dragged on by squad and deputy squad leaders if they were not able to keep on with the group during the cross country runs during the first month. He also said in order to survive one has to have a will of iron and a courage makes them a SOF. Every year, only 1 to 6 recurits are selected from each infantry regiments or ground units in the military region to particpate in the selection, and that the rate of passing the selection is very low.

I just want to ask everybody's opinion here on whether is it effective to train you ass off everyday like this?? Is it still needed in the modern warfare today???

pla101prc

okay 3 10km run with 25kg in a single day and the cross country run are a bit inhumane. cant imagine doing that everyday for the entire duration of basic training. there are also stuff like doing squats while fireman carry your buddy and prolly a lot of martial arts training.
other than that it sounds more like Cat A infantry training. i am pretty sure the actual SOF training is even worse than this stuff. cuz your friend cant tell you EVERYTHING they do. in the PLA as long as you are in a Cat A unit you WILL pee blood in the beginning. its not just for SOF. and for the "free" time, the section commanders are free to make you do pt til like 1am lol. draggin with a rope thing is pretty common in the PLA too

Scyth

Well i saw a documentary on national geographic a while ago about the extremes a human body can endure...a quote from a presentator "those guys in the special forces are called special because they can do things a normal person can't"
so all those extreme running etc. is necessary if you ask me. Modern warfare today is great... a lot of extras for soldiers to make their lives easier and safer, but you can't depend on them since that would make you just an operator and normal persons like you and me can also be operators, we wouldn't be good soldiers though. And in the modern warfare we will also find ways to destroy (maybe like the electromagnetic bomb) eachother moder equipment so back to 'oldschool' warfare may be very likely. Furthermore you have to carry your extra equipment so some workout won't do any harm.

sidewinder01

Yea I forgot about it about the material trainning. Its one of the most important and serious training for the chinese SOF units, specially for the people specialising in scouting. For a every hour everyday you practice all the techniques you learned on various equipment, and then you can pick anyone out of your company to practice with for a hour, there is no rules during a practice fight. Then you would focus on various unique technique that is only being taught in the PLA SOF, such ass "Iron Head" or "Steel Hand or fist" where you break mutiple bricks with your head and fist(this has to be done under close supervision), this way they can learn how to hit extremely hard without having loads of muscle.
There are many other trainning which my friend didnt tell me or I forgot, but he told me he they never missed the 3 10km run with weights once while he was serving. But the 50km run is not done in extreme weathers.
They also have all these trainning when they dont give you time to aim at all, you have to pick your gun and shot at various angles without aiming... sometimes with one hand tied and some times with legs tied. Its kinda odd.

sidewinder01

I think you are talking about a normal infantry in a conventional warfare, special forces wont be sent to clear enemy troopers in a city.... they mainly are sent to go behind emeny lines or highly intensive and skill-oriented special mission without being noticed so they have to great physical fitness and great mental courage to go through or survive in places that your enemy would never think you could or wouldchoose. Trainning your ass off like that is not all being physically fit, its more about building the mental courage and psychological tolorance during the trainning so that you would always remain couragous and never give up on your mission even under the most conditions.

pla101prc

a lot of the trainings are meant to enhance your physical fitness, but they also increases your mental endurance capacity. a 50km run will not generate much marginal improvement compared to running a considerably shorter distance. but its mental challenge is great. ask anyone with experience in the army in any country and they'll tell you that the mental aspect plays a greater role than the physical component. this is where SOF's exceed most conventional infantry soldiers, specialized skills and superior mental endurance capacity.
o btw modern warfare has not developed to a point where physical fitness doesnt matter at all so you still have to keep up with your pt.

UCSDAE

yes, running does help strengthen your will. just imagine a fat kid who needs to lose weight, just think about his mental struggle when doing the mile.
50k run is just the SOF way of achieving the same end.

PrOeLiTeZ

thats wrong, the reason why we dont have jungle warfare anymore cause most of the battles within country dont have jungles. jungle warefare must still be taught. its just conicedance that the past decade of War fought arent situated in dense jungle environment. physical fitness is VERY important, its not gonna be a fight when you can call timeout and have a breather. you will need to carry equipment and maybe your wound allies. and run for cover, and even evade out of the urban environment into a safe zone, which could be kilometers away. you need the non-normal capabilites.

special forces, are mostly recon and sabotage, without reinforcement and act in small squads. so vehicles and other forms of transport may get your cover blown, so its important to be able to walk with full load for several kilometers. thats the life of special forces, it aint easy otherwise it would be no different to your normal soldier. you need a balance of stamina and tactics. not one over the other, whats the use of having good tactics if you cant survive a battle that could last for days without reinforcment.

still the matter is most deaths in todays warefare are still done by small arms fire between troop to troop and not be machines or other techologies.

Norfolk

Well put. Right now some Western Special Forces are having difficulty in both holding on to their troops (PMCs offering much better pay and a lot more home-time), and recruiting new ones (standards, not least physical fitness ones, are often being eroded for prospective trainees). To give an example of the latter, JTF 2 in Canada has recently changed its physical fitness standards for prospective trainees to reflect "functionality" - with the result that instead of a ~10-15% pass rate on the Selection course, it has now risen to ~45%. Functionality - being able to perform defined and specific tasks - is one thing; picking out those few individuals who are able to just keep going in spite of great adversity and tremondous stress and confusion is quite another. There are some people in regular units who are just as fit as their SF counterparts, but the former are not the same kind of man as the latter. It's about finding a certain breed of man, not just about being able to perform functional tasks, it's nowhere near enough.

PrOeLiTeZ wrote:

Very much agreed. I was only just a junior soldier, and a reservist at that in my time long ago, and never served any overseas or operational tours. But you don't have to have been overseas or even in the military to be well aware that all possibilities have to be taken account of, as best as possible. Urban warfare has been big recently, but it wasn't for many years until about the early '90s. Many wars were fought in jungles from the 40's to the '80s. But before that, many of the greatest battles in history were fought in and around cities - Stalingrad, Leningrad, Berlin - yet only a few years later, the experts of the time assured us that war in the future would be about push-buttons and nukes. Then Korea came along (not to mention various other wars in nasty places), and armies found themselves fighting something more like WWI in many ways than even WWII, let alone push-button or atomic warfare.

petty officer1

Chinese PLA Special Forces CQB training

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3vFx...eature=related

pla101prc

those look like recon units in Lanzhou MR.

i really like the video of the troops crawling under that armoured vehicle,i wanna say that i can do that as well but in reality i'll prolly just shit my pants LOL.

Skorzeny

First time I saw this thread, so sorry for the late reply :-)

Sidewinder, you should tell your friend to stop lying to you!

That is the most rediculous schedule I have ever seen and barely possible for top athletes to do for one day.

sidewinder01

You know, I told him the same thiing when I first heard this because it just sound so impossible tome. But, however, he does have evidence of pictures and video which he proves aleast the running and the push-up/sit-up part. He told me, this type of training cannot be done with just one's will. It's done under the tremendious pressure.
Which one is better? Go home and keep on fixing the earth or stay at military?
Getting beat and dragged on if not keeping up or just try your hardest and eventually being able to do it?
Of course no one on earth can do this everyday if its just training for a sport or competition.

Skorzeny

Well, I do believe they run and do push ups, and probably take pictures of it as well, that schedule is way over the top on the physical part.
Motivation will not help you through that.

Also the physical is just a small part military training, but nearly all of his schedule.

one and a half hour on the range? That time will fly by, prepping, zeroing etc.
We allways say TTT = Things Take Time. Schedules never hold

Sorry to say, but if the "special forces training" consists of just Physical and shooting, its probably just cooked up in somebodys basement

sidewinder01

Oh please, I said very clearly that is the only BASIC PHYSICAL trainning. I also that many other and the classfied training are not included........ Plus I will be working to post up some of his photos and videos when I get home today.He even have his old military Id that identifies him as a former special forces