Combat Obstacle Course
1447 Words
"RedCoc...? What's a RedCoc, gentlemen? It sounds a bit vulgar if I were to pronounce this word a few more times in repetitions, don't you think so? Hahaha."
I laughed at the word that was used to abbreviate the Redesigned Combat Obstacle Course at this moment. From one look it looked like a kind of steeplechase in athletics that I had used to encounter back in uni. But this obstacle course that was drawn out before me was very interesting and intriguing at the same time.
"So, gentlemen, the purpose of this is to build confidence, teamwork, endurance, agility, dexterity, stamina and strength, am I right? So how do you go about it? There are altogether 12 stations here and would you mind advising me on every single one of these?"
I tapped my fingers on the design and one of the engineers spoken up to explain to me the whole concept of the obstacle course.
"Your Majesty, as you can see there are 12 stations altogether and the first one would be a low wall about 6 feet tall. Before clearing this low wall, the participant would have to complete a single round of the arena which would be about 650 yards."
"So let me do the complete round-up of the obstacles and its name and purpose later. Station #1 - Low Wall, Station #2 - Stepping Stones, Station #3 - Rubble, Station #4 - Tunnel, Station #5 - Dodging Panels, Station #6 - Low Rope, Station #7 - Ditch, Station #8 - Corridor, Station #9 - Balancing Bridge, Station #10 - Window, Station #11 - Jacobs Ladder, Station #12 - Ramp, and lastly the 450 yards run down."
"The purpose would be as follow - Station #1 is to test the strength of the upper limbs and the power of the lower limbs. It could be an individual effort or even a combined effort to help the rest clear the first obstacle."
"After running a distance of 650 yards, the soldier or participant would be slightly shacked out especially if he or she had to carry a certain weight behind their backs, like say a 25 pounder sack filled with sand?"
"Through experiences, there would be too many soldiers or participants who literally barged and bulldoze their way through this low wall as if they could bring it down."
"In fact, the wall was built another 4 feet into the ground and could even withstand the weight of two to three burly men ramming against it. Hahaha. "
"Station #2 trains the leaping and balancing of a participant. Please observe the angle of these stepping stones. They are not flat but set at an inclined angle. One slip and the participant might be landing inside the spaces and have to restart all over again."
"Frankly, our Assassins unit would be able to clear that with their eyes closed. It's part of their training to be able to clear this even at a height, Your Majesty."
"Station #3 trains on vaulting and ducking. This simulates a terrain where a soldier needs to perform a certain task in order to reach their objective like over the wall and under the clotheslines and back again and repeat 6 times."
"Station #4 trains crawling in confined spaces. It also simulates a soldier going through tunnels dug underground and under walls and castles. No wars would be fought above ground all the time right?"
"I think you might be able to know about how they besieged Rochester Castle that time by burrowing underground and setting parts of the wall to crumble after setting fire to the fattest swine ever."
"Station #5 trains lateral dodging in confined spaces. With the zigzag manner and wide to narrow spaces, this allows a soldier to reduce and accelerate their speed of attack. Also, this would train a soldier to duck their head lower than the height of the spaces here."
"Station #6 trains muscular strength and endurance of upper limbs and trunks. In the case of those escalades, this would be used to scale the walls prior to the siege."
"They need to climb the single rope, reach the top, ring a bell and then slide back to the ground and suffer rope burns on their palms and between the thighs. Hahaha."
"Station #7 trains leaping over gaps and landing on slopes. In the outdoors, nothing is on flat ground and there would be moats and ditches left by the enemies. If the participant is caught on these slopes unawares, their body might spring back."
"Station #8 trains ducking and clearing spaces of restricted heights. See those windows there? They are actually fixed and a suddenly raised head would sure knock the participant back or even incur an injury in the process... Hahaha."
"Station #9 trains a soldier on balancing, jumping and coordination. If he or she loses balance, it would be best to throw themselves over the sides and not straddle these beams between their legs even if their balls were made from steel. I couldn't guarantee the damage done since it would be at 10 feet off the ground...!"
"Station #10 trains a soldier how to vault through open windows. This would be great to perform sneak attacks and to finish off the enemies upon entry."
"If they carry a staff behind them, and if they forget to adjust it behind their back, you should imagine how they would look like from the front angle."
"Station #11 trains a soldier on balancing and being at a certain height. Same thing too, if one happens to lose balance, they would best squat down and regain their balance rather than stepping forward and falling through these gaps. If they don't get caught by the balls, they would be caught at their necks instead. Hahaha."
"Station #12 trains the confidence, jumping and landing from a height. At the bottom of this, I would get Priestess Penelope to grow some bramble bush so the soldiers would attempt to jump further than usual."
"Once they land, they would have expanded their reserves of breath and this makes the last 450 yards run down a huge drag to complete."
"Yes, Your Majesty... These obstacles are meant to train our soldiers and also be used as what you had said earlier about a steeplechase event. It would be interesting and I think this would be yet another bi-weekly event where one would be to clear all through this without any fumble et cetera."
"We won't be able to time the participants but it's one way to watch our soldiers duke against each other in terms of endurance and fitness, Your Majesty."
"The arrangement of these obstacles would be placed at the perimeter of the pitch, Your Majesty, and it would not be a hindrance to other sporting events at all."
The information that had been relayed to me was more than a mouthful and it was very overwhelming. As I was more of an athlete and a sportsman when I was in school days and uni, I agree to the suggestions immediately.
"What's good for the soldiers and the community, it would be good for me as well. I would be the first participant to go through that once it's completed, alright?"
I offered myself to be the first contestant and Heather was feeling elated at my sides as she was merrily thumping her fists at the sides of my arms and my back as if she was administering some kind of massage for me...!
So we have the Redesigned Combat Obstacle Course at the perimeter of the pitch, then we also have the football and handball gold posts at the ends of the pitches, with some of the Archery stationary targets as well.
There was a rack that had some weighted spears and some heavy metal spheres where it was used to be tossed after being launch by hand to see how far it would go.
It was also a test to see how far they could throw clay bricks at the enemy if they come too close to our town's walls I guess. Hahahaha.
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