Failed PRMC

[ali_hire]

Well guys I blew it.

Coming over the 12ft rope crossing (the chasm I think they call it), I lost balance, fell and landed akwardly on my heel. I immediately felt the familiar pain (old injury) shoot up my leg and burn in the front of my shin. The RSM (who happened to be watching me at that point) came over and asked if I could carry on, I told him I could and got up to do it again but he told me to stop as I clearly couldn't. I never felt so dejected as I did at that point.

Anyway, the PRMC was great and I mean really great, I loved every second of it. It is exactly what I expected and more and I can't wait to get down there again.

JamesCarr was also on this one and although he was in a different room and I didn't see too much of him I'm sure he's done well, but he'll be in here later to tell you that.

How I found it:

3 miler - surprisingly easy, it wasn't run anywhere near the pace that I trained at (I was running around 20mins before going down there). A lot of the guys also said how easy they thought this was. We lost 2 guys on this.
Gym test 1 - ok. I got 11.10 on the bleep test. 52 press ups, 55 it ups (I got about 15-20 deducted on this for form) and 6 pull ups. The RSm told me that these scores were all above average (although I would have liked more sit ups) and that I was on target to pass.
Assault course - good fun although I found it really take it out of you. If you can try and practice simulating some of the things you'll be doing on this. For example; try doing doing your circuit training near a walland included climbing over it a few times in the circuit, you have to haul yourself over 2 of these on the assault course and you'd be surprised at how much energy it takes to do this. It is very difficult to practice rope crossing unless you have the luxury of having an assault course in your back garden, however, you can work the same muscles by either rope climbing or pulling something heavy attached to a rope.

All in all I think our course went as follows. We lost 2 on the run, 1 pulled out on bottom field, 2 didn't get high enough on the bleep test (they had to get 11 as their mechanical comprehension score was low) and 3 were told lat night that they hadn't made the grade. 3 pulled out from injury (including me), the other 2 were a dislocated shoulder (I think he said this was a problem before he went down) and one has damage ligaments in his knee (he did the exact same thing on his last PRMC apparently, poor guy). I overheard the RSM telling one of the Cpls that we were a really strong troop but he thought that the weather (wet) was playing a part in some of the times for the assault course (apparently a lot of the times were quite high).

A few general tips from my experience down there:

Switch on and listen carefully to everything the instructor tells you. If they tell you to do something a certain way then do it exactly as they say/have shown you. As the RSM said to us, this is one of the most important things in his book as he is looking to see if you are trainable. On my interview the RSM told me that he'd noticed I responded well to orders/instructions and that things like that were noted on your points tally. It's little, easy things like this that can swing it in your favour.

Don't fall in the water on the assault course. I cannot stress this enough, there are only 2 places where you can do it - on the tank trap (approx. 4-5ft trench that you jump across at the start) and on the monkey bars. I lost my hand placement on the monkey bars and fell into the water as did one or two others. You want to avoid this like the plague!!! You are heavy enough as it is with the combat jacket and trousers on, you do not want them soaking wet through, this will just make you much heavier and slower. Also, the boots are pretty much water proof, which means that they will fill with water and it will not escape until you take them off and tip them upside down (which you won't be able to do until you've finished bottom field).

I now have 4 months until I can have another crack at it. Although I'm gutted about getting injured, I'm already over cursing myself for it. I just want to crack on with training and get myself back down there.

If you have any questions I will try to anwer as best I can. I got to watch gym test 2 although I couldn't take part. It looks like hell, I would estimate just as bad as bottom field. I was genuinely wincing when they were doing the sprints at the end, they seemed to go on forever!

[LostandFound]

Thats just plain bad luck mate, really is... can't imagine how you must have felt when you couldn't carry on.
On the positive side it certainly sounds like you were on course to make the grade and pass PRMC, so make sure you give your injury the best possible chance of healing properly, get back on it and you'll be in RT before you know it.
Best of luck for you recovery.

[digitalfreefall]

ali_hire: you can take some comfort in the fact that you failed due to injury and not poor fitness.
Take it on the chin mate, dig in and get yourself fit for your next date, March will come soon enough.

[Paulc83]

so what sort of scores where you hitting before you whent in then mate?

[darrenrugby18]

Sorry to hear it man, not been you're luck when it comes to injury. Take some comfort in the fact you're not starting in the middle of winter.... my those first exercises will be fun!

[ali_hire]

Paulc83

I was getting averaging between 50-55 press ups, 65-75 sit ups and 8-10 chin ups. With the scores you have in your signature you should be fine. Just make sure that your form is correct. I had loads of sit ups deducted because my knees would come apart very slightly when sitting up, they have an eagle eye and are very picky so make sure your form is good.

[euro_andrew]

Good work Ali.

It just wasn't your day to pass. Good luck when you return
in 4 months.

[jacko1234]

unlucky Ali suppose you cant help injury but four months is sod all it'll come very quick and it looks like you were right on form to pass prmc ,so in 4 months you'll ace it.good luck mate.....oh and just one question how hard did you find it to reach level 11 on the bleep test?, reason i ask is on the day of the tests i had alot of my mind and did crap on mech comprehension ,

[jamescarr]

Hi there,

Just got back from the prmc, stopped off in exeter for a few beers, lovely

Sorry to hear about you ali, i did see you slip off the rope, i did also see you take several dips in the water too Its like the guy said above, it was only down to an unfortunate injury, so hopefully we'll be seeing you soon in RT. So good luck mate!

I must say this site has really helped, so thanks, allthough i really wasnt expecting what went on in gym test 2. That was a major beasting!! It was by far harder than the bottom field!! Im sure we ran the 3 miler at a 7.5min/mile pace though, it was a very laid back run.

Anyway, my scores..

Beep test 10.8
Push-ups: 51
Sit-ups: 51
Pull ups: 6
Assault course: 3:30

[jamescarr]

Oh yeah, and how cool was that slide thing! that was fantastic. Id just say to anyone going down, not to worry. I was shitting bricks prior to going down But i really enjoyed it, it was great fun, great experience, just hang on in there on the bottom field, and give everything you got in them damn sprints after gym test 2. The first ones back got to rest towards the end

[KJ-Edwards]

Jamescarr congrats for passing..

Ali Good luck for when you return
in 4 months and ace it.

KJ

[iareglenn]

jamescarr were there any sprints in the 3 miler or not?

[mfat_man]

Switch on and listen carefully to everything the instructor tells you. If they tell you to do something a certain way then do it exactly as they say/have shown you. As the RSM said to us, this is one of the most important things in his book as he is looking to see if you are trainable. On my interview the RSM told me that he'd noticed I responded well to orders/instructions and that things like that were noted on your points tally

Ali, top tip here for the others. Gutted for you mate, but don't get down give it another go

James carr, well done, good luck for RT

[jamescarr]

Hi

No not really, we sprinted over a bridge, done a couple of push ups, sit-ups, and two sprints for a warm-up, had a stretch and then done the run which was quite a nice pace all the way. Gym test two though, we must of been sprinting for 20mins non-stop after those games, it was intense.