Sports PT

Today has been a fun day.  For those of you who are unaware, the Army frowns upon sports PT for several reasons.  These reasons include: injuries and a lack of actual physical training.  In contrast, sports PT is said to build unit cohesion.  Thus far, we have had two sports PT days resulting in one Soldier being admitted to the ER, one Soldier fracturing his wrist, one Soldier fracturing her ankle, and almost a fight.  The lack of physical training refers to Soldiers who watch the game and do not fully participate.  You be the judge.

PT this morning went really well even though we played Ultimate Football.  We began the game with a twisted set of rules created by someone who has obviously never played Ultimate Football.  These rules were similar to a two hand touch football game where the person with the ball could run as far as they could until they were touched with two hands.  Then the ball holder had to stop and pass the ball to a teammate.  This did not play well, as it never does in games of two hand touch.  The player with the ball never admitting they were touched and continues to run while the opposing team stands around yelling.  We put a quick end to this game and adjusted the rules so the ball carrier was limited to three steps prior to passing the ball to a teammate. 

With these rules, the game went on with players counting steps and taking pride in scoring points fairly.  As tension rose between teams, I witnessed a confrontation that could have taken a turn for the worst.  My former NCO and the COL’s driver were the two individuals involved and on opposite teams.  The COL’s driver had the ball.  My former NCO jumped on his back to get the ball or prevent him from throwing it; I am still not sure what his intent was behind jumping on the COL’s driver.  The driver pushed him off and told him to give him space.  My former NCO decided to guard him from the front instead providing full body contact.  The driver pushed him back, threw the ball square at his crotch and walked away.  Instead of taking the ball and continuing the game, my former NCO decided to do the “big man walk” (the one where you hold your head and shoulders high, taking big steps) up to the driver and bumps chests with him saying, “You wanna make something of this?” 

The 1SG quickly stepped in, telling the two to separate.  He yelled at the driver saying that it was unsportsmanlike behavior and to “never throw a ball at someone with the intention of causing harm.”  About a minute later, on the other side of the field, I saw my former NCO confronting the driver once again.  Shaking my head, I yelled at them to separate and ran to the opposite end of the field where I actually caught the ball and successfully passed it off to someone else!  Maybe I do possess some athletic abilities!

The company commander walked into the office today with the sole purpose of making fun of my lack of athletic skills.  He asked me how many times I dropped the ball and started laughing when I responded with, “I don’t know, seven?  But you all should know better than to pass the ball to me.” 

“You were the only one open.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to pass the ball to me.”

“No, but it does mean you have to catch the ball.”

“I caught one…and I deflected that one ball.”

“Yea, you did.  That makes up for all those balls you dropped.”

“Thanks, I was so worried.”