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Did you ever play baseball & football when you were young?

Skunk-Works

Skunk-Works

Senior member
If so, you're the last generation that did so apparently.

The U.S. Army will drop its hand grenade competency requirement for graduation from basic training because getting recruits to pass it is taking “too much time” and they’re just not strong enough, Major General Malcolm Frost told reporters on Friday.

Changes to the Army’s Basic Combat Training (BTC) will eliminate the current hand grenade proficiency standards as a requirement for graduation, Military.com reports:

“The new BCT does, however, do away with hand grenade qualification and land navigation course qualification as graduation requirements.”
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https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-...and-grenade-competency-graduation-requirement

Pretty crazy. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and feel like I was the last generation where you actually played outside. I played tag football and baseball down the street. Played Army with all kinds of guns (I had an arsenal). And yet I did own a Nintendo and latter a Super Nintendo. But I still managed to get my ass outside and play. In fact, being in school I couldn't wait to get home and play outside. It seems kids these days are too weak.
 
No, it's just that the training for them has been eliminated. They will train on how to use them, etc but the overall need to be proficient is gone.
 
I used to play baseball as kid in the '70's. I really enjoyed it.

Football was not really my thing. I did play it a bit in highschool phys-ed and ended up seriously injuring my knee. I ended up with arthritis in my knee in my 20's.
 
I wonder if the Chinese and Russians have the same problem?

Thankfully my 16-20 year old nephews always played a lot of sports and are pretty fit.
 
When are combat drones coming?

Edit: While on the surface removing the requirement seems a bit daft I wonder how often grenades are thrown in modern combat as opposed to launched? If our soldiers are carrying hand grenades they never use then maybe it is time to not do that and save the weight for more batteries.
 
My dad stopped trying to get me interested in sports when I was six and kept not catching the football. Turns out beaning your own kid in the head a few times will take the fun out of it for the parent.

I needed glasses pretty badly.
 
So the US army is gonna have soldiers that can only throw a grenade 3 yards? SMH

carly-rae.gif
 
Skunk-Works said:
If so, you're the last generation that did so apparently.

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-...and-grenade-competency-graduation-requirement

Pretty crazy. I grew up in the 80s and 90s and feel like I was the last generation where you actually played outside. I played tag football and baseball down the street. Played Army with all kinds of guns (I had an arsenal). And yet I did own a Nintendo and latter a Super Nintendo. But I still managed to get my ass outside and play. In fact, being in school I couldn't wait to get home and play outside. It seems kids these days are too weak.
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I played baseball when I was a kid. My son played basketball up until a couple years ago. He runs 5ks in gym class and he wants to take weight training next year as one of his electives in high school. He does some weight training at home and is in excellent shape. He can almost beat me at arm wrestling and he's only 15 years old. He also rides his bike to school and to the beach. About 4 miles to school and 7 miles to the beach.
 
I played t-ball for like one year and I didn't like it. Never played any other organized sports, but I did do track and cross country in middle school for a year. I was never the sports type; I would rather just go outside and ride my bike, rollerblade, shoot hoops, climb trees, etc. I got enough exposure to team sports in gym class.
 
Un-lurking.

I'd go out on a limb and say most of the issues are probably the female recruits. But they can't say that.
 
Or they just participated in different sports. Soccer is huge now. It was not even a blip 30 years ago when I was a kid. I started out playing football in high school but moved over to cross country my Jr year. It was a co-ed sport, the only one where the boys and girls teams rode the same bus, and it was generally just a much more positive, encouraging and enjoyable sport. It's what I will point my kids to as well. It's a wonderful discipline sport and continuously rewards you with goals/gains as you work harder. Some of the toughest and most disciplined athletes you will find are distance runners. Just don't ask them to toss a grenade. Hand eye coordination isn't their forte. 😛
 
vi edit said:
Or they just participated in different sports. Soccer is huge now. It was not even a blip 30 years ago when I was a kid. I started out playing football in high school but moved over to cross country my Jr year. It was a co-ed sport, the only one where the boys and girls teams rode the same bus, and it was generally just a much more positive, encouraging and enjoyable sport. It's what I will point my kids to as well. It's a wonderful discipline sport and continuously rewards you with goals/gains as you work harder. Some of the toughest and most disciplined athletes you will find are distance runners. Just don't ask them to toss a grenade. Hand eye coordination isn't their forte. 😛
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Instead they could just juggle the grenade with their legs then kick it over to the enemy!
 
dave_the_nerd said:
My dad stopped trying to get me interested in sports when I was six and kept not catching the football. Turns out beaning your own kid in the head a few times will take the fun out of it for the parent.

I needed glasses pretty badly.
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I had similar issues with peers. Found out when I was at MEPS for the AF that I actually had no depth perception, no wonder I hated non-contact sports so much.

As a note, it also excluded me from a metric ton of jobs.
 
snoopy7548 said:
Instead they could just juggle the grenade with their legs then kick it over to the enemy!
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It's worth mentioning that in the school districts my kids are in, Archery is the most popular middle school sport and lacrosse is very popular in high school. Now launching a grenade with a lacrosse stick is a pretty useful skill!
 
vi edit said:
It's worth mentioning that in the school districts my kids are in, Archery is the most popular middle school sport and lacrosse is very popular in high school. Now launching a grenade with a lacrosse stick is a pretty useful skill!
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archery + grenades are fun too
 
I'm more concerned about the land navigation training being cancelled. Not knowing where you are is going to cause more problems than your pitching arm.
 
Ken g6 said:
I'm gonna disagree. Evidence:
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Well, you're using an athlete as your example. And I know there are strong and very capable females in the military. I served with some.

But I saw my fair share of females who could barely muster enough push-ups to pass a PT test and have never done anything athletic in their lives.

I'm not against females in the military. I am against different standards. If my hair needs to be cut short, so should "hers". If I need to do 60 pushups in two minutes...etc.

The military is supposed to be tough.
 
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