NEWTEMP2MAIN.png' alt='Steeplechase Training Programs' title='Steeplechase Training Programs' />Obstacle Course Races Their History and Future. For the past few years, youd be hard pressed to scroll through your Facebook feed, especially in the summertime, without seeing some of your friends posting pictures of themselves at the finish line of an obstacle course. Events like the Warrior Dash, Spartan Race, and Tough Mudder have become well known parts of the modern recreational scene. You might think these mud filled tests of stamina, agility, and toughness represent a new cultural phenomenon, but their roots actually trace much farther back in history. Before becoming the proving ground for a kind of sport a challenge for challenges sake obstacle courses were used as training devices, designed to build the mental and physical fitness of soldiers, sailors, and marines preparing themselves for combat, as well as civilians interested in strengthening the whole man. Georges Hebert and the Origins of Obstacle Courses. Illustration from one of Georges Heberts physical education books 1. Obstacle courses, like almost everything else about physical culture, has it origins in the military and the building of better warriors. The use of obstacle courses to train soldiers likely goes back to antiquity, though they were used in a less structured manner. Roman legionaries, for example, trained for battle by practicing jumping over natural barriers like hedges and ditches. The rise of set, intentionally constructed obstacle courses would largely have to wait until the 1. In Europe, this period saw a significant upswing of interest in physical fitness, which rose in tandem with feelings of nationalism that were surging in the continents respective countries. Frequent wars had shown nations like France, Britain, and Germany the necessity of keeping their peoples in fighting shape. Various schools of thought developed as to how best to do that, but most focused on gymnastics and functional exercises running, calisthenics, jumping, climbing ropes, and using equipment like rings, the pommel horse, and parallel bars. At the turn of the 2. Frenchman Georges Hebert got the idea of taking these different exercises and arranging them into a set obstacle course. Hebert had traveled the world in the French Navy and been impressed during a visit to Africa as to how flexible, nimble, skillful, enduring, and resistant the native peoples were, even though they didnt follow any kind of formal exercise program. Hebert drew inspiration from this experience, as well as from ancient Greek and Roman culture, and the work of his physical education predecessors, in order to create his own fitness philosophy. The Natural Method encouraged its adherents to get strong and agile in the same way tribesmen had for thousands of years practicing a diverse set of physical skills by moving through the natural environment and navigating varied terrains. Training Programs. A training program has to be developed to meet the individual needs of the athlete and take into consideration many factors gender, age. But Hebert also saw value in training on a permanent obstacle course, where one could practice these physical skills in a deliberate way. Abaqus Fatigue Crack Propagation. He thus created un parcours courses on which one walks, one runs, one jumps, one progresses quadrupedally crawls, one climbs, one walks in unstable balance, one raises, one carries, one throws. Heberts parcours which included balance beams, walls, ladders, ropes and more were designed not only to test a participants whole fitness, but to challenge and build their confidence, courage, willpower, resolution, and mental toughness. Running the course was not a timed event, but a way for each individual to work at bettering and improving themselves. Hebert began to train the French Navy in his system, creating parcours de combatant on which sailors and marines could prepare themselves for battle. His work would continue during and between the two world wars, with his natural method becoming the standard system of French military physical education, and spreading to armed forces around the world. The idea of improving ones mental and physical skills on obstacle courses proved popular with citizens as well, and his teachings inspired the building of civilian fitness trails, woodland challenge courses, confidence courses which feature obstacles higher off the ground, and of course, the modern discipline of parkour. American Military Obstacle Courses During the World Wars. The idea of obstacle course training for soldiers and sailors would migrate across the Atlantic and be implemented and modified by the American military during the 2. Obstacle Courses in WWIWhile it is often said General William Hoge introduced obstacle courses to the American military in 1. First World War. Obstacle courses were instituted as part of American soldiers training at the behest of Dr. Joseph E. Raycroft, former University of Chicago basketball coach and Chairman of the Department of Health and Physical Education at Princeton University. Raycroft served as an advisor to the Army, overseeing the physical fitness component of their training camps during WWI. Classes. On top of doing one on one behavior consultations, No Monkey Business Dog Training, Helen St. Pierre, CPDTKSA, CDBC, OSCT teaches a variety of classes locally. The Dressage Training manual and procedures were instituted by the German National Equestrian Foundation. Each trainer adds a little. Play online Arcade Action games from Big Fish on your PC or Mac. No ads. just free Arcade Action game funThe courses he designed aimed to strengthen a soldiers stamina and agility, acquaint them with the kind of obstacles and physical skills theyd encounter in combat, and boost their overall confidence and resolution. The exact layout and components of the course varied by training camp, but the 1. Army Field Physical Training of the Soldier, recommended that it be 1. Row of low 2. 5 foot hurdles. Bar fence with a top bar adjustable from 3 to 4. Sand bag wall 4. Shallow ditch 8 feet wide. Elevated balance run 4. After the war, Raycroft created a new manual Mass Physical Training which established the Individual Efficiency Test. The IET represented the first time the Army had created criteria by which to quantify and test its soldiers all around physical efficiency. The test was designed to gauge a soldiers combat readiness and consisted of a 5 round battery 1. Obstacle Course Run OCR. While the R in OCR has now become synonymous with Race, since soldiers ran against time, rather than each other, they were then called runs rather than races. According to West Point professor Whitfield B. East, this OCR was the first recorded use of an obstacle course to obtain quantitative assessment of functional fitness. The course was 1. Sprint 1. 0 yards to a three foot hurdle sprint 1. Interest in physical fitness, both in the military and in the civilian population, always heightens during wars, and then ebbs between them. Thus during the interwar years of 1. Armys focus on the importance of soldiers physical prowess waned, and as a consequence, the Individual Efficiency Test was dropped from the militarys training program in 1. While obstacle courses were no longer timed and used as part of the IET, they continued to be employed as a general training and fitness device, and were in use at the outset of WWII. But the Second World War would transform them into something more varied, interesting, and challenging. Obstacle Courses in WWIIRunning, jumping, vaulting, climbing, and crawling are basic activities required of all soldiers. They are also excellent means for developing endurance, agility, confidence, and self reliance. Instruction and training in these basic activities are best conducted on an obstacle course. FM 2. Basic Field Manual on Physical Training, 1. WWI had shown that positional, trench warfare was largely over, and that the military had to adapt to a more mobile and stamina demanding style of fighting. Yet when conscription was instituted in 1.