Top flight fitness: Five takeaways to make it as a physical training instructor
I spent six months with RAF Cosford's physical training instructors - and no, it wasn't to get fit!
Armed with cameras, running shoes and plenty of water, BFBS Forces News was the first broadcaster to follow the RAF's most physically demanding course.
These men and women were being trained to become PTIs themselves, and I can confirm this course pushed even the fittest to their limit.
Physical Fitness
Now it will be no surprise that they need to have a good level of fitness.
But what surprised me was that the instructors are not looking for a finished article.
Fitness is built on here. It's broken down and pushed.
Air Specialist Class 1 Georgia Atkinson said: "When staff teach us lessons in the gym it is intense because usually you know something tasty's going to come, a very hard session's going to come."
When thrown in a room with 16 other fitness fanatics, competition ramps up.
Air Recruit Harry Bell summed it up, saying they're "very competitive with each other".
But from what I saw that competition only drove the course on. They all wanted to make it to the end, and they all wanted to get there together.
A trainee's day starts well before the 08:00 start time as they have to build on their own fitness before the working day begins – and after it.
Then it's followed by fitness tests, theory tests, leading lessons and sometimes working through lunch to run exercise sessions for other RAF personnel.
Then you have their biggest physical marker on the course – the Regiment Annual Fitness Test (RAFFT) – or what is now known as the ROFA, the Regiment Operational Fitness Assessment.
It's a two-hour assessment that you have to pass – a fail would send you packing.
The women held their own here, pulling and lifting the same weight as the men, with one drag being 110kg.
On the day, despite foggy and wet conditions, all of them passed.
The Interview Process
Their interview process lasts up to three days.
To get into this popular course, 80 applied but only 16 were picked.
Known as the vetting, a prospective trainee is invited to stay at RAF Cosford, where they have to complete a series of fitness and theory tests.
These include the bleep test and swimming tests. They also have to give a presentation to show how they can hold the attention of a room.
For some, this is their first experience in the military. The RAF accepts applicants onto the PTI course straight from civvy street.
The Role of a PTI
The role of a PTI is to create longevity in the Royal Air Force.
Air Recruit Morgan Wollen was in finance before joining the course. She said: "If we don't have pilots up in the air who are fit and competent, then we're failing our jobs."
Good fitness can keep personnel out on operations longer, meaning they don't sustain an injury because of a lack of fitness.
And training can be tailored to help pilots who have to wear heavy equipment like helmets.
A PTI can offer advice around sleep and diet, which can really help personnel.
They can also help the technicians and engineers who have to contort their bodies to fix aircraft with targeted stretching and exercises that will ease muscle strain.
This is why there are so many tests on the course. In fact, almost daily tests make up most of the training.
Theory and Psychology
They closed the doors to this course for 18 months to revamp it. During that transition they introduced more theory-based work.
For the first two months on the course trainees spend most of it in the classroom.
They learn about mental wellbeing and fitness, rest and recovery, the nutrients personnel need from certain foods and the anatomy of the body. This was all applied to specific RAF roles and how they could tailor a session for them.
They didn't just tell someone to do something for no reason. Everything has a deeper aim.
This was also illustrated through practical lessons.
What looked like a badminton lesson turned out to be a psychological lesson on positive and negative feedback.
From the video, you can see how cheering and booing affect performance.
The Uniform – the Whites
The white uniform is legendary amongst the PTIs.
As AS1 Georgia Atkinson explains: "It's like when Iron Man puts his suit on."
It symbolises an important moment in a PTI's career, as Flight Sergeant Sean O'Donnell, the training supervisor at the Physical Training School, explained: "By us saying 'yes you can wear these whites now', we're almost saying that we are happy that you are capable and confident you can represent the profession in a good light."
An RAF PTI is the only one in the Air Force who wears an all-white uniform.
I watched it give them an unmatched confidence.
My Takeaway
This is a course that tests even the fittest people. I learned to keep my camera rolling on filming days because you never knew when they were going to start running, do 30 burpees or head to the pool.
Every hour counts here, and it was like each trainee had their own battery pack to keep going!
Alongside the 08:00 to 17:00 training day, they spent their free time in the gym out of hours to build on their own fitness or practise their own lessons.
Despite how hard it is, there is a real community feel, and they can get even the least motivated to get up and run.
They even got me running with all my kit while filming them!
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