Valuable lesson for the rookie

So, I have had this rookie working at my station for the last few shifts.  I was able to teach him a very valuable lesson for the fire ground.  A little background.  This rookie is 20 years old, look 15, is the son of an active captain on my department, and weighs 150lbs soaking wet!  But a great kid with a great attitude.


I have an afternoon workout I do at the station every shift.  We have a prowler sled.  I have 25 meters marked off in our side yard in the grass.  I do 10 rounds of 50m pushes, down and back.  The sled weighs approximately 45lbs unloaded.  I do 4 rounds of 50m with just the sled, 3 rounds with the sled + 45lb plate and 3 rounds with the sled + 90lbs.  So 500m total.  If I have a rookie working at my station I make them do it with me.  We alternate rounds between us.  


The first day I let him do it however he wanted.  He chose to run with the sled when he could.  By round 8, he didn't even want to try it with the extra 90lbs, so he did rounds 8 and 9 with the extra 45lbs and round 10 with only the sled.  He was beat.  Yesterday I told him this time to simply walk and push, even when the weight is light.  He did.  Not only did he do better, he was able to do all 10 rounds with the weight that was prescribed but we also did it over 5 minutes faster.  We followed it up with some sled pulls with a 75' navy rope that I have with a large D ring on the end.  I was able to show him that working smarter is much better.  Remember that saying in Spec Ops, slow is smooth and smooth is fast!


The fire ground has a certain amount of work that it will require, but that amount of work is unknown to all of us.  If we don't pace ourselves, we will likely run out of gas and that is when the risk of injury goes way up.  Just a neat little example of some of the things you can teach the young ones by actually getting outside and working with them, or in this case, making them work with you!!!