Military Camp Observations | Military Physical Fitness "Special Grade One" Has a New Measuring Standard
Four Comrades from the Same Company Pass "Special Grade One"
■ Guo Enjian, PLA Daily Reporter Xiang Liming
In the mountainous region of central Zhejiang, the morning mist had yet to clear when the sound of hurried footsteps was already echoing across the training ground of a brigade under the 72nd Group Army.
Staff Sergeant (Second Class) Lan Sixing gasped as he crossed the finish line of the track, with Sergeant Zhu Qingxi close on his heels. The two immediately moved without pause to the strength training area. Kettlebell deadlifts, medicine ball forward pushes, weighted lunge walks — these were all supplementary exercises they had added to address weaknesses in their physical conditioning.
"Before, we only focused on the 3,000-meter run and pull-ups. Now we have to bring up our overall capabilities." At last month's practical skills assessment, the two had paid a price — their core strength gave out, and their pace dropped noticeably in the second half.
Not far away, the muffled thud of grappling came from the mats. Sergeant Li Kaiyan was repeatedly practicing prisoner-capture techniques with Staff Sergeant (Second Class) Li Jun. Throat lock, force application, controlled takedown — by the end of one sequence, both men were breathing hard.
"Stop — your hip drive is still a little off." Li Jun jabbed a finger into Li Kaiyan's side. "When you locked me just now, your core wasn't tight, so I broke free right away." Li Kaiyan nodded and readjusted his stance. Prisoner capture has never been a showy technique; what matters is the fraction of a second in close-quarters engagement when one person gains control over the other.
Not long ago, Lan Sixing, Zhu Qingxi, Li Kaiyan, and Li Jun — four comrades from the same company — simultaneously passed the physical fitness "Special Grade One" (特一级) at a superior-level military physical fitness special-grade evaluation.
"The certificate is in my pocket, but training has to go on." As Lan Sixing spoke, freshly torn calluses on his palms were still seeping blood. "'Special Grade One' is a mirror — it reflects the true distance between training and actual combat."
"After the new edition of the Military Physical Fitness Training Syllabus (军事体育训练大纲) took effect, the standards for special-grade evaluation were given new specifications, with increased weighting for combat physical fitness (战斗体能) and practical skills (实用技能)," said Li Kaiyan. In other words, simply running fast or doing the most pull-ups is now outdated. Whether one can continuously complete multiple events under combat conditions, and whether one can convert physical fitness into skills that are useful on the battlefield — that is what the new measuring standard is truly designed to gauge.
Behind the four of them, more and more figures are joining this training ground. On the track and through the obstacle course, training changes benchmarked against the new Syllabus and oriented toward actual combat are quietly taking place with each passing training day.
---
Military Physical Fitness "Special Grade One" Has a New Measuring Standard
■ Guo Enjian, Lu Dongyu, Liu Hongjie, PLA Daily Reporter Xiang Liming
A reconnaissance element of a brigade under the 72nd Group Army conducts simulated helicopter-borne landing training. Photo by Zhong Zhihao.
**The era of "grinding" high scores on individual events to earn "Special Grade One" is over**
"Still a few seconds short — looks like this training method is wrong." Staring at the freshly posted results of a simulated combat physical fitness assessment on the electronic screen, a breathless Li Jun tore the bib number from his chest.
Although he already holds "Special Grade One," Li Jun knows clearly that his current scores still fall short of actual combat requirements.
Back in the barracks, Li Jun retrieved the new Military Physical Fitness Training Syllabus and confirmed the new standards once more: the basic physical fitness score, previously uncapped, has been adjusted to a ceiling of 100 points per individual event, and two new components — combat physical fitness and practical skills — have been added to the special-grade evaluation criteria, placing greater emphasis on comprehensive physical conditioning. "The new standard is a new measuring standard. What it measures is not the threshold for 'Special Grade One,' but the 'Special Grade One' capability to take the field in actual combat," said Li Jun.
Under the old system for earning "Special Grade One," every pull-up beyond the full-score threshold earned an additional point; Li Jun alone had "ground out" 34 extra points on that single event. Now, after carefully studying the new Syllabus, he understands that the era of earning "Special Grade One" by grinding high scores on individual events is over.
When preparing for the old assessment, Li Jun's logic was simple: set "extreme targets" for himself — daily check-ins of 200 pull-ups, armed 6-kilometer runs, and other above-standard training, not even sparing rest time, all in order to lock in the bonus-point "dividends" from his strongest events.
After the new Syllabus requirements were released, what gave Li Jun the most headaches was the 300-meter position-capability combination exercise (300米岗位能力组合练习) — which integrates physical fitness, skills, and tactical movement. It demands both speed and strength, and in several simulated assessments he lost pace in the final 50-meter shuttle run due to exhaustion.
Change was painful. Li Jun scrapped his training plan and started over, breaking the "combination exercise" down into component movements such as barbell hang cleans and weighted carries, and weaving them into his daily training. While others stretched after their runs, he practiced shuttle runs carrying ammunition boxes; while others rested, he studied how to correct his force-generation posture. After several months, the "final 50 meters" that had once cost him pace became his "golden 50 meters" for gaining time.
"From 'Special Grade One' to actual combat, I still have to keep 'grinding' — grinding new methods, grinding new standards," said Li Jun.
In the company, many others are experiencing the same "harshness" of battlefield requirements as Li Jun. Sergeant Wang Guanjun used to coast through the entire company on the strength of his single pull-up specialty; now, faced with the continuous operations of combat physical fitness in the new syllabus, his problem of poor physical resource allocation is fully exposed. Sergeant Xu Jinyang can run the 3,000 meters comfortably under 10 minutes, but repeatedly falls behind in the second half of armed cross-country runs.
The company quickly introduced a new intensive training program: instead of a one-size-fits-all collective run, it established a closed-loop training record for each officer and soldier built around "weak-event identification + intensive methods + phased assessment."
"The military physical fitness training in the company now has a much stronger combat flavor — genuinely raising overall quality to actual combat standards." Li Jun, having just finished a cooperative carry exercise, lay on the ground gasping for breath, reflecting on the current state of "pain and joy."
After the new Syllabus took effect, new requirements — including a maximum threshold for basic physical fitness scores and increased weighting for combat physical fitness and practical skills — struck directly at Li Jun's "pain points" as a "long-distance running ace."
"Even though the assessment is harder, I feel like I've become more well-rounded!" said Li Jun. Now that the new standards are right in front of him, he has no choice but to confront his weaknesses head-on and hurry to "make up his homework." Watching the scores for events that once "dragged him down" climb one by one into the excellent range, he trains with even greater drive.
"In the past, building high scores by grinding numbers was, at its core, a disconnect between individual effort and the realities of troop training," said Political Instructor Wang Kunyang. Today, what officers and soldiers compete over on the training ground is no longer whose individual event looks "better," but whose comprehensive capability is more "outstanding."
---
**"Measuring" the gap between capability and actual combat; "cutting away" the empty formalism of hollow drills**
Staff Sergeant (Second Class) Lan Sixing is the most senior soldier among the four who passed "Special Grade One" this time. When preparing for the assessment, faced with the question "You've got 12 years in — why are you still pushing this hard?", the introverted soldier found himself momentarily at a loss for words.
The release of the new Syllabus made his previous "substitute running for all training" approach "out of step with the times." For example, he can run the armed 5-kilometer in under 22 minutes, but his 30-meter serpentine run has hovered at the "good" level due to unstable center-of-gravity control; he can knock out 50 pull-ups with ease, but once he enters the continuous operations of combat physical fitness, his body's transition speed cannot keep up with the pace.
"Just run first — once you're moving, the wind picks up, and maybe it'll blow the answer your way." During that period, Lan Sixing trained daily on events including the armed 5-kilometer cross-country, variable-pace runs, vaulting horse exercises, and pull-up combination exercises. But this traditional "brute-force, cast-a-wide-net" approach to training brought him only frequent injuries and stagnant scores.
Eventually, the company commander identified the problem. After several discussions and experiments, the company commander worked with Lan Sixing to develop a personalized plan of "targeted weakness remediation and scientific training (靶向补弱、科学训练)."
To improve the continuity of load-bearing operations in combat physical fitness, Lan Sixing broke his training down into a combination package of "25-meter shuttle run + ammunition box carry + in-place strength training," repeatedly refining the transition segments. To correct a single movement, he set up equipment to record himself and compared the footage frame by frame against instructional videos, continuously improving his takeoff posture. One month later, his combat physical fitness event scores reached the excellent level.
"Soldiers sprinting toward 'Special Grade One' are benchmarking against actual combat, closing in on actual combat, and integrating into actual combat under the requirements of the new Syllabus." Seeing Lan Sixing's progress, the company commander realized that each soldier's strengths are different, and a one-size-fits-all training model cannot effectively raise collective performance. The company therefore combined the new Syllabus standards with individualized training methods, tailoring a training plan for each officer and soldier — "measuring" the gap between capability and actual combat, and "cutting away" the empty formalism of hollow drills.
Private First Class Zheng Jiawei is tall with long arms but has weak core strength; in pull-up assessments he always "swings without rising." The plan the company designed for him: reduce the number of pure pull-up repetitions and increase core training such as planks and hanging leg raises. Three weeks later, not only did his pull-up scores meet the standard, but his parallel-bar dips also broke his personal record. "I never expected that training volume going down would actually make my scores go up!" said Zheng Jiawei, delighted.
Sergeant Zhu Qingxi also benefited. He has good explosive power but poor endurance, and repeatedly failed to reach the excellent level in the second half of the full-kit 200-meter obstacle course due to exhaustion. The full-kit 200-meter obstacle course is an event unique to reconnaissance soldier assessments; compared to the 400-meter obstacle course, it eliminates the 200-meter shuttle run but requires participants to wear full combat dress. Although he increased the time and repetitions devoted to specialized training such as pull-ups and variable-pace runs, the results were minimal and improvement was limited.
Chen Wenjie, the company's military physical fitness backbone (军体骨干) with experience from military academy study, quickly identified the flaw in Zhu Qingxi's training method: the full-kit 200-meter obstacle course requires not just physical fitness, but the comprehensive combat capability to "pass various obstacles precisely, rapidly, and safely even under extreme fatigue." After adopting a targeted "embedded" (嵌合式) training approach, Zhu Qingxi continued to complete obstacle crossing, climbing, and other strength training while in the fatigued state induced by variable-pace runs, and his physical conditioning improved substantially.
---
**Only when everyone trains according to the logic of the battlefield will the value of "Special Grade One" be elevated**
Private First Class Cai Jianhao still remembers the scene of the company lining up to welcome back the squad leaders who had passed "Special Grade One" — among the four, his squad leader Li Jun and deputy squad leader Lan Sixing were both included.
When Cai Jianhao first joined the company as a new soldier, his training scores were not outstanding — he barely passed the 3,000-meter run and could only manage a few pull-ups. In weighted training especially, he would always lose pace midway through carrying a dummy.
Li Jun walked him through the instructional video segment by segment: on screen, the demonstration soldier carried the dummy in a sprint — turning, switching hands, charging — every movement clean and crisp. "On the battlefield, no one waits for you to adjust your center of gravity," Li Jun said, pointing at the screen. "Your problem isn't that you lack strength — it's that your center of gravity shifts during the turn, so you can only gut it out in the second half."
Li Jun broke down the "three-phase force generation method (三段发力法)" he had developed while preparing for the special-grade assessment: legs for the start, hips for the middle, arm swing for the sprint. Then he had Cai Jianhao follow along — once, twice, three times — until Cai Jianhao completed a full run without losing pace.
This kind of "one-on-one," or even "one-on-many," mentoring has become increasingly common in the company.
Zhu Qingxi leads a group of new soldiers in strength training, sharing not only his own training journal but also drafting individual training plans for them. Lan Sixing leads several new soldiers with weaker endurance or coordination in specialized long-distance running and obstacle training, often using his own rest time to answer their questions.
Leading others forward means staying out in front yourself. Lan Sixing is always the first to arrive at the training ground each day, pushing every set to failure, and when leading his squad and platoon in climbing drills, he climbs through the course himself several times first.
The company's officers noticed this change. The political instructor said at a meeting: "In the past when we talked about the 'lead goose effect' (头雁带飞), we always thought it meant having the top performers lead a few more drills and do a few more demonstrations. Now look at these four — what they're leading is not just technique, but standards. Holding a special grade and still pushing yourself hard in training — that does more than any lecture ever could."
The company quickly institutionalized this "lead goose effect." Starting from the four "Special Grade One" holders, they gradually established a mentoring chain of "top performers lead backbone personnel, backbone personnel lead all members." The training ground no longer follows the old model of "one instructor calls out, the whole company trains together," but is instead dispersed into a number of small groups, each with its own training focus — the pace and atmosphere are tighter and more substantive than before.
Growth and progress are visible to the naked eye. In a subsequent comprehensive physical fitness general assessment, the overall excellent-and-good rate rose by nearly ten percentage points compared to the previous one. The more obvious change is on the training ground itself — in the past, when training time came, the duty officer blew the whistle to assemble, gave unified commands, and everyone did the same movements: what to train and how much was the same for the whole company. Now it is different: some are doing shuttle runs on the track with water bags, some are doing step-ups, hexagonal jumps, and other supplementary training, some are repeatedly working through the details of the serpentine run around the poles.
"From 'I know' to 'I can do it,' there is a long road in between. These four are walking out in front, and the comrades behind them, watching their backs, know how to walk it," the company commander reflected. "In the past, the company drove training with the duty officer's whistle and the backbone personnel's voices. Now it runs on 'lead figures' — you don't need to call out; they're already out there training, and the comrades alongside them naturally follow."
The value of the "lead goose" is not to run alone out front, but to engrave the actual-combat measuring standard into every individual's training. Only when everyone trains according to the logic of the battlefield will the value of "Special Grade One" be elevated.
---
**"Training harder" is no match for training smarter**
■ Zhang Wenjie
When Lan Sixing and the other three signed up to participate in the superior-level military physical fitness grade evaluation assessment, I happened to be assigned to the same training group as them. At first, I assumed that all four of them had solid foundations and that passing the special grade was a foregone conclusion. But after training alongside them for a few days, I found that their training methods were completely different from before — no grinding for volume, no piling on hours; every day they were benchmarking against the new standards to find weaknesses and refine details.
What left the deepest impression on me was a moment of being "stuck" during one training session.
That day the company organized full-kit 200-meter obstacle training. When I reached the high wall, I fell back into my old problem — I cleared it but landed unsteady, pitching forward. This had troubled me for a long time; in every assessment it was where I lost time. During the break, Li Kaiyan walked over: "When you go over the obstacle, your core isn't tight and your legs drive too early."
He had me stand next to the high wall and broke the movement down for me: "After you jump, first tuck your abdomen and press against the wall; wait until your center of gravity is stable, then push off and flip over. You were doing it exactly backwards just now." I followed his instructions for a few repetitions, and sure enough it felt much cleaner.
"Just that one movement — I drilled it hundreds of times while preparing for the special grade," said Li Kaiyan, wiping sweat. "I used to think you could just power through on fitness alone, but once the new Syllabus tested continuous operations, every weakness was fully exposed." That day when training ended, I didn't rush back to the barracks — instead I stayed on the training ground and ran through the obstacle movements a few more times.
Later, when the company established the "weak-event identification + intensive methods + phased assessment" training program, I was the first to sign up. Pull-ups were weak, so I trained hanging leg raises the way Zhu Qingxi taught me to build core strength. I was losing pace in the second half of the armed 5-kilometer, so I followed Lan Sixing's approach of breaking training into a "combination package" of speed plus strength.
The results showed quickly. One month later in an obstacle assessment, my completion time was nearly 10 seconds faster than before. Even more valuable was a shift in mindset: when I encounter a new problem, I no longer panic. In the past, my first reaction to a problem was "I haven't trained hard enough" — add volume, add repetitions, train to failure. Now I carefully analyze: Where is the problem? What does the syllabus require? What specialized training exists for the weak point? As they say, "Think it through before you act, and you'll get twice the result with half the effort."
"Training harder" is no match for training smarter. I watched, learned from, and adjusted alongside the training methods these four used while preparing for the assessment, and in the end I tasted the rewards myself. The certificates are in their hands, but I "brought back" something too: a more scientific training habit.
---
**Measure against the new standard; answer the new examination paper well**
■ Han Chengzhu
Four soldiers from the same company simultaneously passing the military physical fitness "Special Grade One." What makes this noteworthy is not only that the achievement itself was hard-won, but also that it functions like a mirror, reflecting the deeper direction of military physical fitness training reform in the new era: how exactly does physical fitness connect to the battlefield? What is it that truly bridges training and actual combat?
Since the newly revised Military Physical Fitness Training Syllabus was implemented, the threshold for "special grade" evaluation has risen substantially. A perfect score in basic physical fitness is no longer the finish line — it is the starting line. Combat physical fitness, practical skills, and continuous operation capability have become the new hard requirements. This means the old path of "excelling in individual events to win on total score" no longer works, and the era of simply coasting on accumulated experience and natural talent is passing. That a single company could achieve multiple simultaneous breakthroughs under such stringent standards carries significance far beyond the realm of physical fitness — it reflects a collective turn in training philosophy, and a grassroots unit's conscious response to actual-combat requirements.
In the past, the same logic prevailed across many domains — physical fitness, marksmanship, tactics, communications, driving: train the individual events you are good at to the extreme, and use one or two strong suits to mask overall weaknesses. In physical fitness, be satisfied with "running fast"; in marksmanship, be satisfied with "shooting accurately"; in specialty skills, be satisfied with "knowing how to operate." This way of thinking creates an illusion: that the battlefield will allow you to do only what you are good at. The new Syllabus does not accept that illusion. The change in special-grade evaluation criteria is also a microcosm of military training standards being pried open — shifting every training domain from "grinding data" to "building real capability (练实功)," from "testing individual events" to "testing continuity," from "I know I can" to "I don't know what's coming next, but I can handle it."
How is the wall between training and actual combat actually torn down? Many people's first instinct is to add events, add difficulty, add scenario context. But the real answer may be more straightforward — make training itself unpredictable. When a training plan is no longer a fixed schedule of "what we train this week, what we train next week," but is instead continuously adjusted based on each person's weaknesses, each week's feedback, and phased changes; when assessments are no longer back-to-back, sequential, and prepared-for, but are instead continuous, cross-cutting, and subject to sudden rule changes — then training is truly prepared for combat. The bridge connecting training to actual combat is not built by adding a few "actual-combat events"; it is built by making every training plan "come alive" — with feedback, with correction, with unpredictable variables.
This is why this company's "Special Grade One" is worth examining: because they inadvertently demonstrated something. When a unit begins to take seriously the logic of the new syllabus — not applying a one-size-fits-all approach, not pursuing individual-event extremes, not avoiding weaknesses — what it reaps is not merely a few training standouts, but an upgrade of an entire training ecosystem. Physical fitness is only the first stone to surface above the water; beneath the surface, the entire riverbed of military training is shifting.
How to connect? How to bridge? The answer is not in documents, and not in slogans. It will only emerge, slowly, in the actions of those who dare to break with inertia and make training "come alive."