As you've discussed previously I believe, part of the issue is that the roll-out happened during COVID. But I think another issue was the inability to hold people accountable for either good or bad scores. While I understand that you can't kick people out for an untested test, the number of individuals who just phoned in the test during the trial window (pre-2022ish) was high in my experience. So I'd argue that the data prior to the test being a test of record is bad data.
My buddy Tim also brought up the impacts of COVID. I'm sure COVID had some impact, but I still don't give leaders a pass. Not everyone lived on an island to themselves and could make data informed decisions like I did to increase access to our fitness facilities during COVID (https://downrangedata.substack.com/p/33-command-in-the-time-of-covid).
But the ACFT was announced in 2018, two years before COVID shut down the gyms. I went out of my way to get certified to grade the ACFT back in 2019, before I deployed to Iraq. Because that’s what leaders do. They lean in on the changes. Regardless, by 2022 the gyms were open. Over the next two years, too many soldiers, and too many leaders, have continued to drag their feet.
Now I will concede, I'm a data set of one, and probably not representative. My fitness regimen has been focused on being ready for uncertainty with a bias toward functional movements since 2007, which meant there was essentially no uptake for me when I took an ACFT.
Which gets to your second point about 'unscored data'. I agree that a lot of people 'phoned in the test' during this period. I also believe a fair number of people actively sabotaged it, which killed the leg tuck. Even more indicative for me was when soldiers were reporting they couldn't throw the 10# ball 4m. The first time? Sure, you gotta learn how to chuck that thing backwards, which is weird. But if you don't have a profile, there is zero reason you can't get that throw out to 5m after a week of practice.
Now I don't 'phone it in' on fitness because that's not my nature. I've never taken, nor believe in 'diagnostic' fitness tests. I drank the SF Kool-Aid about 'You're always being assessed'. Again, I'm not likely the modal soldier.
Regardless, conceding people sandbagged the diagnostic portion (and if I'm right, some sabotaged it) this led to lower standards. The ACFT should be even easier to pass as a result.
As you've discussed previously I believe, part of the issue is that the roll-out happened during COVID. But I think another issue was the inability to hold people accountable for either good or bad scores. While I understand that you can't kick people out for an untested test, the number of individuals who just phoned in the test during the trial window (pre-2022ish) was high in my experience. So I'd argue that the data prior to the test being a test of record is bad data.
My buddy Tim also brought up the impacts of COVID. I'm sure COVID had some impact, but I still don't give leaders a pass. Not everyone lived on an island to themselves and could make data informed decisions like I did to increase access to our fitness facilities during COVID (https://downrangedata.substack.com/p/33-command-in-the-time-of-covid).
But the ACFT was announced in 2018, two years before COVID shut down the gyms. I went out of my way to get certified to grade the ACFT back in 2019, before I deployed to Iraq. Because that’s what leaders do. They lean in on the changes. Regardless, by 2022 the gyms were open. Over the next two years, too many soldiers, and too many leaders, have continued to drag their feet.
Now I will concede, I'm a data set of one, and probably not representative. My fitness regimen has been focused on being ready for uncertainty with a bias toward functional movements since 2007, which meant there was essentially no uptake for me when I took an ACFT.
Which gets to your second point about 'unscored data'. I agree that a lot of people 'phoned in the test' during this period. I also believe a fair number of people actively sabotaged it, which killed the leg tuck. Even more indicative for me was when soldiers were reporting they couldn't throw the 10# ball 4m. The first time? Sure, you gotta learn how to chuck that thing backwards, which is weird. But if you don't have a profile, there is zero reason you can't get that throw out to 5m after a week of practice.
Now I don't 'phone it in' on fitness because that's not my nature. I've never taken, nor believe in 'diagnostic' fitness tests. I drank the SF Kool-Aid about 'You're always being assessed'. Again, I'm not likely the modal soldier.
Regardless, conceding people sandbagged the diagnostic portion (and if I'm right, some sabotaged it) this led to lower standards. The ACFT should be even easier to pass as a result.