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Extending IPPT training period ‘will not lower fitness levels’

SINGAPORE — Extending the training period for the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) to give servicemen more time to pass will not result in poorer fitness levels.

(L-R) Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Ng Chee Meng getting a feel of a sharpshooter's rifle after observing a sharpshooter's stalking training.

(L-R) Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Ng Chee Meng getting a feel of a sharpshooter's rifle after observing a sharpshooter's stalking training.

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SINGAPORE — Extending the training period for the Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) to give servicemen more time to pass will not result in poorer fitness levels.

This was the view of the chief of defence force, as he disagreed with the view of some fitness experts quoted in a Straits Times report last month warning that the time extension might also lower fitness standards if participants do not do any exercise on their own.

In an interview last week at Mandai Hill Camp to mark Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Day yesterday, Lieutenant-General Ng Chee Meng said: “I think that no matter how busy we are, we must have a certain element of personal responsibility and personal desire (to lead a healthy life).”

Last month, the Government accepted a slew of recommendations by the Committee to Strengthen National Service (CSNS). Among these was to give operationally-ready national servicemen a whole year to train for and take their IPPT. And if they fail, they will get 12 months to attend remedial training (RT). Dr Ng Eng Hen, Defence Minister and CSNS chairman, had said the new time frame took into account increasing family and work commitments of NSmen.

Currently, NSmen have nine months to pass their IPPT. If they fail, they have to do up to 20 sessions of RT over three months.

The CSNS recommendation on the management of IPPT came just a few years after the SAF changed the time frame in 2011 to its current format, as part of efforts to address rising obesity and “stagnant fitness levels”. The idea then was to give NSmen more time to train for the test under the voluntary IPPT Preparatory Training, but the catch was that those who failed the IPPT would have to complete their RT within a short span of time.

Lt-Gen Ng dismissed suggestions that the new time frame was an about turn, saying the “time is right” for the military to take a look at how the management of IPPT can be kept up to date. “So, whether you are civilian or a NSman, you must put in that effort. If you have no real desire to keep fit, then whatever system we can design, I don’t think (it) will be suitable.

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