Photo By Chad Menegay | The Fort Gregg-Adams and Royal Army Physical Training Corps basketball teams group...... read more read more
FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. — Friend and ally troops from Europe stepped up their game and crossed over the pond to share the rock of expertise they have netted in training, sport and life.
Fort Gregg-Adams hosted the Royal Army Physical Training Corps basketball team Oct. 5-12. The trip included an official visit featuring a community outreach event with local youth and culminated in an Oct. 11 basketball game featuring RAPTC versus the Fort Gregg-Adams team.
The cultural and sport-focused visit also included an engagement with the William & Mary collegiate men’s basketball team, a Washington D.C. trip and a staff ride the command historian for Combined Arms Support Command, Karl Rubis.
The Southeast England-Central Virginia connection started after RAPTC British Army Staff Sgt. William Tash’s team was funded to take part in an overseas sports tour. He was put in touch with British Army Lt. Col. Dave Reith, British Liaison Officer to CASCOM and Army Futures Command, Sustainment Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate.
“From a sustainment perspective, the British Army sees CASCOM as central to developing UK-US and also other multinational partnerships,” Reith said. “So, it’s all about how do we deliver the greatest military effect most efficiently, most effectively. Historically, the West has proven time and again that we do that through allies and partners. That’s when we’re at our strongest.”
As for the basketball game itself, RAPTC players also were reportedly not at their strongest, as they were unable to bring three key players. This may have reduced the competitive element of the tour, but it allowed them to focus more on relationship building.
The game took place at Clark Fitness Center in front of about 70 spectators. The home team won 104 to 48, with superior athleticism, skill and timely pressure.
“It’s as if every kid out here is just born with a basketball in their arm,” said British Army WO1 (Corps Sergeant Major) Daniel Brown of RAPTC, when asked about a scrimmage his team had with a local youth Amateur Athletic Union team. “They just know how to move; the tactics are just in there. It’s great for us to see because we have it with football, soccer, where it seems you’ve got it with basketball. It’s just there.”
For Brown, the community outreach with Superstars Basketball Club at Elizabeth Davis Middle School in Chester, Va. was the highlight of RAPTC’’s visit.
“We talked about hydration, nutrition, how to warm up properly, how to cool down,” said Brown, who leads the Corps of professional physical training instructors and rehabilitation instructors. “We took the kids through a specific warmup. We spoke to parents about good nutrition, sleep, hygiene and how to recover for basketball.”
The Superstars AAU team also has a CASCOM connection of its own, as its coach, Robert Jones, is a protocol coordinator in CASCOM’s Executive Operations office. He is a leader dedicated to helping the young men become the best versions of themselves.
Involving parents was a key part of the outreach because parents make food and nutritional choices for their children, Brown said. These choices can have a massive impact on not only performance in sports but also habits in life.
It may take a village to raise a child, and some help from outside – like this group of Soldiers from a place like Aldershot Garrison, also known as Aldershot Military Town, in Southeast England – can’t hurt.
This is where the RAPTC is based, and it provides the British Army's physical performance specialists who are responsible for developing and maintaining physical fitness across the British Army, keeping individuals and units prepared for military tasks.
RAPTC clearly takes training quite seriously. The trainers jumped at the learning opportunity to engage with the William & Mary basketball team during one of their practices.
“To watch them train was really interesting and valuable for our new guys especially, with the tempo and speed,” Brown said. “We were right courtside, and we got to talk with the players, talk with the coach. For our team, we’ve got a range of players from rookies essentially and a couple of British Army players.”
The team also visited Washington D.C. and took in a preseason Wizards game featuring the Australian team Cairns Taipans, which also finished in a trouncing of the visitors, 145-82.
Of course, professional basketball leagues wouldn’t have the same objectives in their international sporting matchups as military allies when they pair teams for competition.
This military-to-military engagement, for example, was geared toward relationship building and interoperability.
“Basketball is a really good example of how much the UK values these kinds of relationships and how much it invests,” Reith said. “UK uses sport for much more than just sport. It’s about professional development. It’s about maintaining that competitive edge in all aspects of military life.”
Sport develops fitness and mental resilience, he added, but it also allows for partnership development through competition.
“We recognize that sport can build relationships at every level of an organization in a way that other activities might not,” Reith said.
| Date Taken: | 10.12.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.12.2023 17:30 |
| Story ID: | 455667 |
| Location: | FORT GREGG-ADAMS, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, British Army physical trainers visit to build relationships through sport, by Chad Menegay, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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