08/02/2019
All Hands,
NHQ is publishing a new Physical Readiness Test (PRT) Administration policy. This policy replaces the April 2010 “NSCC/NLCC Physical Readiness Testing Notebook,” which is hereby canceled and has been removed from the Homeport website. The new policy contains some important changes: Please read it fully and implement it within your commands.
(Yes, we’re aware that the Navy has recently announced that, starting in 2020, it will be doing away with the curl-ups and going to planks instead. This USNSCC policy retains the curl-ups, for now.)
What’s changing in this new policy? While you should read the entire policy carefully, the big-picture items are as follows:
- Section 1.02: Emphasizes that passing the PRT is an essential requirement of membership (see USNSCC Regulations, Section 5.01(d)), and successful completion of the PRT cannot be waived. The PRT is our best way of ensuring that all cadets who show up to our trainings are minimally able to handle the physical requirements of most of our trainings. And aside from that, the PRT is vital to advancing the concept of living a physically fit lifestyle—a foundational objective of our program’s curriculum.
- Section 1.05: Changes the names of the “Presidential” and “National” standards to “Excellent” and “Good,” respectively. The old President’s Challenge (where the old titles came from) went away years ago, and the new titles come straight from the Navy. The exercise standards themselves, found in Chapter 3, are unchanged from the current PRT. The next iteration of the Awards Manual will use the new titles, but until then, units may award the “E” appurtenance for “Excellent”, which is identical to the former “Presidential” standard. (And, changing the title to “Excellent” means that the “E” actually reflects the name of the standard it applies to!)
- Section 1.07 covers cases in which a cadet has a temporary injury or illness, and can’t take the PRT during one cycle. When that happens, the CO can waive participation for that cycle only. THIS WAIVER POLICY MUST NOT BE ABUSED. The cadet will not be eligible to attend any training evolution during this time, because again, the PRT is a safety measure as much as a training one. It’s designed to ensure that cadets can safely complete the physical requirements of our average trainings. Cadets who cannot complete the standard PRT present a heightened risk of injury.
- Section 1.08 covers cadets who have a long-term injury or condition (i.e., more than 6 months duration), and who need to request some form of reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). See USNSCC Regulations, Section 5.02(b)(iii). The PRT cannot simply be waived for cadets with disabilities. If a person simply cannot complete the PRT requirement, in any form, the person is ineligible for membership. A “reasonable” accommodation allows the person to take, and successfully complete, the PRT, notwithstanding his/her disability.
We’ve tried to make things easier and clearer in this area. For those cadets who will need an ADA reasonable accommodation, the policy lists some things that units can do without chain of command approval to accommodate these cadets. (In other words, units can document the accommodation on the NSCADM 001, Page 9/10, but do not need chain of command approval for those accommodations specifically listed in Section 1.08.)
So, to put this simply, every cadet, ADA or not, must be able to take and successfully complete the PRT in order to join or stay enrolled in the USNSCC, full stop.
- Chapter 2 generally implements new safety requirements — things you must do and/or say when running the PRT. These are important details. Rather than try to summarize everything here, I would advise you to just go ahead and read the entire chapter. Your units may already be doing some or all of these things are things, but our minimum safety expectations needed to be standardized and published across the field. With this, they have been. Chapter 2 also explains how to actually perform each of the exercises.
- Chapter 3 contains the scoring standards. The numbers and ages are unchanged from current standards.
Respectfully,
Vicki Powell
Director, Unit Training
U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps
www.seacadets.org
© 2014 U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps
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