ARLINGTON, Va. – National Guard Soldiers and Airmen working as a team can accomplish much more than when they work alone.
That’s why team building is April’s theme for the National Guard Holistic Wellness Challenge.
Led by Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, wellness experts from the Army National Guard’s Professional Education Center (PEC) have named April’s Focus of the Month. Teamwork directly supports the CNGB’s priority of preparedness.
Freshly launched in March, which focused on improving sleep, the challenge focuses on a different holistic health and fitness topic each month.
“Fighting is the ultimate team sport. We all work as part of a team of teams,” Hokanson said. “And it’s the team, regardless of size, that provides an extra level of resilience.”
Army Maj. Benjamin L Seims, human performance optimization coordinator at PEC, said the increased demand for guard capabilities requires more physical endurance from Soldiers and Airmen.
This demand, he added, has created “an even greater need to be agile and resilient,” particularly “because of the competitive advantage the Guard gives our service members – the health and fitness of our training plays an essential role in the national defense strategy. »
For Army Maj. Robert Killian, plans and projects coordinator at NGB’s Command, Control, Communications and Computers Directorate, team fitness activities are about more than achieving peak physical fitness .
“The most important thing about the team concept is accountability,” said Killian, who was part of the first Army National Guard team to win the Best Ranger competition in 2016. “What Whether it’s ensuring team members don’t fall behind or showing up on time for a training session, team exercises keep individuals motivated.
But for “the good of the competition,” he said, team activities help improve individual performance.
“You just can’t get past your threshold unless you’re competing,” Killian said, adding that the concept of team inspires others to “look to someone who’s going to push them and make them stronger “.
Some team fitness activities range from contemporary military drills, such as medical slams and air squats, to Dynamic Duo, where one group running in place determines the duration of another group’s exercise. Even traditional ruck walking is encouraged, Seims said.
Regardless of the activity, he said, the benefits highlight the interpersonal skills of trust, cohesion, diversity and leadership — all essential elements in a “team-oriented world “.
“We are constantly surrounded by the challenge and satisfaction of working with diverse and uniquely organized groups of individuals who require mastery of interpersonal skills to successfully navigate,” he said.
Hokanson said team building in fitness activities creates good humor and inspiration.
“Be dedicated, be disciplined, measure your progress and try to have fun,” Hokanson said. “But you don’t always have to go it alone. Inspire others and be inspired by others, as a team.
To learn more about this month’s team building challenges and exercises, log on to pec.ng.mil for more information.
