Training

[Johnyshotgun]

When preparing in a war, your troops should do the 1 mile march, be able to bike 12 kilometers, go up steep hills in bike, and shoot well. To achieve this you need raid practice. To do this you attack an enemy with the water gun, take cover shoot, take cover throw hand throwing water baloon or W.B.G. Then have you man or men retreat. The march you should do up a hill. I can run a 5 kilo under 30 minutes, if you want have them run. Finally use you bike up a hill or on a flat area.

[DX]

It depends on the size of the battlefield. Distance endurance is the wrong type of endurance for most battlefields. In smaller areas, you want sprinters' endurance for fast action fighting. In really large battlefields, you'll want more than a mile's worth of distance endurance. My team racks up 10-20 miles+ in our "smallest" park during the course of a typical 3 hour war. You also want to burn those miles running instead of marching. The quick step wastes major time, a variable with great importance. Speed and effective use of time is a powerful combo:
http://soakermedia.net/tactical/figh...epts/speed.php
http://soakermedia.net/tactical/figh...o_and_time.php

As for biking, that also depends on where you fight. There are places so dense or steep that it would be folly to try. Also, regardless of the area, lose focus for a second and you can end up doing something stupid, like flipping over and splitting your kneecap in half. Bikes only provide a real advantage over long distances. A sprinter can outrun a biker in many situations. I've never exceeded 16.7 MPH biking on grass, 21.3 level, 24.2 down a short hill, and 29.8 on a ridiculous hill. However, I can sprint faster than all of those except the big hill.

As for raids, I would make the practice the real deal. People tend to execute water war tactics best under pressure, like that of a real war.

[Ben]

Just wanted to comment on one thing. DX, those figures you posted I don't think you exceed. 21.3 MPH is about 10.5 in the 100 meter dash. Now, I realize that some people can accelerate to a high speed but not maintain it, but unless your 40 is 4.2, you're not getting better than your flat bike speed.

Here's something I wrote to Johnyshotgun in a PM:

The most extensive training I think that should be done should be little more than stationary target practice, moving target practice (because moving target practice is very different than stationary), some runs for stamina and endurance, and definitely some hill runs. Get your people interested in a sport too because any training is better than none. That's pretty much all there should be to training.

[DX]

I take that back then...though my friend proved today that he can run that 21.3 MPH - he stunned us all with a 10.5 in today's meet. There was a lot of wind down the straightaway, but still, 10.5 is insane.

[Johnyshotgun]

You must be joking 21.3 mi. I can run 24 but for 6 seconds. How long can he run at 21 mph? Olympians can go at most 30 mi for 30 or more seconds. Also running is a great idea when you are in good physical shape. But i use some heavier of my friends, exceeding 120 pounds, they march most of the time. Also the other problem is troopers who are not use to run just die out.

[Silence]

Obviously you can't maintain that speed for long - 10.5 seconds in that case, a total of 100 m.

It's really easy to surpass that on a bike. The problem is that bikes generally take a little longer to accelerate and they can't handle hills and rough terrain well. If you want to move from point A to point B and it's at least a few hundred meters away, it's generally worth it to bike though.

A runner can keep up with a cyclist on flat ground for maybe 25 meters, no more than that. Exception: if the biker starts on a medium or high gear, as I tend to do.

Biking, swimming, and other sports in which you're not moving on your feet tend to exhaust your muscles more than your stamina, in my experience. Running generally exhausts your stamina, unless you're going uphill for a while - and even then, you lose breath much earlier than you lose strength. I guess somebody using ankle weights or doing a 50 meter dash would lose strength, but still, you'd lose stamina earlier.

I suspect that's why Duxburian might be better as a sprinter than as a cyclist. With biking and swimming, it's the muscles that can't keep up with the cardiovascular system (which I know is muscular too...), not the other way around as with running. It's pretty weird.

Anyway, back on topic...

Training really depends on the battlefield and on your fighting style. If you're on a large battlefield with bases that you could leave bikes at, then biking and all would work. Otherwise, I'd just focus on smaller-scale tactics.

Make sure people can sprint up hills, and as Duxburian said, try to improve sprinters' endurance. A degree of normal endurance would be good to have - the target of 30 minutes for a 5K should be easy enough to attain.

[DX]

I suspect that's why Duxburian might be better as a sprinter than as a cyclist. With biking and swimming, it's the muscles that can't keep up with the cardiovascular system (which I know is muscular too...), not the other way around as with running. It's pretty weird.

Actually, I am probably a better cyclist than sprinter. My normal pace for riding 60 miles is 14-17 MPH, and the terrain in this area is anything but level. Biking focuses on the power of my legs, which have heavily lopsided strength compared to my upper body.

Anyway, I've said all I needed to. I could write a billion pages on the subject of war prep, but there are a billion other things that need to be addressed first.