Should we get rid of organized PT?

I will give you one part-timer's perspective.

Unless you are once of those who lives and dies at the gym, it takes a tremendous amount of self discipline to keep yourself in military shape. For a lot, the majority of effort happens around March and September (30 days before the test). I don't know what the Active Duty APFT failure rate is, but it can't be as bad as the RC rate..which I remember once being told around 40%. (I can't find anything to back that up).

Just having the added pressure to get up at 5am and do some sort of exercise, regardless of the quality, is better then not doing it at all. The world is paved with good intentions and all that, but I expect that some will find more days where they wake up and say..."maybe I will sleep in an extra hour and hit the gym instead this evening" by the time evening rolls around, the gym concept falls behind in the pecking order of social interaction. Then it becomes "well OK, I can afford to skip once, I will work harder the next day." or "I will just call this my recovery day".

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I went through this for many years and my PT scores were an amazing 185ish. It was not until I started looking at my older, let-my-self go body and my future plans (got a warrant packet in play now), that I spent money on a gym and hired one of their physical trainers. My score in May was 218, my score this last October was 237, I expect to be above 240 when tested in WOCS.

You have got to be kidding me, with all due respect you as a SFC should be out in front of that formation to see that it is done correctly. I agree that the gym is a great compliment to formation PT, and when operational needs keep you from participating. To say leave it up to the individual. I say no. A soldier will take the easy way out if not properly supervised. Just imagine a Drill Sergeant marching you out of the barracks area only to turn you loose? This Army of one stuff is going too far. You joined a team, you fight as a team, and you should train as a team. This is just the way I feel.

I use to like organized pt because it built
Morale and I actually got something out of it. I score in the 290-300 (and I have a P2 profile) and I did PT on my own for about 3-4 years and still scored that high.
I feel that we are adults and should be held accountable for our weight and pt. If you can't maintain a level of fitness that the military requires of you then why are you in the military?
I go to PT to set a standard for Soldiers, yes I scored a 297 but as a SSG I'm putting that aside and I'm here for you, (even though in the back of my mind I don't want to be there & I want to go workout on my own). So I do organized PT and my own workout.
So anyways, I think organized pt should be one to two times a week for morale building and go from there.

This may sound a little strange, but PT is only one part of reason we do unit PT. Unit PT would still have a valid reason even if everyone in the unit could be relied on to do their own PT.

It can be used to build cohesion in the team. It can be used as a leadership/teaching experience. It can allow commanders to see their troops doing PT and what level they are at.

While understand your point that you may like to do PT on your own, no one is stopping you from doing that later. Conducting unit PT serves its own purpose and will always be a useful tool.

Personally i do best with a mandatory formation and PT on my own, but everyone is different and Unit PT allows leaders to keep tabs on everyones fitness in a way that would be hard to duplicate. It also helps with unit comradery in strategic units where you do not see most of your unit during the duty day.

I agree 100%

It's a difficult subject to approach because in order to get the best out of organized PT, we can't ignore the supporting events and subjects associated with it.
Whether it's a fire team, squad, or platoon, teamwork, camaraderie, and esprit de corps takes precedence to build effective dynamics. Not everyone is a gym rat, unfortunately, but those who are are more effective working out alone.
Other personalities need motivation and this is where peers come into play. Good leaders can turn soldiers into fitness enthusiasts, bad leaders can turn soldiers into fitness enthusiasts. First case a good leader will direct and motivate his or her soldiers to improve their individual levels of fitness. Second case a bad leader will display the effects of their poor leadership on personal fitness and overall self discipline which can motivate a soldier to be better than that. Either way it comes down to the individual soldier level, their personal and professional responsibility in our sworn duties is to be in shape.
This is considering a positive leadership role, but not everyone knows how to maintain an effective level of fitness. So it is important to pave the road as a leader, whether or not the others follow will show in the PT uniform in time.

I hate organized PT - all it ever did was hold me back. The CPT who headed our officer's basic course said it best - "soldiers who come in "in shape", get out of shape. Soldiers who come in "out of shape", get in shape". Organized PT panders to the lowest common denominator. All organized PT ever did for me is make me wish I could have done a real work out. One caveat - I'm talking direct commission AMEDD, so our experiences are obviously different than many.

Organized PT doesn't even happen down range! I do PT 7 days a week with my battle buddy and my team leader, at the GYM. I'm honestly dreading the day we re-deploy back to the states because it'll go back to the same mediocre daily morning PT. I understand junior Soldiers must be taught the fundamentals, isn't that what BCT is for? Majority of the "real Army" doesn't even do PRT like it is done at BCT now. How can Soldiers be held to that "standard" when it's not even implemented once the Soldier leaves IET? I'm in the best shape right now that I've ever been in my life and that's no thanks to organized PT. I understand also it can be used for espirit de corps and that's fine every now and then. I'd rather be allowed the chance to use my mornings to hit the gym.

I find myself swaying between needing more strict PT rules and standards for discipline and readiness and having PT standards being MOS specific... Some soldiers are just not "Soldeirs" but they still have a function in the organization. I tend to lean more for the strict because, let us just remember please...This is the Army! And if you cant take care of yourself, HOW do you expect me to believe you can take care of troops? I believe that this first leadership priniciple will always win the debate. But if we ever do make PT job specific then you better be ready to lose rank and leadership opportunities and I would also argue, benefits. Tax payers should not have to be responisible for poor health conditions of gov't workers when the work enviornment offers the opposite. Just a few toughts...