What are your thoughts on sports for PT?

I personally have seen more soldiers injured in sports than in Training, Operations & combat combined.

No! Sports are a good way to bond.  Injuries can and does happen during any kind of training!   Stay active!

I see no reason at all not to play a sport at least once a week for PT.  I had been in units that prohibited sports for PT because of the risk of injury.  I've seen injuries occur during "normal" PT before.  We can't coddle Soldiers.

Way back in the late 80's-early 90's while stationed at Ft. Carson, my company conducted sports PT nearly every Tuesday (M, W & F were the normal pt days while Thursday was SGTs Time in the am and then BN sports 1300-1500 followed by Family Time). It was great for team building, esprit-de-corps and stress relief; however as we played mostly "combat soccer", we ended up with quite a few ankle and knee injuries and I was almost compacted to non-existence by the CO and 1SG when I got squashed by them, lol! Eventually we had to stop the "combat" aspect of the pt, but we still had an excellent time. Unfortunately from the time I left there in '91 until I retired last year, none of the subsequent units I was assigned to had sports pt at all.

I think it's a great motivator, builds comradery , and a great workout cardio wise (depending on the sport) if you think about it no one notices how tired they are until after the sporting event. So overall I think it's great as long as controlled and preventative measures are in place for injuries. CRM and actually give a brief before on hazards.

Digging is one of the best exercises. Why not use yard work and landscaping for pt. it will build muscle, stamina and make for a great looking base. Might even save money as we won't need outside contractors.

There are no cons to playing sports during PT. It breaks up the same mundane routine running around the same park or track day after day. As long as a unit can maintain their PT proficiency, then go for it. Mix it up with Volleyball, flag football, or other running games like would you would do at a unit party, wheelbarrow races and so on.

Back in the early 90's when I first joined you know, when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. We did PT three days a week. Then it moved to Mon, Wed, Fri was PT and Tues was organized sports. Frisbee Fooltball, Touch Football were the norms. All this talk about too many injuries I say is just an excuse. I have seen just as many people get hurt running 4 miles by twisting ankels or knees. Popping shoulders out of place from doing to many overhead claps, into push ups, into forward claps. The risk of injury is no different than the risk while playing for the unit team. It is up to the leaders to not let the game of touch football turn into tackle, etc. The unit sports is to build cohesion and esprit de corp, just like a company, battalion, or brigade cadence run.
On the other hand I agree with some of the other posts. Nothing more irritating then seeing 1/3 of the unit actually putting effort into sports to get PT out of it and the other 2/3 treating it as a day off and walking around. Then they fail their PT test and say well we do organized sports and that hurts my PT. Well PT is there to MAINTAIN your state of fitness. We have Special Reconditioning PT for those struggling. If your not going to take the time out of your personal time to improve. Don't complain.

This topic is going to get many mixed responses about it. It is opinion based and we all have opinions. This is just mine.I can look at it from either point of view and be happy. I'm Old!

I support sports for PT as I believe in nothing more than competitive exercise to build esprit de corps and morale. Sports are also physically demanding and can help target different areas of fitness not normally challenged by traditional PT. What I don't support are those who would use sports as a method to circumvent or avoid battle focused PT, simply because football is more fun than training. I like that sports are generally unauthorized because the sad truth of the matter is that most small unit practices would be to turn off the important stuff as often as possible. It is bad enough how many people from adjacent units I see now that simply walk around and gossip for an hour and a half EVERY morning. I can only imagine what would happen if these lazy leaders were able to disappear to go play badminton or some other craziness. Once again, a few bad apples are the reason why APFT improvement and battle focused PT should be the only authorized morning activities. My opinion, though, of course.

Sports during PT, i.e. football, basketball, cause more injuries than the Army PRT program.