Rightly proud, your son joining the 'Tigers'! " One of the oldest regiments still to exist in it's original form I believe. Senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, second in the line infantry order of precedence to the Royal Regiment of Scotland and part of the Queen's Division.
"Unconquered I Serve"

Hope it all goes well for him, even Sennybridge!

I became curious so I looked up Catterick on Google Maps since I was not familiar with that city. I noticed it is north of Leeds so it must be quite cold there in the winter!

Hi PanzerMeyer,
Remember you're talking about an Island on the fringe of the Eastern Atlantic bathed by the warm Gulf Stream. We don't do proper cold like Canada / Siberia even in winter (except possibly Central Highlands Scotland mid - winter.)
Cheers The Pitts

NB Of course that could all change if the Gulf Stream stops courtesy of Global Warming !!

Congrats to your son RossUK, for a dad to see son reach his goal is quite a milestone, enjoy the moment

Thanks everyone...

I don’t know enough about the UK system to give much advice.

How long until he goes in ?
Is he going in with a specific type of duty or as a general recruit ?
Is he in excellent fitness ?

He starts 23rd April. He heard they really keen to get people trained hence the date being so soon. Interestingly he was told he may be starting with recruits whose native language isn't English....

He has always wanted infantry so that's what he has got. General soldier. Doesn't want to specialise i.e signals or engineers.

Not sure if you guys have the bleep test, but he got to 9.5. Armed Police here have to get to 9. 13 is the minimum for Marine/Para. He could do with bulking a little more in my opinion but I've heard the Army are really good at dietry stuff and honing areas in need of improvement.

Infantry, oh a real soldier. You have raised a manly man.

Get him to work out some every day until he goes. Every so often just drop and do 15 pushups and 20 sit-ups. Run some very day. It doesn’t have to be far but he must do it. Just a 2 or 3 miler every day will be a big help. Occasionally do patterns of run 200 yards and walk 200. Keep repeating the 200 and 200. This is important. Between now and then he needs to do these things. Doing the push-ups and sit-ups many times a day. If he knows what is one the fitness test he should be doing that. He doesn’t need to go for the highest score number but needs to repeatedly do those things so his body adjusts and builds up core strength.

Let me offer a very important view.

If he has some built up core strength it will be a game changer for him. If he is fit, the instructors will not have their eye on him and they will be on the ones who aren’t fit. Being fit for means he will not ache as much and sleep better. Better sleep will make him sharper during instruction and training. If he isn’t fatigued he will learn quicker.

He will be less susceptible to injury if he is already fit and comfortable with the exercises he will be doing.

His scores will will be higher and that often makes a big difference in being selected for better training, positions, and promotion. He will not only be more respected by the trainers, but his peers as well.

As an old soldier I can’t stress this enough.

What is the “bleep test” ?

I think he is reffering to this test.

Pretty hard.

https://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/20mshuttle.htm

The bleep test isn't hard... if a person has reasonable fitness they should pass... if they don't pass they are pretty unfit.

Congratulations and respects.

Beep test top results. From: https://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/shuttle-run.htm

Thanks everyone, I've had some lovely comments and replies privately.

Just hope he stays focused and safe.

So, how goes it with your son ?