• Boxing – Learn controlled aggression, courage, and composure under pressure.
• Personal Fitness – Build a personal fitness plan based on Army standards.
• Aquatics – Gain the confidence and survival skills to succeed in the water.
• Army Fitness Test (AFT) – Assess strength, speed, and stamina.

Army Fitness Test (AFT)

The Army Fitness Test (AFT) is a comprehensive physical fitness assessment designed to evaluate cadets' readiness for military service. It includes age- and gender-normed scoring for support Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) and branches and gender-neutral, age-normed scoring for combat MOS and branches such as Infantry, Armor, Engineers, and Artillery. All cadets are encouraged to prepare for and meet the standards required for combat specialties. 

The test consists of five events, providing a thorough evaluation of physical preparedness for the demands of military service. 

During the six weeks of Cadet Basic Training (CBT), cadets will perform the Army Fitness Test (AFT) once. This final AFT will be conducted at the end of CBT.

During Cadets’ Fourth-Class (freshman) year, Cadets enroll in two classes: Boxing and Fundamentals of Personal Fitness. Cadets classified as non-swimmers will also take Fundamentals of Aquatics.

Boxing (PE116) - Plebe Year

Boxing requires cadets to display the Warrior Ethos necessary to engage an opponent through controlled aggression. The course teaches offensive and defensive skills of amateur boxing and exposes participants to the coping strategies necessary to deal with a physical threat. It includes stances, movement, basic punches (i.e., jab, cross, hook, and upper cut), defenses, strategies, and tactics. Instruction on refereeing, judging, and serving as a corner second are presented. Boxers are evaluated, assessed and provided feedback on their skills. 

Fundamentals of Personal Fitness (PE215) - Plebe Year

Fundamentals of Personal Fitness provides cadets with the knowledge and experience to develop a personal fitness plan that links to the Army doctrinal approach to physical readiness. Cadets participate in various active learning experiences designed to develop, monitor, maintain, and assess physical fitness for their future Army careers and lifetime of physical activity. It exposes cadets to the Army’s Holistic Health & Fitness (H2F) system, allowing them to establish their personal fitness ideology. 

Fundamentals of Aquatics (PE109) - Plebe Year

Fundamentals of Aquatics is a 38-lesson course for cadets classified as non-swimmers. The first phase is a remedial swimming exploration curriculum designed to prepare cadets classified as non-swimmers for the survival swimming curriculum. The remedial phase helps cadets acquire in-water experiences and gradually refine basic motor skills needed to be comfortable, safe, and effective in and around an aquatic environment. Phase two emphasizes the military applications of swimming and survival skills, including breath control, buoyancy positions, stroke assessment, and swimming endurance. Successful completion fulfills the survival swimming graduation requirement for selected cadets.

Kinesiology Major

In addition to the Core Curriculum, qualified cadets may choose to major in Kinesiology. These select cadets provide the Army with breadth and depth in human movement, performance, and optimization. 

• Military Movement – Train agility, coordination, and mobility for the battlefield.
• Survival Swimming – Master combat water survival skills.

In the Third-Class (sophomore) year, Cadets enroll in Military Movement and Survival Swimming. 

Military Movement (PE117) - Yearling Year

Military Movement is an applied gymnastics course that gives Cadets the kinesthetic foundation necessary to move effectively on a battlefield. The 19-lesson course exposes cadets to a variety of basic movement skills. It serves as a basis for many other athletic and military activities that cadets will encounter during their time at USMA and in their Army career. Focus is placed on applied movement tasks. 

This course takes a basic movement theme approach, meaning cadets are required to learn a variety of relevant skills from within the general themes of rolling, hanging, climbing, crawling, jumping, vaulting, landing, mounting, supporting, and swinging. 

In addition, the environment (or apparatus) where a skill is performed is changed or modified to challenge the cadet and broaden the movement experience. Movement environments are designed around specific events such as tumbling, vaulting, vertical ropes, horizontal ropes, the indoor obstacle course (IOCT), horizontal bars, elephant vault, ankles to the bar (ATB), pull-ups, rock climbing, and trampoline.

Survival Swimming (PE32x)  - Yearling Year

Survival Swimming requires Cadets to develop the critical skills and composure necessary to endure in a dynamic aquatic environment. The 19-lesson course develops theatre-specific survival swimming proficiency. Offered as part of five different progressive delivery systems BASED ON ENTRY LEVEL ABILITY (PE109: Fundamentals of Aquatics, PE320: Survival Swimming - Elementary, PE321: Survival Swimming - Low - Intermediate, PE322: Survival Swimming - High, PE323: Survival Swimming - Advanced); the course syllabus is divided into two curriculum tracks: basic stroke development and combat survival swimming. Emphasis is on elements of conditional acclimatization (both flat water and surf), breath control, basic locomotion, buoyancy positions, stroke instruction/refinement, and the development of sound “real-world” analysis and decision-making when faced with operational water survival implications.

PE109 satisfies this requirement.

Indoor Obstacle Course Test (IOCT): The IOCT is administered to third, second, and first classes. Passing the second class IOCT is a graduation requirement. Cadets who fail to meet the minimum performance standard of 3:30 (men) or 5:29 (women) become deficient in the Physical Program until they remediate a failure. To facilitate a successful outcome for cadets, the Department of Physical Education offers multiple record IOCTs throughout the academic year.

To further encourage cadets to engage the IOCT at the highest level of performance, anyone may retest the IOCT for grade replacement. Cadets are permitted to retake the IOCT for improvement during any subsequent scheduled test. Only the highest grade earned during each academic year will be used to compute the PPSC.

• Combat Applications – Learn hand-to-hand combat through Army combatives.
• Army Fitness Development – Plan and lead physical readiness training for a unit.

Cadets are enrolled in Combat Applications and Army Fitness Development during their Second-Class (junior) year. 

Combat Applications (PE360) - Cow Year

Combat Applications provides a capstone combatives experience that aligns with the Army’s Modern Army Combatives Program. This course provides cadets with a comprehensive set of basic combatives skills suited for a combat scenario. Cadets learn to respond appropriately to aggression by utilizing proper body mechanics, skills, aggressiveness, and fear management. Two combat ranges of hand-to-hand fighting are taught: 1) Grappling range - cadets learn to fight and win on the ground; and 2) Clinch range - cadets learn to close the distance and control the fight with an attacker. Cadets are evaluated on their ability to perform selected combative skills and their capacity to exhibit the warrior ethos and fear management. 

Army Fitness Development (PE450) - Cow Year 

Army Fitness Development requires Cadets to design, assess, and implement mission-focused physical readiness training to optimize unit performance. This course prepares future company-grade officers for their roles as fitness leaders by equipping them with the knowledge to plan, implement and assess periodized unit physical readiness training programs. Students will apply training principles to create specific programs eliciting physical adaptations necessary to meet the physical requirements of their units.

Choose from dozens of Lifetime Physical Activity courses—from rock climbing and Olympic weightlifting to scuba and skiing—to build skills you’ll use long after graduation.

In Cadets’ First-Class (Senior) year, they will engage in one of many Lifetime Physical Activity courses, designed to develop a foundation of skills, knowledge, and personal attributes, which will enable cadets to successfully participate in lifetime physical activities, provide motivation for continued improvement, and establish a pattern of physical activity for a lifetime. Lifetime Physical Activity Courses include the following: