Background

The Centre of Excellence for Soldier Performance (CESP) was inaugurated on 1 December 2017 as a one-stop centre to develop and realise the full combat potential of every soldier. Since its inauguration, CESP has achieved significant milestones in the following areas: (i) fitness and nutrition; (ii) pre-habilitation and rehabilitation; (iii) resilience and (iv) soldier systems.

Fitness and Nutrition - Implementing Vocation Fitness Programmes across All Combat Units

Vocation Fitness Training. To date, CESP has completed the implementation of the Vocation Fitness Training (VFT) in all Army combat units, while the implementation for the combat support units will be completed by the end of 2018. VFT is a four-week training phase introduced after Basic Military Training to strengthen soldiers in their vocation-specific combat fitness so that the soldiers are better prepared physically to embark on their advanced combat training. This is achieved by a customised fitness training using enhanced fitness equipment combined with periodisation. With periodisation, VFT is complemented with dedicated recovery periods so that soldiers perform at their best during peak phases of the unit training system.

Fitness-Nutrition Balance. A revised Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) in support of high intensity training was also implemented. Feedback from the soldiers has shown that hunger pangs are now less common during training. Unit Commanders have also witnessed improvements in their soldiers' performance when food intake is matched to their activity levels.

Pre-habilitation and Rehabilitation - Injury Prevention and Management

A team of experts in CESP who focus on the aspect of pre-habilitation and rehabilitation programmes, work together with Unit Commanders to advise them on holistic programmes, addressing key injury risk factors such as low physical fitness, high body weight and history of past injury.

Rehabilitation. CESP has implemented Rehabilitation at Unit (Rehab@Unit) programmes in seven units, which has resulted in several changes to the process of a soldier undergoing rehabilitation for a musculoskeletal injury. First, Unit Commanders are equipped with the knowledge to recognise the early signs of an injury. Second, the Unit Medical Officer has better access to an SAF physiotherapist, who is able to quickly assess the severity of soldier's injury and initiate treatment. In addition, the SAF physiotherapist makes a monthly routine visit to the units. This reduces waiting time for clinic referrals and injury diagnosis. Third, Unit Commanders who have participated in rehabilitation skills training provided by CESP are now able to support the injured soldier in rehabilitation. Hence, the current soldier-centric approach ensures the most efficient recovery for soldiers and is better able to prevent injury escalation and allow soldiers to return to training with reduced downtime, as compared to our past model of de-centralised care at diverse hospital rehabilitation clinics.

Resilience - Working with Units on Programme Design

Over the past six months, CESP has worked closely with units to develop Task-Specific Resilience Programmes (TSRP) to strengthen the resilience of soldiers during combat training. These programmes allow trainers to introduce social, cognitive or emotional stressors into combat training in a controlled manner. By working closely with CESP Psychologists, Unit Commanders are able to develop realistic and varied training scenarios safely and effectively. Trials for TSRP are currently still ongoing.

Soldier Systems - Employing Wearable Technology to Improve Performance

Science and technology are key training enablers to unlock the potential of every soldier. Employing wearable devices for training allows access to physiological information on the activity history and physical condition of every soldier. This information could potentially be harnessed to develop training programmes which enhances progressive training for each individual soldier. In the coming months, CESP will evaluate a commercial wearable system with the following objectives in mind:

a.    To Monitor and Consolidate Individual Soldier's Parameters Over Time. The parameters of interest include pulse rates, skin temperatures and sleep activity. This will help to provide a better indication of physiological strain that a soldier is undergoing during training.

b.    To Chart Progressiveness in Training. With information on individual physiological strain, CESP is able to track training intensities and volume to reduce the overall risk of injury from over-training.

c.    To Ensure Training Safety. By consolidating real-time monitoring data, we can continually assess lead indicators for health hazards such as fatigue and elevated body temperatures. This information could allow the Army to manage acute injury risks proactively and offer opportunities to intervene early, thereby reducing the risk of injury.

Once physiological strain and performance information is captured and stored more efficiently, these datasets could be analysed further to identify trends and reveal new training insights. In turn, these findings could potentially enhance our training programmes. 

a.    Enable Goal-Directed Training. CESP is exploring the development of a training application, which includes a user interface for soldiers to track personal performance and enhance goal-directed training. 

b.    Hazard Detection. CESP is also exploring the feasibility of developing real-time monitoring systems, which applies data analytics to provide real-time alerts that will help Commanders to detect soldiers in distress and initiate an appropriate response.