TEAM Building Week - popularly known 'Hell Week' - is the toughest stretch of a six-week long physical training programme that all naval divers have to go through.
The aim is to build physical fitness and test the mental stamina of Naval Diving Unit trainees by giving them an exhaustive list of tasks to perform.
Not all these tasks require brawn. Even essay writing is part of Team Building Week.
Second Warrant Officer Norris Lucius, 35, from the unit, said: 'The aim of the physical training phase is to build diver fitness.
'We train them progressively over five weeks to take the rigours of diving. The sixth week is Team Building Week. This is a test to assess the diver's capability of performing in extreme conditions, mentally and physically.'
2WO Lucius said Team Building Week starts with instructors 'creating chaos' for trainees. Such 'chaos' can tax even the stout-hearted, which is why this segment of the course has been dubbed 'Hell Week'.
Trainees are allowed about three hours' sleep during the first few days of 'Hell Week' but they steal it in snatches and snooze away from the comfort of their bunks. Physical training winds down towards the end of the week. This is when the mental challenges start.2WO Lucius said: 'That's where sleep deprivation kicks in and we get them to write essays. We also do a lot of coordination training where we have games in which you are told to use your mental abilities to coordinate things.'
Though trainees are exhausted at the end of the week, the Naval Diving Unit said the dropout rate is low because close supervision ensures that the trainees are not pushed beyond their limits.
2WO Lucius said: 'The instructional team is broken up into three shifts so that you don't tax or fatigue the instructors so much that their attention is diverted from the safety of the trainees.'
-- David Boey
-ST
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