Photo By Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Bryson | Assassin Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) Soldiers, work through a practical...... read more read more
FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Readiness and Resilience (R2) Performance Center trainers conducted Master Resilience Training (MRT) with Assassin Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR), Soldiers during a Foundational Training Day February 21, 2024, at the 11th ACR Miles classroom here.
According to the Army Directorate of Prevention, Resilience and Readiness, MRT skills can help enhance personal readiness and quality of life by teaching individual communication strategies, stress management, goal-setting techniques, performance improvement measures and positive coping methods.
Capt. James E. Bryson, Assassin Troop, 11th ACR, commander, said the purpose of the Foundational Training Day is to teach and reinforce positive life skills that will help Soldiers in their professional and personal lives; the R2 Performance Center resources provide exactly that.
According to Bryson, taking time to work on stress-management and resiliency building techniques is important for the hard-working Assassin troopers who have recently provided the professional opposing force (OPFOR) for two grueling, back-to-back, training rotations within a two-month period at the National Training Center (NTC), here.
“The R2 program teaches important life skills in a fun and relatable way to Soldiers,” Bryson said. “This was a fantastic use of our Foundational Training Day… not only did the Troops learn some positive skills, but it was great to see them continue to develop cohesion as teams and squads as they worked through the practical exercises today.”
Bryson said he made it a point to schedule training with the R2 team two to three times a year in order to help build a strong foundation in coping and goal-setting skills for troops.
“The R2 Center here at Fort Irwin is very accessible…they can help with the ACFT [Army Combat Fitness Test], weapons qualification– or any event a Soldier may struggle with performance wise,” Bryson said.“We also bring them in if we see a [unfavorable] trend developing or if there is any event that we think may elevate the risk to our force.”
Bryson added, “Anytime you can include team building in a training event… that’s a win.”
R2 Center instructor Dee Morrow, who has a master/s degree in sports psychology, has been teaching MRT and other life skills at Fort Irwin for over four years.
Morrow said stress-management skills such as the ones she coached Assassin troops through, can enhance both unit and personal readiness.
Practical exercises overseen by R2 facilitators cement classroom learning by allowing participants to work through various problems with peers, gauging their thoughts and feelings and practicing effective communication tools as they do so.
“We really like to focus on prevention… helping people obtain the skills they need to respond to stress and be able to understand the thoughts, feelings and emotions they are experiencing and deal with them effectively… before they have a problem,” Morrow said. “We also have programs focused on performance improvement for Soldiers and civilians.”
Morrow explained the R2 Center offers programs for Soldiers, families and other members of the Fort Irwin community to include individual or group classes on team-building, realization of sports and fitness goals, test improvement and academic performance, and stress management techniques; they can even assist with public speaking skills.
“We can help Soldiers, spouses, families, civilians working on post… we can even help teens with academic performance here," Morrow said. "As long as they are over 13 and have their parents’ permission we can assist."
Morrow said the most rewarding part of the job for her was when a Soldier came back and reported they applied the skills they learned from the R2 and it helped them.
“We have had a few Soldiers come in months after a training I have taught and say, ‘hey, I didn’t get how it was going to help me at the time, but I used the skills I learned in MRT and it helped me get through a tough experience,'” Morrow said. “Those are the moments where I know I am not just talking to blank faces… the information is getting through to people and being applied."
At the end of the session with the R2 trainers, Bryson asked the classroom full of Assassin troopers why they thought he scheduled MRT training.
“Because it works, Sir,” one of his junior Soldiers responded.
Find out if it can work for you! For more information about the R2 Performance Center and MRT training on Fort Irwin, stop by building #128 (near the Box Gym), call 760-380-7887 or visit: Army Resilience Directorate.
| Date Taken: | 02.21.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.06.2024 13:49 |
| Story ID: | 464567 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, R2 Builds Resiliency, Enhances Performance for Troops and Families, by SSG Elizabeth Bryson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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