Brilliant at the Basics

In today's modern era of warfighting, Canada's soldier's are trained and outfitted with the latest in mean, green mobile machines. Jeeps, armoured personnel carriers and tanks move us from point A to B - carving a path of destruction as we sweep the battlefield hunting down bad guys.

So you can imagine my surprise when my old army battalion commander informed us that our big field training exercise would be conducted entirely on foot! No gas-powered giants to rely on for support.

Now this blew my mind - what's the training value in practicing basic movement we all knew so well already?

Brilliant at the basics. That was the reasoning I got. The fundamental soldiering skills would be honed in before we got to play with the big stuff. Even though that method of purely dismounted warfare has been washed away with the 20th century, we were going to tune it in anyways.

Brilliant at the basics is the training philosophy I am promoting this year. Too often do I get caught up in the tactical planning phase of zombie survival, while neglecting my core skills.

If my lighter runs out, will I be able to start a fire by friction? If I get cornered in a room, am I comfortable parkouring out a window? If I run out of rations, will my wild edible foraging give me enough calories to fight zombies all day? Will my arms get sore after forty swings with a crowbar?

Brilliant at the basics. It's your fundamentals that will pave the foundation for all other skills. Next bugout you may just see me rubbing a stick for hours, or swinging at a suspended tire until my arms give out.

The funny thing is, that the main reason my old army unit decided to be "brilliant at the basics" was because we had no budget for gasoline that fiscal quarter.

No gas? Now that's post-apocalyptic training value.