# Joining the Reserve Force as Infantry



## CF0WNAG3 (10 Mar 2012)

Alright, so im 16, im in the 10th grade and i plan on joining the canadian forces reserves in 3 months. I was wondering if anybody would have any tips or any information for bmq in the reserves(fitness and stuff), and other tips for beign a good soldier in the reserves.(the regiement is the 2nd Batalion, the irish regiment of canada, so if anybody would have any tips on that specific regiment, it would be greatly appreciated) Thanks


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## AgentSmith (10 Mar 2012)

Why the poll?

Just do a search of the BMQ and recruiting forums and you will find tons of good info. My advice would be to do what you're told when you're told, be in the best shape possible, and don't screw over your buddies on course (work as a team)


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## saskcowboy13 (13 Mar 2012)

:goodpost:


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## brihard (14 Mar 2012)

Your odds of 'joining in 3 months' are not necessarily that great. 2nd Irish is part of 33 Brigade. The brigade's next basic military qualification course starts in early October. If you join mid summer you may not be processed as a recruit in time, and you may find that all fall BMQ spots have been taken by those hired in the April- June time frame. I would advise contacting the unit's recruiter mid April once they get their hiring allocation for the new budget year, and confirming what they think is best in terms of your application. I can say with certainty that you will not be in a position to train until at least early fall, and that's assuming your application goes through quickly enough.

If you get in in time for the fall BMQ, you would then do your two month Infantry course in the summer of 2013, leaving you infantry qualified by about July or August next year. From there you can be used within the unit as a soldier in a rifle platoon starting fall 2013.

My advice is contact a recruiter as soon as possible and figure out how early you can get your name in the hat. Find out if they have spots for hiring (but don't expect a firm answer on this til middle of next month), and ask at that time if they have already filled their expected BMQ loading for next fall. Spots are limited. 

Get yourself in good physical shape. Learn as much as you can about what the infantry does, how, why when and where; what the 2nd Irish have contributed to the forces, what the role of the reserves are in Canada, and what the Canadian Forces does at home and abroad. 

Read thoroughly through the recruiting forum on the site. Most questions have already been asked and there's little patience here for those who aren't able to do their own research and search for information.


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## Eaglelord17 (14 Mar 2012)

Hi I'm currently doing my BMQ with some guys from the 2nd Irish. Practice your push ups and sit ups and also do some runs to get in shape. Also start your application ASAP as it can take sometimes 6 months or more to process. I dont really know any specific tips other than the water at the sudbury armouries sucks and just do what your told. Good luck with the application, hope you get into the funny hat brigade


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## CF0WNAG3 (13 May 2012)

Eaglelord, i run about 3 klick  about 4 days a week as a practice. do you think that its enough? and thanks everybody for the info it really helps


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## MikeL (13 May 2012)

CF0WNAG3 said:
			
		

> Eaglelord, i run about 3 klick  about 4 days a week as a practice. do you think that its enough? and thanks everybody for the info it really helps



If thats all you're doing for excercise,  then no.

Instead of running 3kms 4 times a week,  try doing one day distance, and another day of speed training.  Also,  add weights,  HIT/crossfit type stuff as well.  

For running,  baseline for entering the CF IMO should be able to do 5kms in 30mins or less, the more push ups, situps you can do over the express min standard(19) the better.


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## brihard (13 May 2012)

CF0WNAG3 said:
			
		

> Eaglelord, i run about 3 klick  about 4 days a week as a practice. do you think that its enough? and thanks everybody for the info it really helps



No. Be able to run _at least_ 5 or 6 km continuously and comfortably. Simply being able to hit the minimum won't do you any favours. Be able to do intervals and to do hills. And spend some time hiking with weight in a backpack.


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## Eaglelord17 (14 May 2012)

They really like running hills so try running longer distances up and down hills, 6-8 km should probally be good. Other than that doing backpack marches will be good. Good luck


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## CF0WNAG3 (27 Jul 2012)

alright so im able to do consecutive amounts of pushups/situps/chin ups(all the basic requirements, i can do well over 50 pushups, 80 situps, 12 chinups should be good? and i run around my town(wich is about 5-6km in total) so im sure im fit for it and i am petty well built for my age so im pretty sure i could be able to do long mraches wih weight on my back. but can anyone tell me how its like inside the regiment specificaly? i want to know more about what THE regiment does in terms of PT and stuff. And im also going for the CFAT retesting in september(failed it once in june :'( ) anyways, thanks for the tips on running up hill and to do some marches with weights in a pack.


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## brihard (27 Jul 2012)

It sounds like your level of fitness is fine, and now you need to put in some skull sweat. Work on the things in which you were found deficient in the CFAT. In the interim, keep working on your cardio. 5-6km is at the low end of where you should be for running.


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## CF0WNAG3 (7 Aug 2012)

Ya, i am still working on cardio, but mostly running up hill and trying to run longer distances. But the the only thing that does worry me is the CFAT(i have a program that is sapose to help me for the cfat but that program doesnt seem to do much) but i am looking around on the forums and such looking for ways to improve my performance on cfat.


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## aesop081 (7 Aug 2012)

CF0WNAG3 said:
			
		

> sapose



Just to give you a hint, there is a vocabulary section to the CFAT.


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## habsman18 (4 May 2015)

So me and my friend are 16 and we would like to join the infantry reserve in London Ontario. Doing this we hope will make us look better on an application when we apply to RMC. We both visited the recruiting centre but at the time we didn't consider it, in fact the recruiting officer is who gave us the idea but we were more focused on other things. We would like to know if we did go through with it what would be the daily job of an infantry reservist? We looked online but couldn't find any answers.


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## Loachman (5 May 2015)

Your "daily" life would consist of going to school and doing as well as possible. Your training would occur on one or two evenings a week and a couple of weekends per month, with the possibility of fulltime summer courses. You will need to see the recruiting chap at 4 RCR anyway, so you may as well see what goes on there at the same time.

In the meantime, keep reading relevant older threads here.


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## habsman18 (17 Aug 2015)

Hey guys, I'm just have 2 questions about the reserves. Everything else I know from the forces website and from my recruiter I just forgot to ask and couldn't find any info on the internet

1.) Do they shave your heads in the reserves?
2.) I'm (soon to be) applying for infantry reserve and wondering how much am I be getting paid per hour?

Thanks for your responses!


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## George Wallace (17 Aug 2015)

habsman18 said:
			
		

> Hey guys, I'm just have 2 questions about the reserves. Everything else I know from the forces website and from my recruiter I just forgot to ask and couldn't find any info on the internet
> 
> 1.) Do they shave your heads in the reserves?  NO
> 2.) I'm (soon to be) applying for infantry reserve and wondering how much am I be getting paid per hour?  Look at topic on Pay.
> ...



I would say to follow the advice give to you by Loachman on 05 May 2015.   (The post before your latest.)


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## Loachman (19 Aug 2015)

habsman18 said:
			
		

> 1.) Do they shave your heads in the reserves?



"They" do not shave anything.

You do.

And you can shave anything that you want, as long as your face is included.

Nobody in the CF gets paid by the hour.

Have you bothered to do any research on this Site, at all? It certainly does not look that way.


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