Kawad Kaki PLKN

I anticipated going to PLKN, all the activities excite me but there's an exception. I dreaded foot drill(will be referred as kawad kaki afterwards), and unfortunately it's like the main agenda of our physical activities.

For the record, I have always fainted during band marching back in high school that it's the indication for break for all the band members. I've tried all sorts of tips and whatsnot like staring into green bodies, but it just end up the same, dimmed vision and plop!

It didn't help when I fainted during our very first assembly in PLKN, held in the early morning with the mist still hanging around and to make things worst, was in the mass hall.I know right?

It was such an embarassment that I covered myself up under the duvet when the camp commandant paid his visit shortly after the assembly (the sickbay is just next to mass hall)

Bukit padang kawad

And if you want to know, the selection of headgirl in our company was done based on kawad kaki skill. Pathetic!

Anyway, we had some other physical activities the first few days. Stuff like carrying 2 big bin bags full of PLKN articles like boots, sport shoes, combat suits, poncho etc and assessing the trainee fitness. I am sure that by the end of PLKN, every trainee was almost as fit as a horse. You need to see my camp for yourself to understand what I am talking about. And when you see the camp, do realise that we went up and down the hills no less than 6 times a day.

So when the dreaded news "we will start the kawad kaki training this afternoon" came, my face fell and my stomach knotted. I did horrible for the first few sessions.

But then, there's no escaping it. We were trained very well.

Sometimes we did it in the whole company, and sometimes we did it in fours.

Under the scorching hot sun, and the fact that we are nearer to it thanks to the location ~accommodation hilltop, instructed by ex armies and with newfound words (to us) the likes of cilabai laut, malaun etc. blaring around.

I picked things up and tried my best to like this skill.

They even made us tukar langkah countless of time when we march our way down the steepest hill. As if marching down a hill is not hard enough we had to do tukar langkah, check-up, buat kerja, check-up!, jangan malass, check-up!!!!!!!!!!!!

And as written in the fate, I was selected among others to be the 20 girls sent for the intercompany competition. I still hadn't come to love foot drill by that time. I had to put up with more intense training of the foot drill and I just sucked it up. There's no escaping it. And on the competition day itself, dressed head to toe in our marvellous celoreng biru, our berets glazing with the PLKN badges, our boots waxed to shine, we were sweating and all nervous, waiting our turn, which drew last. The tension was floating around even though we were waiting downhill. Though all the crowds and the competing teams were invisible to us, the shouted commands, solid thumps fom the drill and cheering of the audience were audible an echoed in between the two hills.

And then came our turn. It was right at noon and the sun was directly above us. Steadily, and surely we marched up the hill that hosted our tarmac drill field. We were all focused, smartly dressed and urm, 10 shades darker than our original complexions. As for me myself, that was the most heartfelt foot drill for me. The platoon felt like one, we swung our arms firmly, stomp at the same time and our head held up. We rolled it perfectly and marched downhill, satisfied. We all know it was the best performance we ever put up, and cikgu Awie will eat up his words and acknowledge us. Most importantly I didn't passed out and my new answer to foot drill ~bring it on!

This is the video of us during the competition.Quality is rather low but you can see how hot it was from the poorly visible characters on the flying flags.

As told, kawad is a major thing in PLKN. And well, we swept clean all the first places - kawad wirawati, kawad wira and ketua platun terbaik. Alpha panthera roared! Aummmm!!!!

Photos are from fellow trainees Kumpulan 1 Siri 4 Kem PLKN Bukit Besar, Kulim, Kedah.