This is the ugly side of the Army's cultural emphasis on "standards," and the reason I refuse to let my guys talk about minimums. Instead, I make them keep track of their personal bests, and egg them on to shave off a few seconds or get one more rep. Like riding a motorcycle, you'll end up where your eyeballs are focused.
I don't see a reason to draw a distinction between combatives and PT. What good is a skilled fighter without conditioning? As a MCMAP instructor, I consider conditioning an integral part of martial arts training. That doesn't mean my guys are in PT uniforms chanting jodies; you'll find them doing pugil stick fights while winded from the o-course, or ground fighting between rounds of calisthenics. They get way more cardio from exercise combined with the adrenaline of competition and violence...and it's not bad for developing aggression, either.
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