Confidence Course New Events Near Completion

Work on the newest events for the MMA Confidence Course has continued over the last few weeks and is now nearing completion. Fabrication of the overhead ladder has begun and should be finished by the time cadets return from Thanksgiving break. Marine Military Academy Facilities Department welder, Mr. Jose “Chester” Diaz has begun cutting and welding of the pipes to form the overhead ladder. This requires him to cut and bend the main support pipes to the proper shape prior to installing the hand rungs. Once this is finished the ladder will be sent to the Facilities paint shop for painting and final installation on top of the support poles.

Confidence Course Overhead Ladder

Poles for the Overhead Ladder were set last month and have had sufficient time to set up for installation of the ladder. The poles are space in two rows, twenty feet from start to finish with a set of poles midway to support the ladder. There are two rows on the event so that two cadets can negotiate the obstacle at the same time. Once welding work on the ladder is completed the ladder will be attached to the tops of the poles using 12″ lag bolts. The poles are 7 feet high on each end and go up to a height of 9 feet in the middle. The Overhead Ladder will be the final obstacle of the sixteen obstacles on the Confidence Course.

Confidence Course Hurdles

The two new medium hurdles on the are now finished and simply waiting for the ground to settle more around the support poles before allowing cadets to use them. These two hurdles add a higher level of difficulty to the course as they are placed toward the second half of the course. At this point participants will be feeling the effects on their upper body of the earlier events and will find these two events a bit more of a challenge. Cadets are already looking forward to running the course with the new events and we will be sure to post pictures of their first running next semester.