It should be noted that some of the items on this page should be taken with large quantities of salt, as this is an area that notoriously tempts people to exaggerate for propaganda reasons. ("Look how tough we are!" or "Look how psychopathic our enemies are!") Also, bear in mind that at the end of the day, militaries aren't that different, especially in this day and age where information can travel frequently and spies can better observe what rivals (and allies) are up to. If a country discovers a harsh training method that produces results, there is no reason for a country not to adopt it in order to better stand up to its enemies. In fact, alliances can make it a point to adopt similar rigorous training to better coordinate their soldiers. Hence, do not be surprised if things sound similar here.
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Military
- One widespread story (including appearing on this page) is the idea of a recruit being given a small, cute animal to care for and being forced to kill it in order to complete their training. This story has been circulated about forces in the US, UK, Russia and probably other countries. It's practically become a cliche at this point, even appearing in fiction such as Kingsman: The Secret Service and A Song of Ice and Fire. This story is so well-known, that one US Marine told of being asked by an Arab civilian in Iraq if he had been forced to kill a puppy during his training. When he responded that he hadn't, the civilian asked, "But then how did you become a marine?"
- As shown in the Brazilian movie Tropa de Elite / The Elite Squad, the grueling course for entry into the elite Dirty Harry-esque unit of the Rio de Janeiro police, BOPE. Designed to fail over 95% of applicants. Includes being fed nothing but dog food, massive violence, endurance tests, being continually shouted at, verbally and physically lambasted by the course instructors.
- The British Corps of Royal Marines
has the longest and most arduous basic training course in the world, intended to weed out all but the toughest candidates and form one of the world's most-feared raiding forces.- The Royal Marines Young Officer training course is the longest infantry training course in the world at 15 months. It is also widely considered to be amongst the most grueling, being designed to take its trainees from civilian to fully qualified officer capable of commanding a troop of elite commandos. It is is estimated that for every fifty people who begin the application process, one will finish trainingnote .
- Enlisted training is no walk in the park, either. Basic training lasts 36 weeks for those lucky enough to pass on their first try (very few do) and most are delayed by weeks or months due to being injured and being placed into the rehabilitation company before they're deemed fit enough to be placed back into training. One recruit actually spent two years at the training camp simply because he kept on injuring himself badly enough to be back-trooped but not badly enough to be dismissed. Training is so demanding that recruits have to eat over 5000 calories a day simply to function.
- The French Foreign Legion has an extremely tough training regime with real life Legionnaires saying that while a lot of stories and rumors are exaggerated, they aren't that far from the actual truth. The need for tough training and harsh discipline is because the Legion recruits come from over a hundred different countries and the French discovered that the best way to encourage unit cohesion is to ensure that everyone goes through extreme hardship. Punishments for failing to meet training standards and other mistakes include having to dig a hole and then getting in it to be buried up to the neck as well as marching for hours on end carrying a rucksack full of rocks and the straps replaced with wires while wearing boots with no laces. The harshness extends to language lessons. While understanding at first (few join the Legion already knowing French), instructors will "kick your head in", in the words of one former Legionnaire, if they believe a recruit's language skills aren't advancing quickly enough.
- The GIGN (French tactical police force of the Gendarmerie; basically military SWAT) has a harsh selection process. Very harsh. In average, between 7 and 8% of the candidates make it through the fourteen-months training, which includes paradropping, combat diving, bomb disposal and survival in various hard environments such as deserts or arctic regions. And to top it off, those who successfully complete their training commemorate their graduation with a "trust shot", where they strap on a heavy ballistic vest with a clay pigeon affixed dead center and stand stock still so that one of their new comrades can shoot the pigeon off with a live round.
- The Royal Navy's Submarine Command School is also known as "Perisher" for its 30% dropout rate, and becoming a candidate in the first place means rising through the officer ranks to the point of being considered for a major command, which is already rare. The mental strain is incredibly demanding as students are placed in actual command of a submarine and must complete drills involving multiple surface vessels and complex mental calculations while making sure they don't accidentally kill everyone on board the boat. And this is all done under the intense gaze of the instructor, who can and will end a career at his discretion. Those who fail are booted off the boat as soon as possible and never allowed to serve on another submarine, evernote .
- Air Force Pararescue is two straight years of Training From Hell, going through every course on diver training, parachuting, recovery training and survival training on top of qualifying as a paramedic and maintaining the proper licensesnote . The school has a drop-out rate of approximately 90%, this is out of a class as large as 100 Airmen. Their Motto "That Others May Live" is exemplified in that, of the 24 Air Force Cross' that have been awarded to enlisted personnel since the inception of the Air Force, 12 of them have gone to PJs. Note that this team actually rescues other special forces units occasionally and often acts as medics for those teams.
- 1st SFOD-D, SAS, JTF2, DEVGRU, KSK and many more legendary strike teams not only endure a selection process that eliminates around 20% of the applicants, they go through training that often has only 5-10% pass. And then, they constantly train every single day for that one mission where they will be needed. No rest for the best.
- The top classified German GSG 9 inspired a certain SpecOps team.
- The British SAS selection process culminates in a week long exercise where the surviving applicants are given a basic set of survival equipment and a movement restricting greatcoat and then told to evade capture from trained special forces teamsnote . And even if you get through this you're finally subjected to a 36 hour enhanced interrogation. (48 hours by some accounts. Even 72 hours has been alleged). It's said that only 15% of applicants ever go the whole way and join the SAS.
- When the SAS ended the Iranian Embassy siege in spectacular fashion, and thus became a household name in the UK, they were swamped with applications for the Selection process. As a result, the already grueling training regime was turned up to eleven, in order to weed out those who were only there for the fame.
- When the SAS ended the Iranian Embassy siege
- The SAS and, by extension, the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta are a different application of this trope from the norm. From what is known about the Selection course, the entire thing is not only difficult, but also one prolonged mind game. The instructors will not say anything aside from what the candidates need to know, will not smile or frown, or give any indication of how well each individual is doing. They could go through the whole course not knowing whether they passed or failed until the end. Instructors will not give any deadlines or any criteria for success for failure. When asked how quickly they should go to a certain objective in a field exercise, trainees will be told "whenever" or "however long it takes for you" or something similar; asking what a passing score is in a shooting exercise will be met with "do the best you can". The idea is for the trainees to push themselves without having any kind of external framework to go on, to move hard and fast without the impetus of a ticking clock or a scoreboard. It supposedly adds an extra layer of stress and doubt to the training to not know precisely how far ahead or behind you are at any given time.
- It should also be noted that the applicants for these units are generally veteran troops who have in many cases already passed some other form of Training from Hell simply to get to a position to be noticed by these units. DEVGRU, for example, only accepts applicants who have already completed SEAL training and served for a number of years with another SEAL unit.
- Russian Spetsnaz deserve mention here, known for such things as swimming through blood to toughen soldiers and brutal close combat regimen. The passing rate is said to cap out at 5% percent. And yes, some recruits die during the training. This is considered to be normal. Spetznaz only wants the best; if you died in training, then you would have just weakened the team and died in combat anyway. And their final test is just lovely:
- It starts with a 10km (6mi) march which must be completed in under two hours. Hopefuls must run uphill and downhill through various obstacles like mud, water, sand, dirt, and whatever else happens to be in the way. You are given MASKA titanium helmet, AK-74M, and a heavy bullet proof vest with inserted plates. This comes out to easily more than 60 pounds (27Kg) before ammo and ruck. During the march, you will be shot at, explosives will be detonated very close to you. And there will be a simulated chemically infected area, where you have to use gas masks while running or carrying your buddy for 2-3km (~1.5mi). You will also perform a series of tough physical exercises, such as duck walking up hills, doing endless pushups, and you never know when they will stop, nor when they will start.
- It then continues without any breaks, where you are taken into an obstacle course after the march. The obstacle course is set amid an urban environment, with trenches and underground tunnels which would be a tight squeeze, even without your more than 60 pounds of gear. After you finish your obstacle course, you must fire a blank round that is provided with your magazine in the beginning of the test. IT MUST FIRE, because this will determine whether or not you can be trusted to properly manage a weapon. If it doesn't work, then you flunk.
- Without any breaks again, you will be tested on your capability to accurately fire various weapons. You do this while you are already tired and exhausted. They are the AK-74M, PKM, SVD, RPG-7, AGS-17, and more. You have to do this while fully outfitted and moving from a variety of distances and ranges.
- Next, You have 2 minutes to jump into your climbing gear and take on a 5 story building. You must all alone carry out a perfect storm of the building using the skills you learned in training. The assault begins at the top and goes down. On the fourth floor you will meet various targets which you must positively ID and shoot bad guys with live rounds. There are also civilians stationed throughout. Missing a single bad guy or hitting a single innocent means instant failure. You will not have ever run this house or this setup before. After shooting the tangos, you must now prepare your simulated grenade while going down around the 3rd floor. When you get to the second floor, you must knock out a window frame with your foot, and throw in a simulated grenade. You have 45 seconds to get from the 5th floor to the ground while performing all those tasks. Trainees now next perform various tough acrobatic exercises. Again, this is done in full gear without any sort of respite.
- The final event is a 12 minute brutal fight without any breaks against 4 changing fighters. All of them are already certified veteran Spetsnaz men who have won their Red Berets in combat. In order to pass, you have to stay in the fight without being knocked out, and also by fighting the whole time. You must be active, and not just defend yourself. You are allowed to have medical attention only for 60 seconds. Everything is permitted in this fight except for killing blows.
- Assuming that you pass all of this, then you have to be lucky enough to be selected. And even then, you only become a Spetsnaz soldier. You do not get the red beret until you have proven yourself in combat.
- And do you know where this is all done? Right in the middle of an active war zone! Not only do you have to survive and complete the demands of the test, but there is always the chance that you could very well have to deal with the enemy trying to kill you for real during it.
- It should be said that a lot of the above is apocryphal and not verifiable, and similar tales regarding the training regimes of other nations exist (such as the SAS, Navy Seals, etc). The "given a small animal which you have to kill" and "swimming through blood" are particularly widespread urban legends.
- Interestingly, something like the latter was once endorsed as a genuinely good idea by bona fide SAS veteran Peter Ratcliffe; recalling the aftermath of an IED attack on his unit during The Troubles, he suggested that perhaps every soldier going through Basic should spend a couple of weeks working in an abattoir to prepare them for Viscera Cleanup Detail.
- This video should clear up some things on the final test.
- Russians have a long experience with this trope. Peter the Great, for example, created himself a "Play Army" when he was a boy, and eventually ordered them to train and drill with live ammunition. The survivors eventually formed the Russian Imperial Guard.
- Finnish Army Reserve Officer Academy (Reserviupseerikoulu, RUK) in Hamina, Finland. Some 5%-7% of all Finnish conscripts are selected to become reserve officers, and all those selected to RUK are volunteers. The training is very harsh, and some 30% to 40% of the time is spent in the wilderness. Since almost all of the students are Badass Bookworm kind of youngsters, the training is very thorough and demanding, both intellectually and physically. The culmination of the course is Kirkkojärvi March, some 25 to 30 km run in full combat gear in formation, where the various companies and platoons compete each other and perform five action tasks on the course of the run. The finish line is traditionally on top of a slalom hill, and it is not uncommon for officer students being hauled on ambulance to hospital due to exhaustion. Those who successfully pass Reserve Officer Academy are promoted to Officer Candidates with rank and tasks corresponding to Platoon Sergeant. Those who successfully pass the Candidate period are promoted to Second Lieutenants. The RUK training is highly esteemed in the Finnish civilian life, and almost all Finnish politicians, industrialists, businessmen and other important men are RUK alumni.
- US Army Special Forces Selection isn't a walk in the park. SFAS, the first part, is the qualification exam for the actual Qualification Course, and attrits a minimum of 40%, and like Ranger School, you have a good chance of not being selected anyway. Some of that is deliberate, as the instructors will sometimes fail you to see if you will come back and try again. Then comes the fabled Q course, which can basically be considered Basic Training for the Special Forces, with a similar attrition rate. Only after that, do you actually go through the actual training for your job, which knocks out even more candidates.
- Paratrooper units feature these by necessity. Not only is parachute training an inherently stressful and risky activity in itself, but the role of paratroopers in a major conflict is to be dropped far ahead of friendly forces to conduct reconnaissance and hit-and-run attacks, usually going for extended periods without resupply or backup.
- Fort Irwin National Training Center is home to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, widely recognized as the best mechanized formation in the US Army, which is used almost exclusively for training other groups. Visiting "Blue" forces can expect to be outnumbered and outgunned, all the while fighting on the OpFor's home terrain.
- SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape) School is a notorious training regimen for all special operations infantry and combat pilots in the US military. The curriculum is designed with assistance from POWs who've endured torture for years and, while you won't be killed or maimed, the experience will leave a mark on you.
- Survival and Evasion entails being dumped in unknown and rough terrain with maybe a knife, and you have a set amount of time (which you are not aware of) to endure the elements. You are then tracked by your instructors, with the stated purpose of evading capture. Of course, without exception, you will be captured. You have to be, so that you can endure the next part.
- Resistance is where you're tortured and interrogated. You will be put through physical and psychological torture designed to wear you down and humiliate you. These techniques have been refined to an art form through years of SERE classes that have come before you. And keep in mind, these have been designed by people who've endured actual torture for years on end to give you a taste of what they went through. You're not expected to stay silent and hold onto the information the interrogators are trying to get out of you, however, but learn how to give drips and half-truths at opportune moments while you look for opportunities to escape.
- Escape means you get to do Survival and Evasion all over again. If you're lucky, the exercise will end before your instructors find you and haul you back for more Resistance.
- During Vietnam, Marine recruits in the east side of the country were sent to Parris Island. Gustav Hasford makes note of how hard it was in The Short-Timers and the film based on the book, Full Metal Jacket. One year before those take place, an assistant drill Sergeant managed to kill six people during a mud runnote .
- Training of World War II Japanese soldiers usually included very strong discipline, lots of beatings, lack of food, and the like. It has been stated that this is one of the reasons behind their brutality toward their enemies or non-Japanese civilians.
- The Navy SEALs. Two words. Hell Week: 132 hours of continuous physical activity. No, that is not an exaggeration. During Week 4 of SEAL training, applicants get only 3 to 4 hours of sleep. No, not 3 to 4 hours a day, but in that whole 132 hour period. In addition, they are beaten by their instructors and undergo surf torture (a full body workout after being forced to lie in 65 degree water). (Still, these are the guys who managed to take out Osama Bin Laden. You can't argue with success.)
- The limitations of harsh training started being exposed over the years; with the normal oversight (consisting of civilian SEAL veterans) completely removed for instructors, Hell Week became so dangerous that it went beyond regular training standards, with many recruits sent to hospital, forced to quit the course for a single injury, turning to illegal drugs to avoid dropping out, and even one death that resulted in the Navy having to launch a formal investigation. Graduation rates had plummeted because the hellish training was already becoming too tough for even hardened football stars to handle, and instructors refused to implement any changes that might make the course 'easier'. The rate of failure was too high by military standards, including the rest of the special forces. Illegal drug usage such as steroids and performance enhancers was so widespread that the course ended up graduating dopers and not hard workers who went in clean, and in turn doping was popular because of the overly punishing work environment and the desperation of candidates to succeed, who risked being sent to undignified menial jobs if they dropped out of Hell Week.note
- The army of ancient Rome. The trainers regularly beat up the trainees (with an infamous centurion being given the nickname "Give-me-another" because he'd continuously shout for his assistant to give him another baton after breaking the previous one to continue beating his recruits), the exercises were done in full armor with non-lethal weapons that still hurt a lot and weighed more than the combat ones, and they were forced to learn some engineering because they would build aqueducts, roads, forts and miles-long walls, and they were made march with wooden poles because they'd have to build, fortify and dismantle their camp on a daily basis on campaign. And that was when they were lucky: sometimes they'd get trainers so harsh they killed more people than the actual battles, and pissed-off commanders would select a tenth of the soldiers and have the rest beat them up to death to teach discipline (that's where the term "decimation" comes from, by the way: it's the name of this punishment), with Marcus Licinius Crassus killing four thousand of his own men this way right after taking command of an army recently trashed by Spartacus. Given their string of victories, the Roman trainers knew exactly what they were doing (for example, the army Crassus decimated to teach discipline would later annihilate Spartacus' army under Crassus' own leadership).
- The Praetorian Guard topped that, using training weapons that were even heavier than those of the legions and doing it in most of their spare time, as opposed to the legions having refreshing training only once in a while. They had a good reason for it: the Praetorians were an elite corps recruited from the best of the legions, but as they were usually deployed in and around Rome they never had the chance for fighting unless the emperor took part to a campaign, and needed that harsh training to keep their edge. Considering what happened the rare times they fought, it worked.
- The Italian Bersaglieri assault infantry. Most of their training is similar to that of standard infantry, except they're trained for higher-than-average aim (bersagliere used to be Italian for "sharpshooter" before the soldiers laid exclusive claim on the term) and, by regulation, they have to run all the time to build up running speed and stamina, and, in case of the musical bands of the various regiments, while playing trumpets and other brass instruments (and they're actually punished if they don't run). This was because they were originally supposed to countercharge at enemy cavalry, force it to retreat and give chase until they broke and run (they actually pulled it off in one occasion. Not being stupid, they charged them on the flank), and while there's no horse cavalry to charge at anymore the training is still useful to storm and trample enemy positions.
Sports and Martial Arts
- The famous Shaolin Temple is known to put its initiates through training that most people cannot comprehend. The methods employed have been well-documented by many researchers, and they include striking piles of leaves repeatedly with the hands to deaden nerves, hitting oneself on the head to harden the skull, running up the stairs of Mount Shaosang, then 'crawling' back down; and that is only for the physical conditioning that the Temple requires to learn Shaolin Kung Fu. It only gets worse.
- The (In)famous senshusai aikido course. Takes 1 year, half of the pupils are Japanese officers in elite units such as anti-firearms officers in anti-riot units and the Special Assault Team, the other half are MMA freaks. Main attraction is walking on your knees even while the blood is running down your trousers. There is a book called Angry White Pyjamas about a geeky guy who took the course.
- The Japanese system for training pro wrestlers and MMA fighters is incredibly tough. An average dojo will have his trainees doing all kinds of grueling routines with little time to eat and sleep and no time to rest, while their teachers usually will beat them full-force while drilling moves until they reach the perfect performance and will actively try to psychologically destroy them to make the unfit quit. Not less brutal are the hazing regimes done by the sempai or senior trainees to the newer boys: if you are an apprentice, you will be the lucky if your only hazing is a savage beatdown (and yes, those implications include sexual humiliations). At the end, the result is a class of guys who will not flinch to a cervical-smashing German suplex or a soccer kick to the head. Whenever you see a man on a Japanese ring, you can be sure you are seeing a certifiedly tough guy.
- Ken Shamrock trained to be a shoot wrestler in Japan and based the training regime at his own gym, the Lion's Den, on his experiences. The Lion's Den legendary for its insane training regimen. Being beaten and choked into unconsciousness was a daily norm and, that was if you got in. Under the original tryout system, candidates had to complete hours of intense physical exercise to wear them out and test their determination before they could even show their fighting abilitiesnote . Even the most technically skilled fighters could end up crying home to their mommas before throwing a single punch. The Lion's Den made you into a monster, but the training destroyed your body and consequently the fighters had much shorter fighting careers than the average mixed martial artist. Most of the fighters still have injures that never healed properly because of their extreme training.
- The fitness tests that open training camp for National Hockey League teams are typically very tough, as they're designed to determine just how hard each player is able to push himself.
- Former New York Rangers coach John Tortorella's fitness test is considered the hardest in the league. Players have been known to call it "Camp Torturella".
- Bruce Lee held himself to extreme physical and mental standards and engaged in intense exercise at all available momentsnote until he could do things like one-finger push-ups and knock down fully grown men with one-inch punches. He expected the stunt performers he worked to match him in speed and strength and could be quite brutal in enforcing his standards. He was very careful about not hurting anyone by accident, however, and, Jackie Chan recalled, would be beside himself if anyone got injured on-set.
- Dick Wei, an actor/martial artist who played a string of memorable villains in 1980s Hong Kong action cinema, also trained many Action Girl stars during the heydey of Hong Kong's "girls with guns" movies (Michelle Yeoh, Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan among them). A former Republic of China Army man and founder of his own martial arts studio, Wei was a legendary believer in hitting and kicking people for real when training, staging and filming fight sequences so that they would be realistic. And he made no exemption for female opponents; in keeping with this philosophy, he is reported to have accidentally broken Cynthia Rothrock's jaw. Supposedly, apart from this he was an extremely nice guy, and in fact he had no problem "losing" on-screen fights to many of the people he had trained.
- Crossfit, arguably. Many crossfitters are intimately familiar with "Pukey the Clown".
- English Longbowmen had to be taught from birth constantly, moving up bows with higher and higher draw weights, up until 120 pounds. Keep in mind most people can't pull back a bow with 40 pound draw weight, and skeletons of the bowmen universally have bone issues in their draw arms, huge calluses on the bones of their drawing fingers, and permanently curved spines. All these hellish disciplines allowed them to shoot and kill foes at a distance of hundreds of meters with no chance of retalation, long before gunpowder became a factor on the battlefield.
- Legends say that English Longbowmen could draw 200 pounds. These legends appear to have very large grains of truth, as there are people who can use Bows that have draw weights of 180 pounds. There is also a saying about them: To train a longbowman, start with his grandfather. The english ash-tree was rendered more or less completely extinct training these boys for war with the best bows possible, most of which would snap an unprepared man's spine. Even stringing these things must have been terrifying for their makers.
- A controversial example are the Chinese sports academies. They scour the country for children with athletic talent, then sweep them up into the academy system (typically well before their tenth birthday). At the academies, they do Nothing. But. Train. For years. They get some basic schooling, but every possible moment is devoted to the sport they were selected for. They don't get out until they see that sport's version of success — if they make it that far. Many — if not most — burn out or prove to be unfit for the Big Time.
- Oddly enough this is extremely similar to the Flemish and Dutch topsport system, with the only difference being that both the parents and their children have to agree to submit their kid to it. Skipping school lessons to take sports lessons instead is very common for those people. Some even got serious handicaps after they sported (such as being unable to walk).
- The sport of gymnastics is infamous for this.
- Perhaps the most heartbreaking story is that of 1970s-era Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina, who came out of nowhere at the relatively advanced age of seventeen to completely dominate the 1978 World Championships. Mukhina pioneered skills so far ahead of her time that, over four decades later, her eponymous skill on floor (a full-twisting double tuck) remains a staple of women's floor exercises to this day — and this in a sport where five years can render a routine obsolete on the world stage. In 1979, the Soviets were still reeling from Romanian phenom Nadia Comaneci's dominance in Montreal, and with the 1980 Olympic Games scheduled for Moscow, it was paramount to them that they regain their supremacy in the world of gymnastics. As a result, Mukhina, who had suffered a broken leg, was pressured back into training long before she had healed, put on a brutal diet to lose the weight she'd gained during her convalescence, and pushed to her breaking point. With the Soviets desperate to win at any cost and Mukhina hailed as their best hope for victory, she was forced to include ever more dangerous skills in her routines — including the Thomas salto, a complicated floor skill that ends in a 3/4 forward flip into a forward roll. It was almost never performed by women, who often simply don't have the power to attain the height needed to complete the skill safely; even the smallest over- or under-rotation could mean catastrophic injury or death.note Mukhina pleaded with her coaches to remove the skill from her routine, saying that she would surely break her neck attempting it, but they would not be swayed, declaring that she needed the astronomical difficulty to challenge for all-around gold. Just two weeks before the Games, however, Mukhina's prediction came true. Weak and exhausted, she under-rotated the salto. Her spine snapped, and she was rendered instantly quadriplegic less than a month after her twentieth birthday. She later said that her first thought as she lay on the floor was, "Thank God, I won't have to go to the Olympics."note
- In more recent examples, several USA Gymnastics coaches have been accused of physically and/or mentally abusing their gymnasts, most notably Olympic coaches Mary Lee Tracy, John Geddertnote , Artur Akopyan, and Maggie Haney — and of this group, all but Haney had been coaching at the elite level for decades before the abuse was revealed. This was so pervasive that even some well-meaning and supportive coaches have admitted to struggling with the larger environment surrounding the sport. Bela and Marta Karolyi, who managed the program from the late 1990s through 2016, have come under scrutiny as well for the environment they created at the Ranch (national team training center), which included encouraging the girls to eat less and shaming them for taking time off for injuries.
- Perhaps the most heartbreaking story is that of 1970s-era Soviet gymnast Elena Mukhina,
- As this Cracked article states, a man named Dr. Izumi Tabata accidentally created one of the world's most torturous exercise protocols while working with the Japanese speedskating team in the early 1990s. This has been called "Tabata training". Each training session consists of up to eight 20-second bike sprints separated by 10 seconds of rest — every motion performed with the kind of intensity "normally reserved for fighting off a gang of starry-eyed prison rapists". A session is over in just four minutes or so, but they're described as the longest minutes you can encounter. Tabata training can also be done with moves like situps, pushups, squats and rows, none of which is any less hellish than the other. The experience is said to leave you "dead" and "meeting God," and first-timers should not attempt it without supervision.
- Downplayed for skydiving training. Since jumping off an airplane mid-air undeniably asks a slight amount of gutsiness, a student's first jump is usually a downright scary experience, and for approximately half of the would-be skydivers their first jump will also be their last. Of those who continue, the usual estimate is that only one in ten finish as a licensed skydiver. The curriculum is not physically demanding and the instructors usually are very friendly and nice people, but the mental stress is enormous and skydiving requires good muscle coordination. It is more like a "curriculum from Hell" rather than "training from Hell".
- What German driver Nico Rosberg described he had to do to beat his teammate, former friend, and rival, Lewis Hamilton, to win the Formula One World Championship in 2016. While the exact details are not known, what is known is the amount of physical and mental stress Rosberg had put himself in order to achieve his dream of becoming a Formula One champion. It was enough that, when he succeeded and became champion in 2016, he immediately retired from the sport.
- Figure skaters may look effortlessly elegant on the ice, but they usually get to that point after undergoing Training From Hell. Skaters are at risk for a long list of injuries - fractures, ligament tears, broken bones, back/spinal injuries -, many of them career-ending. Yuzuru Hanyu falling from an attempt at a quadruple axel is compared to being hit by a bus, and he attempted this jump twelve times in a row, falling 6 times at the 2021 World Team Trophy to the shock of fans, competitors, and commentators, without complaint or acknowledgment of the pain. The sport is so harsh on the body, and the training regime/work ethic so brutal in some countries (with the Russian Skating Federation notorious for pushing its skaters, especially ladies') that it's the norm for skaters to retire as young adults, at the age where most people are just starting their professional careers. The controversial push towards landing quadruple jumps and making figure skating more technical than artistic does not help matters either. Skaters are now trying to defy the laws of physics by cramming as many quadruple jumps (already difficult by themselves) into their programs as possible, and/or trying to land increasingly more difficult jumps (including the Beyond the Impossible quintuple), and ramping up their training accordingly. Physical and mental abuse of skaters, similar to the treatment of gymnasts above, is also a pressing issue, including but not limited to: sexual harassment/assault, racial abuse, predatory grooming, eating disorders, etc.
Education
- Transcendentalist writer Margaret Fuller was put through the intellectual equivalent of a Training From Hell by her overambitious father. She knew six languages, two ancient, four modern, and was one of the leading minds of her generation; unfortunately, having had to study hard and go without essential rest from the age of six left her with life-long nervous conditions which almost killed her.
- The economist/philosopher John Stuart Mill went through much the same thing in childhood. He started learning ancient Greek at the age of three, and at the age of ten wrote a sequel to the Iliad. Unsurprisingly, he had a nervous breakdown by the age of twenty (though unlike Fuller, he recovered.)
- The economist/philosopher John Stuart Mill
- William James Sidis is known as possibly being the smartest man in recorded history. He could read the New York Times when most children can barely walk and spoke eight languages by the age of six (he also invented his own a few years later). He entered Harvard at age eleven, was able to lecture the math club at the level of a grad student, and compared positively to Carl Gauss - called the greatest mathematician since antiquity. All this was strongly due to the strenuous pushing of his parents (a medical doctor and a psychologist) who believed that you could "make a genius". It was generally all for naught, though. He had a breakdown after being treated poorly by fellow students and those he taught (he hated teaching despite being a professor). He wanted a simple life that his intelligence did not afford him. He eventually attempted to settle into obscurity, occasionally writing articles and books under pseudonyms and amassing the world's largest collection of streetcar transfers. He was also jailed for sedition during World War I for speaking out about pacifism and was an avowed Socialist.
- A very downplayed, but possibly one with higher impact, is one of high schools in Red China. To quote Cram School: "[...]there are no cram schools in the usual sense in Mainland China. As high school funding in China is directly proportional to college admission rates and the prestige of the colleges the students get into, high schools have the incentive to be the cram school too." Well, officially every school day has 8 periods of 55 minutes each, plus an hour of lunch break, but for most schools there's one period before, and several hours after school there are compulsory Study Halls, and school ends at nine. God forbid if that is a Boarding School; many of the practice will be considered as child abuse in the West: sleep allowed for less than eight hours, students only allowed to go home twice a month, etc. Since Everyone Has Standards, even in China people wonder what are they themselves training: amoral Combat Pragmatists, or people who know absolutely nothing except studying?
- For an example, let us talk about Hengshui High School, Hengshui, Hebei, who has become memetic in this regard:
I wake up at 5:30 every morning and am required to be out of the dorm by 5:45. I grab my books and go to gather at the track. After joggingnote ends, all classes are required to run up the stairs to their morning study sessions. At 6:38, the more than 80 students in my class all vacate the classroom in a matter of seconds (of course there are a seven or eight who don’t go to eat), just so they can get breakfast, since we have to be back in class before 7 to begin [study hall]. If we leave the classroom later than this, with being stuck in the crowded hall for 5 minutes, standing in line for 5 minutes, and 7 minutes to get there and back, we have at most 3 minutes for breakfast. I’ve been living at Hengshui for three months, and now I understand what human purgatory is.- And being Book Dumb does not escape one from this trope. Even websites affiliated with the Chinese government compared vocational schools in China to boot camps that preps people for the assembly line.
- In general, educational systems in East Asia are considered as this. China, Japan and South Korea have some of the highest youth suicide rates. Not helped by how many Asian parents are Education Mamas who expect the best out of their children or else you'll be virtually disowned.
- India, being another country with a massive population has similar pressure to get in with the few spots at top universities being treated like gold.
- For an example, let us talk about Hengshui High School
- The well-known composer Philip Glass studied under an old-school musical composition instructor, Nadia Boulanger, in Paris, for the musical version of this. He tells stories about the tortuous musical assignments she would give that would take weeks to complete (remember, no MIDI in 1965 so you have to draw notes on empty sheets of flagstaff paper) unless you figured out the trick to them in a blinding flash of insight.
- Learning how to be a professional traditional animator is this. There is a reason a Disney regular said it's easier to become a professional league basketball player than it is to be an animator worthy of working at any studio like Disney. To begin with, it requires absolute top-tier knowledge of drawing articulation in all forms of art. Merely drawing in the Disney style or their characters proficiently or just drawing in a cartoon style will not cut the mustard—when legendary animator Richard Williams first attempted to get a job at Disney, with his drawings of Disney characters being at Roger Rabbit level, he was promptly brushed off by a story artist and told to really learn how to draw—which resulted in him being told by another art instructor to go to the library and study Albrecht Durer for two years straight, which prompted him to abandon his animation desire for years and take up painting. And Richard himself has claimed it takes as long to train a pro animator as it does to train a diamond cutter—at least ten years of learning just about every form of art, both in drawing, painting, acting, theater, music, even the basics and advanced techniques of traditional animation, and much more (and by proxy, all of this practically mandates that a traditional animator be completely culturally literate). And to give an idea of how much dedication it takes to get there, one Disney artist, Mike Gabriel, spent the better part of a decade of getting solid art training, drawing four to six hours a day every day studying Michelangelo, Leonardo, Burne Hogarth, and thousands of Muybridge photos and then lots of life drawing, being turned down many times before Disney finally gave him the nod. And that's not even counting learning the technical know how of working in computer animation, which is basically mandatory knowledge for anyone wanting to work in a modern studio.
- Medical and law schools have this reputation, with older professors often treating students harshly, including using Social Darwinist tactics (it is said that in med school, many people apply, but only a few graduate) and verbal humiliation (in the case of law school it makes sense, since heated debates are part of the profession), as well as having to memorise everything verbatim. This is justified that in both professions, you have to have Nerves of Steel in drastic situations like emergency surgery or Courtroom Drama, and the tiniest mistake can ruin a person's life permanently.
- This contributes to the stereotype on why lawyers are considered to be ruthless and sometimes amoral. You really have to suffer, compete and win debates to impress your professors- then after you graduate, you need to pass the strict grade requirements of the Bar Exam. The Training from Hell becomes even worse when applying for a position as Judge, but then again, this is justified, since Judges have the power to enact punishment, and an incompetent Judge can destroy a person's life.
- Graduate school is often regarded this way, as the comprehensive exams alone are considered incredibly stressful, combined with the need for a dissertation. Completing a doctorate can take up to a decade, depending on the field of study. And then after graduation, newly minted academics usually have to take low-paid adjunct positions, before getting tenure-track positions if they're lucky.
- The Knowledge of London, commonly known as "The Knowledge," is a comprehensive collection of oral exams that men and women must pass to drive a black cab in London. It can take years to pass (and you need to have a clean record to even be accepted) and the course has a 70% drop-out ratenote .
- Knowledge Boys and Girls must memorize the Knowledge Area (25,000 streets and roads) and 320 routes within that area. To add to the difficulty, they must know all the important locations within the Areanote .
- Studying for the exam entails traveling around the Knowledge Area in whatever manner the aspiring cabbie can afford (on foot, on bicycles, on motorbikes, in cars) whenever the Knowledge Boys and Girls have time at all hours and in all weather. If studying at night in rougher areas, they risk being assaulted or being approached by drug dealers and prostitutes. They also have to be sticklers about obeying traffic laws, because any black marks can disqualify them from this expensive and time-consuming endeavor.
- Knowledge Boys and Girls also occasionally arouse suspicion, because they get spotted running the same routes over and over. Police can get called, but are understanding when they find out what's going on.
- The examiners can be utterly terrifying (some describe the experience as being dragged in front of the headmaster times ten) and expect applicants to be able to immediately identify where points are located and recite the best route without any errors. Many examiners play mind games or throw unexpected twists into the runs to replicate difficult passengers and test applicants' ability to remain calm under pressure.
- If a Knowledge Boy or Girl is doing well, the number of days between their "appearances" (the exams) is reduced. If they're doing badly, they get stuck in a loop until they either get it right or get sent back to a longer appearance cycle or drop out. And it's only when they've passed these exams and receive a "Req" from an examiner that they're allowed to start practicing for the driving exam.
- The experience is so mentally demanding that scans on some students show that the memory centres of their brains actually enlarge during their studies.
- Indidividual introductory university courses such as calculus and organic chemistry have the academic reputation as That One Level for would-be STEM and pre-med majors, with a large amount of rigor and a tendency to flunk a lot of students.
Other
- Due to some bariatric surgeries involving shrinking the stomach in some way, the patient must undergo a strict, drastic diet for life. The selection process includes a similar diet, the true purpose thereof being to see if the patient is capable of committing to the drastic, permanent changes in the patient's lifestyle. Not only do most people change their minds by themselves, but a few people actually willingly continue with the pre-diet by themselves due to how empowered the pre-diet made them feel over their own bodies!
- Culinary training is both physically and mentally stressful, especially in traditional fine dining restaurants.
- Apprentice chefs have to be able to handle floods of orders while handling delicate and expensive ingredients in an environment where flames and sharp objects are flying everywhere. And they have to do this for incredibly long and odd hours while being disciplined and berated by everyone senior to them.
- The above is without even getting into the fact that there isn't just a danger to the staff if something goes wrong, but to the customers. Broken equipment, strands of hair, mixing in ingredients that a customer may be allergic to, cross contamination, and even improper storage of food aren't just mentally stressful, but deadly under a lot of circumstances. Rotting food can make staff and diners sick, allergies can kill, and a simple incident that may be only rough under some circumstances can become life threatening in kitchen conditions. Because of this, many chefs will come down hard on their brigades to make that the lesson gets through.
- For example, consider how Gordon Ramsay built a reputation as a tough taskmaster with high and stringent standards, as exemplified in series like Boiling Point and Hell's Kitchen. But in the professional culinary world, everyone says that he's a teddy bear and nothing compared to the brutality of his mentor, Marco Pierre White. Because of the stress that comes with the culinary industry, it has some of the highest rates of alcohol and substance abuse in the world.
- Actors who perform physically demanding roles often have to go through something like this. An example would be with Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad (2016), she had to learn extensive boxing, gymnastics, aerial silk acrobatics, and martial arts training, as well as being able to hold her breath for six minutes. She also wore Combat Stilettos in most of her scenes, which were apparently downright painful, not that that stopped her any.
- Depending on the person, one of the most effective ways to get over a fear could be confronting it head-on to prove to yourself that it can't have power over you. Afraid of spiders? Pick up and handle numerous (non venomous) spiders. Afraid of change? Live in a different hotel room doing different hobbies every week.
