Their is 2 primary means of combat for the individual: distant and close up. While the battlemech has more or less taken the fight to longer reaches, their is still times when you must close with the enemy with infantry. Because of this, the 45th has embarked on a ambitious regimen that will make even the largest houses think twice. To this end, we strive to make a better Mechwarror, Vehicle commander, and of course, "Grunt." By giving them the best teachers, the best equipment available, and the most realistic training.

Learning is a lifelong process. Institutional, organizational, and operational training alone cannot provide the insight, intuition, imagination, and judgment needed in combat. The gravity of our profession requires comprehensive self-study and training. In no other profession is the cost of being unprepared so high. Mechwarriors and leaders at all levels continually study thier profession in preparation to fight and win our wars. This requires commanders at all levels to create an environment that encourages subordinates to establish personal and professional development goals. Further refinement of those interests should occur through personal mentoring by commanders and first line leaders. Exploiting reach-back, distributed learning, and continuing education technologies support these programs.

45th's training has one purpose—to produce competent, confident, adaptive soldiers, leaders and units, trained and ready to fight and win our battles. The Army training and leader development model integrates institutional, operational, and individual self-development into a training management system. The commander is responsible for unit training and integrates the institutional, operational, as well as individual self-development resources to train combat ready units. Commanders are responsible for the wartime readiness of every aspect of their unit, while NCOs train individual soldiers, crews, and teams. All training focuses on the METL and all factors involved in training lead to unit readiness. Training is the Army’s number one priority. Training is WHAT we do, not SOMETHING we do !!!

We also train our soldiers in the fine arts of SHUAI-CHIAO. A combat style of martial arts.

The concepts of Combat Shuai-Chiao include kicks, strikes, throws, and locks. The purpose of every move in this art is to take down opponent quickly using any means: Knockdowns, locks, or throws. However, we emphasize more on throwing techniques simply because it is the more devastating and practical; however, also most difficult to learn. There are two types of competition of Shuai - Chiao: Traditional and Combat. In a Traditional competition, only throws could be used. Combat or Full Body competition allows kicking, punching, and throwing. We at the 45th train in both.

Shuai-Chiao's initiates use the following training methods to build their skills:

1. Static Stances
2. Shadow Practice
3. Double Practice, and
4. Sparring

In addition, there are also certain types of training equipment used by Shuai-Chiao practitioners.

1. Rock pole
2. One sided rock pole
3. Twisting pole
4. Belt cracking
5. Pushing Bricks
6. Training Pulley

We also use modern equipment to further improve our training, such as training bags, body shields, punching targets, and training armor.

The first step in Combat Shuai-Chiao training is usually the static stances. During ancient times on Terra, there were 13 static stances, known as the 13 Precious Things (shi san tai bao). These serve to help the beginner establish a strong foundation and develop the leg strength to maintain balance while exerting force. Performing these stances requires a certain degree of physical force, but applying force can also disrupt balance, so the standing postures is a self-test of balance and proper positioning. The postures can be practiced either with empty hands, or while holding bricks.

Combat Shuai-Chiao places a heavy emphasis on finishing an engagement as quickly as possible, especially when dealing with multiple attackers. Daily training should revolve around as realistic a situation as possible, so we practice the use of kicks, punches, vital point strikes, and joint locks to finish a fallen opponent. Since Combat Shuai-Chiao places such a heavy emphasis on following devastating throws with a barrage of punishing strikes, there is little emphasis on ground grappling.