<p>So when do most people complete their CFA?</p>
<p>And what training do some people use to prepare?</p>
<p>Is there any place to learn better techniques for the CFA events such as ball throw?</p>
<p>I'm not sure when people complete their CFA, but I know everyone who went to SLS got a free shot at the CFA and if they passed they don't have to retake it for admission. Here's a site with the rules, etc for all the events, so it may help with your techniques. <a href="http://www.usafa.af.mil/superintendent/pl/General/CandidateFitnessAssessment.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.usafa.af.mil/superintendent/pl/General/CandidateFitnessAssessment.pdf</a>
For prep, practice all the events (obvious I know) but make sure you do them all in a row because you may normally be able to run a mile in 6 minutes, but it's a lot harder after completing 5 other events without any break, so work on endurance. Also, I know for the bball throw the maximum for girls is 66 ft, and when I took it at sls I only got a 38 and still passed so don't worry if your not close to the maximum. Good luck!</p>
<p>Since the basketball throw is not necessarily one that most applicants have done before, it is the one most needing a bit of technique tuning. My daughter's MALO suggested leaning back slightly, bringing the arm back and then throwing. It really looked more like pitching than throwing. By practicing in this way, she was able to improve the score in the event significantly. (Please take this with a grain of salt. I never did it myself, I just know what it looked like.)</p>
<p>The b-ball throw:</p>
<p>The best way is to get the whole torso into it. Use every upper-body muscle you can to get it as far as you can. keeping the arm locked and leaning back from the waist, with the ball resting on the fingertips, thrust forward from the waist first (this is wear strong abs come in handy!) and then when you are roughly vertical quickly thrust the arm forward as well. The combined movements will give the ball an extra boost. The ideal angle is between 23 and 45 degrees (there's some complicated physics experiments that say the arms function best in that range). That's how I did mine, and it seems to work a little better than staying upright and merely using the rotating-hips movement. I seemed to gain about 5 to 10 more feet with that method. Work with it and see what works best for you. Practice this one; it's not quite as easy as just doing pushups.</p>