Every mech academy possessed mechs to allow their pupils to experience what it was like to pilot actual machines.
A mech pilot that trained exclusively with virtual mechs would never perform well on the battlefield. There were simply too many lessons that could only be learned while piloting a physical mech!
For this reason, mech academies demanded special mechs that specifically accommodated their desire to educate mech cadets.
This was the origin of teaching mechs. They differed from normal combat mechs in several ways.
First, their lethality came under heavy restraints. Whether permanently or conditional, the firepower and damage potential of these mechs had to be reined in and kept under control.
A single ordinary mech was easily capable of wiping out an entire city block in an instant! Putting so much destructive potential in the hands of partially-trained teenagers was a disaster in the making!
