Thought for the day:
Training:
I used to work with a guy whose favorite phrase was " Hey, lets do this for shits and giggles". He would come up with some off the wall workout or shooting drill. Nothing scientific or tactical practical, just different ways to test yourself, but usually just fun to do and a way to kill some down time.
Below is an article by Wes Kennedy , a SOF trainer and author. Just for shits and giggles, I did the second test yesterday and did not make standard coming in at around 37 minutes. My bike riding skills suck and (no excuse) its hard to do this in a crowed gym where people get on your bike while you are not riding. Then you lose time adjusting the seat height. If you decide to do this for shits and giggles, try to pick a time when your gym has a small amount of people.
By Wes Kennedy
Absolute fitness is of a high priority and out of all the tests that I have my tactical athletes perform, my favorite “tester” workout for the SOF candidate or qualified Operator is the following:
5 Rounds For Time Of:
350m row
12 Burpee Pull-Ups
8 Wall Walks
Each movement must be completed before moving on and each round must be completed before starting the round anew. The standard for the burpee pull-ups is to have the chest touch the ground at the bottom of each rep before jumping up to a pull-up bar, positioned 6” above max standing reach, and transitioning into a pull-up with head passing fully over the bar with a neutral chin. The standard for the wall walks is to have the chest and stomach touch the ground at the bottom of each rep and stomach touch the wall at the top of each rep, mimicking a momentary handstand hold against the wall before “walking” back down to the floor and beginning the next rep. As for the row, it’s meant to be completed on a standard Concept 2 Rower.
I like this test for the following reasons:
All of the movements require a low barrier to entry. They are not overly complex in nature and are all movements that a SOF Operator should be expected to accomplish.
The test is aerobic in nature / the SOF Operator’s job is aerobic in nature. The better the aerobic (with oxygen) efficiency that the tactical athlete possesses, the less likely they will need to turn to their anaerobic (without oxygen) system for energy production. Despite the trend to focus almost exclusively on anaerobic work in recent years, this system is not sufficient for the demands imposed on the tactical athlete. It is a limited energy system and one that needs an effective aerobic system to quickly recover after using it. The last thing an Operator wants is to dig deep into their anaerobic system and be out of the fight for the next 30 minutes. If you’ve ever truly tapped into the anaerobic system, you’ll know what I mean.
The workout tests for muscular endurance under fatigue. While it is great to test for max push-ups in 2 minutes and max unbroken pull-ups, a more accurate gauge of the SOF Operator’s readiness is to test for muscular endurance under fatigue. This will more closely resemble the demands placed on the athlete during combat and direct action type events.
The tactical athlete is exposed to all of the following: double leg squatting, upper body pushing and pulling, bending and core, which makes it a great full body test.
The test includes high repetition bending patterns as well as many upper body pulling and upper body vertical pushing: three common weaknesses that I see in tactical athletes. An improvement in these, often lagging, areas will likely be reflected in a reduced completion time for this test.
All of it is done in a tough “grinder” type fashion, which mirrors the typical work required of the SOF Operator. For the most part, the operator’s job does not involve 100% effort for 10-60 seconds. It requires either long, slow sustained work, such as in a Strategic Reconnaissance roll, or it requires digging, lifting, dragging, bounding, and sprinting at 80-90% effort done in a repeatable fashion for a sustained period of time. You can easily understand the significance of the movements chosen if you compare them to the following test:
5 Rounds For Time Of:
500m Bike
15 Sit-Ups
12 Walking Lunges
10 Push-Ups.
If you don’t understand the difference when reading this, I would suggest that you, the reader, go and perform both tests on separate days. Notice how you feel going into the workouts — how you feel during, and how you feel after. Make note of your mood, your energy levels, and your mental acuity and compare.
So now that you’ve completed the test, you might be asking yourself where you stack up. Over the years, I have seen the following times to be reflective of a candidate’s ability to physically complete selection and of an operator’s physical effectiveness on the job.
Sub 30min: Standard
Sub 25min: Great
Sub 20min: Exceptional
Question of the day:
Can you recognize common animal tracks? deer? dog? hog? raccoon? etc?
