Coffee Break: Big Horn Mountains.
Coffee Break: A thing of beauty:
I approve of this coffee break business…
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Thought for the day:
Batman730 and other Canadians here: My sincere condolences for your country’s loss. This was a horrific situation that robbed your country of the good ones.
Motivational Monday: Are you ready? I have wrote about the need for all first responders to be as physically ready as possible. The author in this article mentions running up 10 flights of stairs and then having to carry a member back down. Carrying a human body is one of the hardest things you can do and I encourage all here to learn the Fireman’s Carry. If you have a training partner, see if they are willing to practice.
A view from Zack Harrison:
In today’s post, we are going to dive into the discussion of physical readiness. The purpose of this article is not to describe which physical training program XYZ thinks is the best; it’s to discuss the importance of keeping our bodies physically prepared. We will examine why it’s imperative to maintain a high level of physical readiness in order to succeed.
Why is it important to maintain a high level of physical readiness? We are going to break this down into two categories: Job performance and cultural aspects. If you carry a gun for a living, you have many additional duties you need to perform other than shooting. Many of these require physical exertion. Running, climbing, combatives, etc.…. If you fail to maintain a state of physical readiness you are setting yourself, your partner/team, and those you’ve sworn to protect up for failure. Being physically fit is, unarguably, crucial for optimal performance.
It’s very difficult to make good decisions or shoot well when your heart rate is through the roof. It’s impossible to make entry if you do not possess the ability to climb over the wall that separates you from the residence. All of your others skills go right out the window if you cannot physically make it to where you need to be. Ineffectiveness comes on rapidly in those who do not train properly. Your body must be acclimated to physical stress in order to conduct the tasks you are required to perform.
From a cultural perspective, physical readiness is a gateway into every combat arms SOF unit. From Ranger School, to SFAS (Special Forces Assessment and Selection), and BUDS, they all have must pass physical fitness requirements just to begin the course. This is the initial thinning process, which continues as these courses progress. The ideology behind it is if you cannot show up physically ready to go, then you do not deserve to even try out. Everyone of XYZ instructors have worked in places where you give everything you’ve got just to be average. That’s one aspect of the culture, and everyone is held accountable. It was not uncommon for us to show up for work in the morning and have a PT test without warning.
Whether that be running an Obstacle course, a ruck march, or some grueling event your XYZ came up with the night prior. You had to be ready for Performance on Demand. No warm up, no re-test. What you brought that day is all you have, and no one cared about what you did last week. This is the environment and culture that kept people from becoming complacent. Everyone on the XYZ team keeps themselves in shape, and none of us are on Active Duty anymore. Why? We keep a high level of physical readiness because we know that we could still be called upon to perform on demand, and we refuse to allow laziness and complacency to keep us from succeeding.
There are many other positive effects that fitness provides. We can say we don’t judge people based on our initial assessment of them, but in reality, humans are extremely judgmental. The first thing most people notice in others is physical appearance. If you take care of yourself, bad people are less likely to do bad things to you. Physical readiness shows that you have a high level of self-respect, which leads to many other sought after traits. There is also indisputable evidence of the positive mental effects of staying fit. The old saying of “sound body, sound mind” may not always be accurate, but for the most part, this adage is more true than not. From first impressions, to self-confidence, performance, and stress reduction, consistent physical training has too many valuable attributes to neglect.
With all of our combined experiences, we’ve probably done every fitness program invented. It’s very hard, if not impossible to be incredibly good at everything at the same time. If all you do is power lift, then you probably are not running or conducting High Intensity Training. We believe that you must be well rounded in regards to physical fitness. You need to be able to run up 10 flights of stairs with kit on and the next minute you need to be strong enough to casualty carry your buddy back down. Think about a Strong Safety on an NFL team. He’s fast enough to cover people and he’s strong enough to take on blocks from lineman. He is quick, agile, and highly explosive. That, is a complete physical specimen.
There are plenty of excellent, well thought out programs that will advance your overall physical capabilities. Our suggestion is that you ask yourselves two questions when deciding on a program: 1. Is this functional and applicable to my job and its requirements? 2. Am I willing to commit to doing it? If your answer to question 1 is no, then find another one that better suits your needs. We cannot provide any insight if you answer no to question 2. That’s an individual issue that must be figured out from within.
What could the consequences be for failing to maintain a high level of fitness? We could give examples and “what if’s” for another five pages. We will provide one and the rest is left for you to decide. Your buddy is shot and needs to be moved to a position of cover to receive medical treatment. You get to him, but you do not possess the strength to pick him up and carry him. You’re weak, winded, and have made the conscious decision to blow off PT for God knows how long. He succumbs to his wounds. Now picture yourself watching his grieving wife being handed a folded flag. Let that sink in for a minute.
Tuesday Tactics:
I watched this video several times and wanted to post because it fully demonstrates the chaotic nature of a ” domestic shooting call”, especially dealing with the dynamic of getting a woman and several children to safety. Numerous times the deputies exposed themselves to possible return fire, trying to get into position to pull the woman to safety. In fact, they were exposed far more than they needed to be, but that’s the job, especially in an area that had very little cover.
I was surprised the patrol deputies who were first on the scene did not have or either did not deploy carbines. The range, even distorted by the camera, appeared to be over 30 yards. At the end, during the arrest phase, you see a deputy arrive with a carbine, but, that was only one is all I saw.
Having a potential hostage situation unfolding is practically bad, because, you attention is split between trying to locate the bad guy and getting the rest of the family out before they become hostage fodder.
No deputies killed, no family killed and bad guy in cuffs. Good Job all around.
If you are LEO, study the angles and put yourself there, what would you do different? If you are a civilian, imagine being caught up in this scenario, what you do?
Thought for the Day: To honor those slain in the serve of their country.
Thought for the day: If you are a first responder or tactical civilian, don’t show up if you cannot do the job. Which includes knowing about the physiological changes happening during times of extreme danger. Take the time and do a little research and what will be happening inside your body. Knowing now, is better than finding out when the shit hits the fan.
Another view:
Once our brain perceives danger, one circuit lays out sensory information about the danger, for example the sight of a gunshot victim or the sound of someone racking a pistol slide, to the cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain.
The cerebral cortex evaluates this information and makes a rational judgment about it (based on several factors, including level of experience VS training).
The other circuit relays the sensory information to the amygdala, which sends impulses to the autonomic nervous system. This system triggers something we identify as acute stress response (aka fight, flight, freeze”) even before the cerebral cortex (as mentioned above, the thinking part of our brain) has made sense of the information.
Once activated, it increases heart rate, routes blood to muscles, releases stress hormones and glucose into the bloodstream among other sets of ongoing physiological changes, all to ensure your ability to handle this edge situation. But what is more interesting for us in the tactical context is, that today we know that self-preservation in fact overrides training.
It simply means that during high – mid stress situations several areas, especially the long-term memory of the brain, does not get deactivated. In simple English it means that under stress you will retract to the most experienced and rewarding skill / tool that you trained and you are familiar with. Nothing sexy or fancy, just default.re nothing but a dogmatic fixation of 1 +1 equals 2.
Thought for the day: I assume most of you train on a regular basis or you would not be here. I was sent this for an evaluation. Due to where I am , I cannot do the test here. I am looking for opinions. After reading over it several times, I have some issues. What do you see as right and what do you see as wrong?
SWAT PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST
Candidate will be wearing an unfiltered gas mask for part of the test and a 20-pound plate carrier for the entire test to simulate conditions in a typical SWAT deployment.
Start:
While wearing a gas mask w/no filter approximately 400 yard run 200 yards out 200 yards back.
Run to a set of objects weighing approximately 50-55 pounds each these will most likely be either ammunition cans or kettle bells .The candidate will pick up the objects and carry them 50 yards, then set them down
Run 20 yards to 6’ wooden fence jump over the fence, run 10 yards to the drag dummy
Pick up the drag dummy 165 pounds and drag it 15 yards, then set the drag dummy down and remove gas mask
The candidate will pick up a battering ram and run 40 yards with it, place the ram on the ground, and Climb under the cable fence, Run 40 yards to a vehicle or sled, push it about 10 yards, then push the vehicle or sled back 10 yards in the other direction to its start point
Run 40 yards back to the cable fence, crawl under the fence and pick up the battering ram
Run 40 yards with the ram until they reach the drag dummy. Place ram back on the ground
Pick up the drag dummy and drag the drag dummy 15 yards and place it back on the ground
Run 10 yards to the 6’ wooden fence, jump over the fence and run 15 yards to the 50-55 pound weighted objects
Pick up the objects and carry them 50 yards to their original starting point, then place them down and run 10 yards to the tractor tire.
Flip the tire 3 times ,Grab the rope that is attached to the tire next to it, and Drag it back to the original location approximately 25 feet. TIME STOPS
What is the goal? Simply to measure endurance? I have no background as an LEO or Military, so I can’t speak to adding in live fire or anything like that (though I’m curious as to why it wouldn’t be in there?), as far as a straight forward endurance test goes, that’d get the job done and probably weed out the weakest ones. It comes out to a bit under a half mile of total running/conditioning which makes sense (for the little I know of SWAT operations, ha)
My .02 is that it is a solid endurance test, but probably can’t be expanded to measure much else (possibly get an idea of mental fortitude?).
It sounds “hard” in the sense that if you went at it max intensity you’d be gassed by the end. It lacks any sustained effort component. What is that, maybe 5-7 minutes of work at most, if that? I know the current thinking in LE fitness is that most of our physical demands are brief and intense as opposed to sustained, hence the move to 2-4 minute obstacle based fitness tests over Cooper’s Test type events. I’m not sure I’m totally on board with this move. I think we need both, but greater minds than mine.
The test completely lacks any meaningful measure of strength. You don’t need to be particularly strong to do any of that (although it would help your time no doubt). I wonder if this may be in part driven by the emphasis on diversity and making the test accessible to, umm… smaller, less physically strong candidates? No pull ups, 175# bench press or other things that sometimes preclude even fit people who are… less strong.
You would need to be “fit” to do that in a reasonable time frame. You would need to be at least somewhat physically active to even finish. It could be worse, but it seems like part of a fitness test. Add a run, a geared up stair climb and a strength test and it’s probably not bad.
Edited for clarity.
Thanks for the reply. You expressed one of my concerns, “What are we doing here?”. I understand the need to make it “job specific”, Its that the “job” really changes all the time. To be honest, I really cannot put my finger on why it bothers me, maybe, I am just too stupid to figure it out.
Thanks for the reply. I agree with you, I am not totally on board with the 2-4 minute tests. I came up under Cooper and I don’t see a lot of problems with it. Yes, I agree that HIT has it place for training, but, HIT will leave you short when you need to be on a situation that can last anywhere from 12 to 18 hours. This is especially critical when you are a part of some rural unit that cannot rotate team members out every 2 to 3 hours. no easy answers.
We think alike, one of the first things I thought of. Maybe that is why I don’t like it. No disrespect intended, but, it seems to me that you could go into any CrossFit gym, find a regular who has been training for at least 3 months and they would have no problem here. I am not slamming CrossFit, just that their format fits this test.
However you are right about the current tests, even most NOTA members are leaning this way. I just know, based on my personal experience, that wearing heavy body armor, weapons and everything else, for an extended period of time will really test your overall endurance.
Flashback Friday (1): LYUDMILA PAVLICHENKO
“We mowed down Hitlerites like ripe grain”
Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko[a] (12 July 1916 – 10 October 1974) was a Red Army Soviet sniper during World War II, credited with 309 kills. She is regarded as one of the top military snipers of all time and the most successful female sniper in history.
In early August 1941 she made her first two kills as a sniper near Belyayevka, using a Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle with 3.5X telescopic sight.
Pavlichenko fought for about two and a half months near Odessa where she recorded 187 kills. She was promoted to Senior Sergeant in August 1941 when she reached 100 confirmed kills. When the Romanians gained control of Odessa on 15 October 1941, her unit was withdrawn by sea to Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, where she fought for more than eight months. In May 1942 newly promoted Lieutenant Pavlichenko was cited by the Southern Army Council for killing 257 German soldiers. Her total of confirmed kills during World War II was 309, including 36 enemy snipers.
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Flashback Friday (2):
Yep. I didn’t put it in my comment, but my first thought was that it looked more like a Crossfit WOD than a SWAT fitness test. Then again, my view of “fitness” might be a little skewed.
In my mind I need to be able to fight with a 300 lb biker or some methed up tweaker by myself down a gravel road for as long as it takes, run 4k or more through the bush and keep up with a dog handler and a landshark (wearing rifle plates and humping a carbine if need be) or hold containment wearing full kit in shit weather on a stand off for quite a while until the tactical ninjas roll in to save the day.
After that I still need to have enough left in the tank to make good decisions, sprint to cover and return effective fire and/or slam a guy to the ground, evac a buddy or whatever. No amount of HIIT will do that for me, no matter how cut my abs might get.2
If I can’t do that, I’m not “fit”. This is very much a work in progress BTW. Still, I guess that if the average patrol cop could do that test in a decent time without having a jammer we’d be further ahead than we are now.
I was just talking about this with some dog handlers when I was playing sharkbait this week. One of the guys was saying that back in the day handlers yearly needed to do a 4 mile run sub 34 minutes or they got yanked off the road. That’s not blazing fast, but it’s not slow. You needed to work to keep it up, especially as you got older. Now it’s another yearly obstacle test, 9 minutes or less (6 minutes if you’re fast). Our longest recorded track and catch was I think 38 k. 6 minutes balls out won’t do that for you. It does let the older guys stay in the game longer though.
Really good explanation and you summed up exactly what I was referring too.
I certainly agree with this, especially making good decisions
I need some education on Canadian slang:
Landshark==K-9?
Sharkbait==I am guessing putting on the protective gear and letting the dog chew on you?
Jammer==heart attack?
good post, stay safe.
Saturday Morning Coffee Break:
Coffee Break:
Coffee Break:
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