How Does the Octopus Blend Into Their Environment? Part 1
With the influx of coaches transitioning into the tactical world, many are finding roadblocks integrating into their units or training cells. What roadblocks would that be? The tactical professional is not impressed by accolades, but by ownership, the ability to be an asset, and leading by example. Can you enter that burning fire with flames roaring over your head trying to pull a person out? Can you perform life-saving skills under gunfire or wrestle someone to the ground and apprehend them while staying inside those left and lateral limits of your rules of engagement? Can you strap on that 80-pound ruck, patrol for hours under night vision goggles, and be ready to fight the enemy at any given moment? Can you jump out of that cop car and go directly into a foot chase, unsure of how long it will be? All these questions lead to one truth: Are you capable? A question each of us needs to ask ourselves as humans outside of any occupation, tactical professional, or the general population. In this world, you are either the asset or the liability.
With my time on this earth, I have spent many hours freediving the oceans of strength and conditioning and the tactical community, moving through the contrasting kelp beds of knowledge. I’ve been collecting all the information possible under numerous breath holds. I learned I had to become an octopus, blend into my environment, and survive within an ecosystem that I knew nothing about. I had to listen and observe for hours, days, months, years, and it still remains an ongoing process. I found an intersecting point for the two realms through the exposure of listening, digesting, and asking questions of prior pro and college coaches. Theme same individuals found themselves stepping foot after foot up a rocky and challenging mountain, earning the respect of the tactical professionals they work with today.
Why is that? These coaches put themselves in positions to slowly adapt to their ecosystems. Yes, creating a buy-in, trust, and communication all matters, but verbal language is not our first language. It is action, the language of a Tactical Professional. From underwater crossovers repeats with students at Air Force Special Warfare School, feeling the hypoxia kick in from the decrease of oxygen and increase of CO2 to completing a 12-mile ruck under 3 hours @ 50lbs in 90-degree weather, or noticing the hot spots on your feet and pain in the shoulders from the straps ripping into them from the weight of the ruck... these are all examples. And ride alongs with fire, police, and rescue… the list can go on, but to be a coach in the field of tactical strength and conditioning, you are the artist and must paint a picture of requirements the tactical professional needs and wants as you prepare them for the rigors of the job both physically and mentally.
Throw back to 2008-09 in Bridgeport conducting mountain commutation operations. Matt, Travis, and I built this shelter protecting us that evening from Mother Nature’s elements.
