More thoughts on SWAT testing

I received another message literally days after the first question on operator training. This one was in reference to testing procedures. This is unedited and may be a bit all over the place, but hope you can pick out the good stuff out it.

For an actual testing process, I would use some form of obstacle course that involves what you'll see 90% or more of the time. The old school o-courses aren't actually all that bad. The problem with a realistic test is to be efficient, the varibles won't always end of successful. Say you start with a few exercises to get the adrenaline stimulation up, then have a ballistic micro-fight, the variables of a fight could shift the results of the operators performance.

Maybe have a combination of exercise based testing(40 yard sprint, long jump, metcon workout, power clean, etc) in combination with an o-course and some scenario's. But the last two would take a bit of resources and time to put together.

For just exercise route, concentrate on a few things. Athleticism, power, coordination, mental agility/toughness. The secret service has a kettlebell snatch test that has absolutely nothing to do with your physical ability, it's to see how tough you are mentally, as many snatches as possible in 10 min. Athleticism is huge. A guy can be strong as hell, but if he can't coordinate his movements and have the ability to quickly recover from a mistake, all the strength goes to waste. Power. When it's go time, it's all about being in Grog smash, face ripping, bad guy slinging, Testosterone rage. Adrenaline can get you there, but training power will get your body to do it efficently. Coordination, you gotta be able to do multiple things at once sometimes.

Does that make sense?

The Secret Service Snatch Test actually works almost all of these. I would toss in a long jump, short sprint, maybe an agility ladder/course and some form of weighted pullups(full kit).

So for small area and resources do the SSST(that's the acronym you'll find it under on the kettlebell forums) and pullups in kit(I'd do pullups before the hands get tore up). For a bit more space and resources, a 40 yard dash followed by an agility drill, then the SSST, but this time instead of pullups have a 6' wall and see how many times back and forth you can get over it in a set period of time, say two minutes, again in full kit. Give about 2-5 min rest in between each event. And of course feel free to toss in some tactical skills or scenario's, just remember variables are going to influence it, so it may be best to just be part of the test but not necessarily pass/fail.

Hope that answers your question a bit better. Look around the dragondoor forums. Before crossfit, Pavel and the kettlebell were the dominating force for tactical tests. There might be a few gems hidden in there. Not sure if you met Jeff Martone at DARC, but hit him up, he's got a lot of good stuff as well.

Here is my follow up reply to a few more points

I think the SSST is basically 10 min, as many snatches as you can do. You can set it down, you can use whichever hand you want. Pretty much you can do whatever you want but quit. Here's an article on the SSST http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/369/


Here's a link to a phone interview with Dan John. I was the guy asking about the military/law enforcement question But overall, he's got a ton of knowledge on this stuff. http://kettlebellinterrogations.com/dan/call.html

One thing to be aware of with standardized testing is it can be gameplayed just like IPSC shooting or football combine. With the SSST and wall climbs, I think there will be enough carry over that even if you do gameplay it, it will still make you a better operator.

Something to look into for your agility drill, is find some Parkour(The crazy dudes jumping and climbing buildings) exercises and use a circuit of those. It'll transfer into the tactical arena very well on top of assessing agility skills.

One thing to watch for is maybe reversing the order to have range first, then scenario's, then physical. With kettlebell snatches your hands get pretty chewed up and wouldn't be very conducive to shooting well Also when you think of training, you generally want to try and train the most neurologically demanding first, then as the skill gets easier it gets pushed down the priority list. I know crossfit has kind of tossed that idea out the window, but their focus is general fitness, not specific skills training.

Glad I could help out. Feel free to paraphrase this and push it out if you think others would benefit from it.

Top 3 uses of a kettlebell

Hope every one had a good thanksgiving. Short post here. This is just my philosophy on the use of kettlebells as a tool in a broad spectrum training program.

• Work capacity
• Portability for travel or deployments
• 'Feeder' Exercises

Work capacity is pretty self explanitory.

The small size makes it easy to take just about anywhere for a total body gym. Going on deployment? Shove a couple in a conex and take an adjustable one on the plane. At work all day and don't have much time or space to get a workout in? Tote it along and knock out some short work throughout the day. Your co-workers may think you're a little nutty, but that's ok you've got the six-pack and he that sports the six-pack makes the rules.

Jumping straight into olympic lifts is a very techinical sport and takes years of training. Kettlebells allow you to start training the gross motor movements(hip extension, coordination) with more room for not quite perfect form. And just as the kettlebell clean and snatch are slightly more complex, you can start just about anybody on swings and have them slowly progress to those exercises and if they so choose to trasition to the bar versions, they will have many of the mechanics already set.

So those are my top 3 uses of the kettlebell. The reason I break it down to these three is for whatever reason I see people trying to make the kettlebell things it's not. I'm not talking about the guys that actually use kettlebells only, that's their thing cool. I'm talking about the gym idiots that are doing curls with them, when there are freaking dumbbells right next to them. If you're trying to bodybuild with kettlebell front raises.....you're probably not a very successful bodybuilder, might want to find a new hobby.

Use them to become a workhorse while on the road because when you get back you want to get into olympic lifts. Don't use them in front of a mirror or you will have your man card revoked....for life.

Tacfit certification overview

I made the drive to Bellingham. It's suppose to be an hour and a half drive, but those of you that have seen I-5 around Seattle know to double your time minimum. It took me four hours. I had just spent 19 hours the day prior sitting in HMMWV's, so needless to say I was quite tight and worn out. I got some dinner and passed out immediately after in my hotel room.

Next morning I headed to the RMAX gym located in the Bellingham Athletic Club. I aked where the Tacfit certification was being hosted. I then cruised to the back room of the gym where there were rings hanging, plyo boxes, paralettes, kettlebells and of course the clubbell. Most the students were already there and chit chatting introducing each other. Turns out some of these cats just gone through 3 days of CST certification, they were going 5 days straight!

Most the attendee's were looking pretty ripped and in pretty good shape. There were some firefighters, military(to include a soldier from Singapore), a physical therapist and the rest were trainers of some form or another. For those of you not familiar with Tacfit, it's a metcon program designed by coach Scott Sonnon specifically designed for first responders. Also in attendance were coaches Ryan Murdoch(Bodyweight Exercise Revolution) and Joe Wilson.

Tacfit has several interesting points that no other program can match. Although the protocols may appear crossfit-ish, they are designed in a much more specific process and the specifically the exercises made for good tactical habits. Each workout is 20 minutes long, which is a great help to those short on time. A joint mobility warm up and prasara warm down will make everything more effective and results quicker, but isn't mandatory but highly reccomended. Combined they add less than 15 min to the overall workout.

Classroom portion started off on the white board. Main points went over the 6 protocol wave format of the Tacfit workouts. The six protocols are organized in a very specific format from one to the next. There are 26 workouts total, each one building off the prior. Also there is four level to each of the 26 workouts and 96 exercise sets, Delta being for those new to metcon work, Gamma for those that have been at it a couple months, Beta for those that are very proficient after a couple months and finally Alpha strictly for bragging rights and may take a year or more to achieve if ever.

The first is the Tabata protocol of 20 sec work 10 sec rest. You'll find as you work through Tacfit, there is a large sports pyschology element to everything. This first protocol is meant to make you work fast and hard and force yourself to recover in 10 sec before bursting again. Did I mention Tabata's are well proven to be some of the best work for body composition changes?

The next protocol consists of 4 min of work with 1 min rest between exercises. Most people when first exposed to metcon(metabolic conditioning) type workouts try to pace themselves.

The first workout protocol interrupted that thought process and forced you to recover in a timespan you didn't think possible. Now with this protocol you have a sustained effort, but we tricked your brain to work faster from the first workout. So now you'll be doing a repeated effort faster than you would have if you hadn't had the first protocol.

The third protocol is each min on the min. The faster you complete your work, the higher quality and longer rest you get. Without the precursor exercises most will try to pace and end up with no recovery period. Again the tabata protocol teaches you to burst. Here you'll get more rest if you finish faster.

Next protocol is the hardest for us coaches to monitor students intensity. It's as many rounds as possible in the 20 min time period. Here you need to take all your body has learned from the previous protocols and apply it to get as many rounds as you can.

The fifth protocol is a compression of the second. It's 90 sec of work 30 sec rest. Again using the previous protocols to get as much work as possible in the timeframe.

The last protocol is for time, as in doing so many reps of certain exercises as fast as possible. The goal here is to recover as best as possible during continuous work without reducing your pace over the duration. In other words sustained speed of work over the 20 min.

After a discussion on these protocols, some random notes I happened to write down before the pain train started. If you train above your max heart rate, your body does not adapt, also high skill level drops off extremely fast. Many of the exercises in Tacfit are very complex. This is meant to teach the operator to be able to perform high skill work even when in a high stress enviroment. Metcom work differs slightly from traditional gym workouts. In the gym you may get DOMS(Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) 24-72 hours after your workout. Metcon will have a similar feeling but it's actually a biochemical "drag" feeling. It will probably take an external set of eyes, especially with a high heart rate, if you are creating "cheats" on exercises, then you need to drop a complexity level. One idea coach Sonnon brought up is that your complexity will be determined that day. Some days you're ready for more, some days less, don't force a level you aren't ready for 'that day'.

So after this short little classroom portion we're told we'd be going through all six protocols. So I'm thinking three today, three tomorrow, this is c=gonna suck! So we jump right into the Alpha workout(they are all named by the UN alpha-numeric alphabet code system). Alpha is the grueling tabata protocol with four total exercises with a full tabata protocol of each. 20 min of suckage. Just prior to starting we were shown some recovery breathing exercises. These were reinforced throughout and did seem to help. Ok so that makes your lungs burn a bit.... And ten min later on to the next workout.

So we jump into Bravo. Some what tame in comparison to Alpha. So one Tacfit workout alone is equivelant to 4 hours of traditional cardio, now we're torching calories. So I'm thinking well we must be doing the third workout after lunch......

Then I hear coach Sonnon tell one of the other students we were doing all six today!! It's time to really start sucking down the Surge Workout Fuel. Charlie was up next. Every minute on the minute is the bane of my existance, I hate it with a passion. I hate it so much, I was the first one done every round at about the 30 sec mark haha. Amazing how your hate fuel will get you better recovery. After being drenched by Charlie, I head to my truck and slam down my serving of Surge post workout with 5g of creatine mixed in. Lunch time at last. We're told to force feed if need be. I had trouble eating and was too wound up to nap even though I was tired.
We all came back from lunch walking a bit slower and awaiting the next three workouts.

Delta, Echo and Foxtrot went by, completing the remaining three protocols. Day one was finally done. I chugged another serving of Surge/creatine, grabbed some dinner and headed to the hotel. I racked out pretty early and woke up around 0230 with my left arm locked at a 90 degree angle. It was so stiff, it took about 15 min using my right hand to straighten it out. I clamped my wrist between my knees to keep it straight and made sure my right arm was straight as possible as well, and went back to sleep. I woke up with my entire upper body stiff.

I arrived at the gym a few minutes early and entered from the back. Once everyone was there, Coach Joe Wilson(who is a long time police officer, now working with secret service on their fitness program) took us through a good long joint mobility session. It helped break up some of the adhesions and get the fluid back in the joints from the day priors trial by fire. Which as it turned out coach Sonnon's fellow coaches had actually used as a joke, and he took them serious...Thanks guys...

After the mobility warm up, there was another brief white board class. The emphasis of the day was to go through ALL 96 exercises, progressions and regressions. But the class portion was focused on the true shining point of Tacfit, coaching cues. The coaching cues brings the program from a metcon that sculpts bodies into greek gods, to a tactically functional program that involves sports pyschology. This sports pyschology starts bringing in points like- above 85% heart rate, the brain will only hear one thing. The coach should make cues that are important over and over again. Some may not pick up on it the first time, or the second or even for several months or years. But eventually those cues will start to penetrate and take effect. Some are absorbed sub-consiously. There is also a heavy emphasis on teaching recovery with just as much power as technique. This will lead into "cognitive recovery". What this means is getting the operators/students thinking during recovery. This translates to high stress situations such as the lull in a gunfight and gets the operator to think about what needs to come next.

On to the exercises. I won't go too in depth on the actual exercises, but describe how they translate to the tactical arena. Every one of the 96 exercises was picked speciffically to either train what I call 'good tactical habits' or assist in balacing out the body for specific things that occur with first responders/tactical athletes. For instance Kettlebell Goblet squats and gorilla crawls are designed to help with the stressors of armor by increasing mobility in area's that get overly tight by heavy gear/airpacks. As far as good tactical habits, several are obvious, some not as much. For instance kettlebell getups are done differently than traditionally seen, but it teaches to plant and come up onto the edge of the foot rather than the ball of the foot which is less stable than the broad surface of the edge of a foot.

We proceded through all levels including Alpha exercises demonstrating proficiency in each of the 96 exercises. Some of which I thought would be a big problem turned out being ok once I was properly coached on how to perform it, even with the day prior. One leg squats were still a problem for me, but clapping pullups, high level gymnastic exercises and clubbell exercises I had never been properly coached on came through without many problems. I noticed during day 2, some of those that had done better on the workouts the day prior were starting to drag. Those of us military or fire service, didn't seem to have as much of a problem. I strongly believe going through the combatives courses and weeks in the field helped my body to pace itself.

The day ended with some more quick notes by all the coaches. The certification course had ended. My arms were stiff and hurt to lock out. I chatted with Joe Wilson a bit about how he programmed when he was in charge of his departments fitness program for the academy. He said he used Tacfit on Mon Wed Fri and had the cadets perform the events for the departments physical test on Tue and Thurs. Ideally Tacfit should be done on the high intensity day of a 4 day wave. The day prior to your Tacfit workout, you would perform strength work, all your deadlifts, squats, hypertrophy, kettlebells that sort of thing. Or you can do a Tacfit workout at a lower complexity level. The day after your high intensity day will be no intensity, but that doesn't mean do nothing, you need to do full joint mobility. The next day completing the 4 day cycle is low intensity. This can consist of compensation like prasara/stretching or light bodyweight type stuff or some skills work.

I would reccomend if you are training for to keep yourself and those around you alive, to have a good strength training program in conjunction with Tacfit. I've found through my practice that Tacfit, that it fills alot of gaps that may have never noticed, but lifting heavy things isn't one of them. It wasn't designed for that since you are suppose to do that the day prior. Lift heavy things, do Tacfit, ensure you're actually doing the compensation and mobility stuff and you'll be set. Right now I'm trying a mix of AMD and Tacfit. The cool thing is, if you want to emphasize another skill you can switch your Tacfit into the moderate/strength day and have your emphasis placed in the high intensity. That's what I'm trying with Tacfit at a lower complexity and AMD the day after. I feel rock solid already after only a week. I foresee huge success with this.

So this was the first field instructor certification for Tacfit. It's my pleasure to be apart of it. I would have liked a third day that went over programming more and got into some of the business aspects for those that would like some side income, but also these tactics still apply when training your own organization. But with the time given, there was about as much crammed in as possible. I mean 6 high intensity workouts, 96 different exercises and some classroom is tough to squeeze into two days. Also I think there is alot of this material for the Team Leader certification which isn't formated just yet.

All in all, if you're an MMA fighter, first responder or military, I highly reccomend you checking out Tacfit for your metcon program. It's not just asskicking, it's structured for what we do. The exercises, the coaching cues and sports pyschology all bring us up the pyramid from GPP(General Physical Preparation) to SPP(Specialized Physical Preparation) and even the top with emotional/mental/pyschological. It takes everything you need to have a program for your organization and takes all the guess work out of how to apply work skills by stimulation not simulation. You'll still need a good strength program like Joe DeFranco, Zach Even-Esh or Diesel Crew to complete your program.

The firefighters at the certification had been doing Tacfit for a couple years since they were the original test subjects and have been guinea pigs since. Carson is a freaking beast, he was doing alot of stuff at Alpha and Beta levels even after six workouts. They said most of the guys doing it had increased their air time and were much better at work. For law enforcement types, I would add in some form of grappling as your strength work, you'll be slinging people more than lifting heavy things. For the military guys, skip a tacfit workout every other week and exchange it for a road march, still maintain a good strength program that emphasizes postural symetry and allow for strengthening the load bearing structures while allowing enough time for spinal decompression. Hanging upside down often may be the answer. Also injury prevention should be priority over anything competitory, compete during your Tacfit sessions, practice during strength sessions. As always feel free to exchange a Tacfit session(or even a month) every so often with something new or change of pace, just make sure to keep consistant or progress will come to a screeching hault.

There is so much beneath the surface of this program and I've tried to peel back some of the onion layers. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I'll try to answer as best I know. There is definately alot I've yet to learn.

Nathan

Olympic weightlifting sophistication

Technical sophistication. These olympic lifts seem cool, but aren't they dangerous? No. Not when progressed properly and the actual lifts are coached. They are actually one of the safest sports injury wise. Safer than general lifting weights. There are over use injuries, but you are getting them, you are probably working with some world class coaches that will help negate them.

These are just the way I like to progress things. Taking somebody with no experience to technical lift. Some people may be able to skip and progress in a matter of hours. Others may take years. Find yourself an USAW Club Coach to teach you proper mechanics when you get to the dowel rod phase. They are much more common than you would think(I'm one) and your football coach in high school most likely taught you incorrectly.

-Deadlift and it's progressive variations(bodyweight, sandbag, kettlebell/dumbbell, etc)

-High pulls with various implements(bar, med balls, kettlebells, sandbags, etc)

-Kettlebell swings, this teaches the hip drive while using the arms as only attachments and not doing any of the work. Swings and high pulls may be taught at the same time.

-Overhead throws, these teach 75% of what an olympic lift is. Taking something off the ground and getting triple extension(ankles, kness, hips) Use various implements and odd objects.

-Kettlebell and sandbag clean and presses. Find a good kettlebell coach to show you these and you'll be very close to having the technical mastery needed for O-lifts.

-Dowel and PVC O-lift skills practice. I like to use this as a warmup prior to lower body work. Muscle snatches are excellent for warming up the shoulders prior to grappling or upper body work.-At this point you should get a coach to analyze form, at a minimum send a video in to a coach if you don't have one near by. Don't go past this point without professional coaching unless you can promise to never ever blame a single injury on olympic weightlifting. I love the sport and it is extremely safe, but there are millions of douches giving it a bad rap when they have never even bothered to take one hour out of their life to have someone teach them properly.

As a side note the actual bar lifts have only two advantages over other implements. Heavier weights and increased coordination skills. For the majority of people the kettlebell/sandbag and odd object(logs, kegs, etc) lifts will be enough. I view the actual olympic lifts as the very end goal after years of skills sophistication or as a hobby sport.

The sandbags used in the above exercises are the Ultimate Sandbags. A normal sandbag would not really allow this type of exercises efficiently. Ultimate Sandbags have properly placed handles while still maximizing the unknownness of sandbag training.

U-Fill It Kettlebells

So today I'm posting a review of the AOS Bulldog Kettlebell. The reason I'm posting here is they've just come out with a new kettlebell called the U-Fill It kettlebell and it's on sale till the 17th. As of now this is a huge price saver. It's less than a quarter the price of the Bulldog, yet more versatile. I'll be picking up several of these, but right now they have a 4 per customer limit due to heavy demand. Get your hands on these recession busters before they're gone!!

AOS Online Store

So yesterday I completed the 'Golf' workout from Tacfit. Like I said four exercises of Tabata intervals. Just by looking at the list I knew this was gonna be a core workout. Starting off with kettlebell figure 8's, moving to Knee's to Chest on the gym rings, spinal rocks(kind of like a full body english situp with a hip/knee lift on the rock back) and then parelette dips.

The knee's to chest and dips, freaking fried me, which just validates that I need to continue working on bodyweight strength. I'd like to take up some Parkour in the next year to help, but we'll have to see with time constraints.

Those of you from my website, RedWhiteandBlueFitness.com probably already know about my new newsletter. Train Hard, Fight Easy 2.0 will be launching this wednesday! Follow the link to the sign up form if your interested. There will be special offers and articles to subsrciber members only! Train Hard, Fight Easy 2.0

Second mini cycle

So tomorrow I start my second mini-cycle of Tacfit. Foxtrot was the last of the 6 different formats. I had some serious DOMS(Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) on the lats. I think even the masseuse was surprised at the size of size of the adhesions in my back haha. Anyways it consisted of pull-ups, kettlebell push press, box jump and clubbell clockwork squats, 50 reps each. If you have gaps somewhere in your strength or conditioning, Tacfit will find them and and allow to build them up to par.

Today I start with a new Moderate intensity day too. Using the Hypertrophy workout A from Bodyweight Exercise Revolution.

Tacfit has some serious improvements over previous conditioning programs. Coach Sonnon has been perfecting it for over a decade. I'll keep updating my progress on here. TACFIT - TACTICAL-SPECIFIC PHYSICAL CONDITIONING

Firepower

The firepower DVD by Art of Strength is directed towards the fire service. If you're looking for a kettlebell workout for the firehouse, this is a good follow along. It has several progressive levels but remains intense throughout all of them.

As a bonus there is a ladder truck and plenty of gear in the backround. Maybe it's just me, but that's just cool :)

Give it a look