Another Way to Add Elements of Teamwork, Communication, Thinking/Strategy to Your Training..

Ask These Guys How Important Teamwork is...

You have to push yourself—YES, but programming smartly so you see improvements in your self-assessments (PST, runs, rucks, swims, lifts, etc.) is the goal of your training. Obviously, this is relative to your athletic history, as someone's "beat-down" could be another person's warmup. But there may be elements of training you could be improving WHILE you work on your fitness ability. There is more to military training than physical beatdowns and toughness. You also have to be open to working as a team, being "as fast as your slowest person", and be able to communicate effectively while physically stressed. 

Unit Run at USNA (Plebe Summer)

Have you considered teamwork drills, communication, and problem-solving with your workouts? You cannot do this by yourself, true, but you will find that really tough workouts can be divided by a team of people to reduce the total load on the individuals and involve significant training in strategizing, thinking while tired, and working together to accumulate reps to complete the workout. Take the Sand Baby Devil Murph for instance, we did this workout the other day with 4 groups of 4 people: .

Divide and Conquer as a Team (communicate, strategize, and think):

Log PT Simulator + Murph + Devil's Mile -  As the groups advanced, we started adding in more events like the Devil's Mile. Check out the OFFICIAL Sandbag Devil Murph

Run 1 mile 

Do in as few sets as possible:

100 pullups
200 pushups
200 SB squats
200 SB situps
100 SB Push Press
- run with SB 400m each complete max rep circuit

Devils' Mile
400m bear crawl
400m walking lunges (SB)
400m fireman carry (200m each person)
400m 40lb KB farmerwalk 

Run 1 mile

Each team of four had to discuss their strategy to complete the workout, then work together, keep track of reps, distances, and times, and communicate effectively. Using the strengths of each team member to offset any weaknesses of others worked well for the teams, as did a simple group division of 4 on each event. Some teams divided and conquered equally, some did not and had their cross-country runner crush the running events by himself, while they worked the load bearing events. 

Some teams doubled up some events with a single member to balance a weakness or injury that prevented a team member from being helpful on a particular event. All in all, the teams finished the tasks at about the same time, completing them in four different ways. Discussing those methods and best practices in the debrief again demonstrated the need for more communication throughout the team.

Yes, it was an easier event than doing the SB Devil's Mile individually, but the lessons learned by everyone will help them when working as small units under a boat, a log, or any other task that requires a logical system of thinking and communicating.  

 Try this with your buddies...

Dive deeper into the world of Tactical Athlete training and mental toughness by exploring Stew Smith Fitness Programming for the Tactical Athlete online store. Uncover the strategies and techniques used by elite forces to push past physical and mental barriers. Visit https://www.stewsmithfitness.com now and equip yourself with the tools for success for many special ops level selection programs in the military and police world. 

Getting TO the training does not guarantee you get THROUGH the training. Learn about the two phases of tactical fitness you need to develop thoroughly before getting to BUDS. Check out the Online Course - Getting TO and THROUGH Special Ops Selection.

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