Stew Smith Fitness News

Failure, Injury, or Quitting Are Common...Rebuilding and Attempting Again is Even Harder Unfortunately, humans fail, get injured, and simply quit when things get difficult. Sometimes, it is an accident, but more often than not, it is a lack of preparation and failure to deal with inherent weaknesses we all have (physical, mental, emotional, and maturity). This article is going to explain the process of trying to get back after you fail, quit, or get sick/injured specifically as it pertains to Navy SEAL training (BUD/S). However, many of these same pieces of advice will help you with your awareness to allow yourself to...

Sink or Swim: It is Up to How You Prepare NOW... Hey there, aspiring special operations candidates, it is time to sink or swim! Are you ready to conquer the military swim test and gain more water confidence? We know that being comfortable in the water can be a daunting task, especially for non-swimmers, but you can do this – even if your first time ever swimming the length of a pool was today! We're here to guide you on the right path to success with swimming, finning, treading, and other aquatic skills needed to ace any military swimming and/or...

CSS Help: Fix my Pulls (Top arm / Bottom arm) & Recovery If you want to work on your force production and energy efficiency with the CSS, master the arm-pulling motions, as they can produce a huge amount of speed with smaller muscles using less energy (compared to leg/kicking). In the case of the Combat Side Stroke (CSS), the top arm is the workhorse of the two arm pulls, and the bottom arm is not so much but can be used to help with a slight lift to inhale (get face out of the water) and streamlining.  See more about the individual...

CSS Help: Fix My Glide  (also see updated CSS One Stop Shop Article for More Coaching) In my opinion, the most important piece of swimming fast and efficiently is mastering the glide phase of the CSS. There is a spectrum of gliding that most people do not realize. Many people skip the glide altogether, reduce it in length each stroke wasting momentum, and a few over-glide and lose too much momentum. But some of the fastest swimmers find the perfect mix of streamlined body position and glide time. Most people who create good power with their kicks AND have a tight...

We All Make Mistakes, Fail, and Quit...We Are Human - Now What?  When things do not turn out as planned, you have several choices: you can quit and move on to something else, find another path, try harder next time, or be better prepared. Finding a new way to a different outcome is the growth in failing and if you truly consider all that we as humans mess up each day, these are learning experiences - nothing more, nothing less. Take ownership of failures and keep moving forward, but this time, you are now smarter because of your failure.  There...