Stew Smith Fitness News

How Do You Find Your Why?  A Motto like "So That Others May Live" is a great WHY. Find strength in Mottos / Creeds Finding your "why" for long-term, high-intensity goals like special operations training involves connecting with a deeply personal, service-oriented purpose beyond just earning a title. While titles are nice, they are not enough to sustain you through the long days and nights of challenges you will face. You may have a passion and desire you cannot yet verbalize. That is fine to be drawn to something for unknown reasons, but you need to dig deep to figure...

Learning How to Tread as a Non-Swimming Athlete (Start with Mobility) A big coaching moment for me this year was realizing that a group of land athletes were unable to tread because of the lack of mobility in their hips, knees, and ankles. Once we started practicing treading with mobility/flexibility drills on the pool deck (as a treading rest period) the group started being able to tread.  Here is how we taught the egg-beater kick to non-swimming / land athletes: Egg-beater Kick Misnomer - Personally the term "egg-beater" is an inaccurate name for the kick you are trying to do....

Believe it or not, you do not need to be a world-class runner to graduate from Ranger/SF training. You do not need to be an Olympic swimmer to graduate from BUD/S or PJ Training. You do not need to be a world-class lifter to handle the boats, logs, rucks, and other load-bearing activity to make it through any special ops selection. You just need to be a lifter who can run/swim, a runner who can lift/swim, and a swimmer who can run and lift. No need to waste training time getting great at your strongest event, just be good at...

Running on the Beach - Be Prepared Both Hard Pack Sand and Soft Sand Running At BUD/S, running in the sand at the beach is one of the toughest things to get used to, especially if you are working on a running weakness. The student body of each BUD/S class comes from all over the United States, and most do not have the ability to train on the beach like some will. This requires additional running ability (not just average) and plenty of practice with other types of running that make it harder. The good news is that the 4-mile...

 Understanding the Difference and Why Mobility Matters Unless you like to swim like a one-legged duck, mobility matters... Mobility is often misunderstood or overlooked in tactical/athletic training, yet it plays a crucial role in both performance and injury prevention. While related, flexibility refers to the ability of muscles to stretch/lengthen, mobility goes further to encompass not only muscle length but also joint movement throughout the natural range of motion, strength, balance, and the nervous system. This definition of optimal mobility enables athletes to perform tactical and athletic movements more effectively, maintain proper form and alignment, and therefore reduce strain on...