This week we are joined by one of our Tactical Athletes, Taylor. He is a world Class rower who, in a former life, competed for the US National Rowing Team. Now Taylor is a Green Beret and getting ready for the job demands ⁣

⁣

We start with our definition of a Tactical Athlete. We believe they are highly reliable decision-makers. ⁣

⁣

They are NOT necessarily physical phenoms. Their physical skillset is a tool that allows them to use their cognitive skillset to its maximum potential. ⁣

⁣

Some other topics we dig into are:⁣

⁣

• Difference between Combat Focused and Domestic Response tactical athletes.⁣

⁣

• Periodization for Tactical Athletes - After selection, we move to a team-based fitness approach⁣

⁣

• The Biomechanical Demands of rucking and how we build the chassis to support it. ⁣

⁣

• The pitfalls of taking a Sports Science approach to training tactical athletes. (No stats, unknown demands, subjective vs objective needs, too much emphasis on testable metrics without building durability for daily demands)⁣

⁣

• The pitfalls of taking a CrossFit approach to training tactical athletes. (Too varied, the poor transference of training, increased injury potential, competing recovery demands)⁣

⁣

• Programming for humans is COMPLEX. The Space Shuttle is a COMPLICATED system. 1 faulty O-ring makes the whole thing explode. Humans are COMPLEX systems. They can lose an organ or a limb and still live a long life. Pretending we understand everything about COMPLEX systems is a false narrative.⁣

⁣

• Economy of motion + Economy of effort = optimal performance⁣

⁣

• Increasing the optimal career window. You can’t “buy experience” but you can keep that individual around to share their experience for a long time. ⁣

⁣

• How someone prepares physically for selection events has correlations to long term career success.⁣

⁣

This is a long episode and for some reason, the audio changes around the 1-hour mark! Sorry for that, but grab some popcorn and dig in either way!