Info
Our mission is to explain the training and selection process, requirements, standards and accomplishments of Naval Special Warfare.
5 MAR 2019 · The Leapfrogs are the Navy's Parachute Team. This elite team of SEALs and SWCC have performed countless demonstrations around the country for millions of people. We sat down with one of the Leapfrogs to find out what it's like -- and what we found out surprised us.
TRT 32:33
00:22
Intro: The United States Navy Parachute Team, or "The Leap Frogs," is the official parachute demonstration team for the US Navy. As a part of Naval Special Warfare Center, the team brings together active-duty Navy SEALs, SWCC, and support personnel. They demonstrate professional excellence by performing precision aerial maneuvers throughout the US. I'm Daniel Fletcher, today, we chat with Luke Vesci, a member of the Leap Frogs, who shares with us not only his personal perspective on parachute mastery, but also insights from his 13-year career with NSW. Let's get started.
00:59
DF: Thank you so much for starters for sitting down with us. I appreciate you taking the time.
01:03
LV: Absolutely, thanks for having us, yeah.
01:05
DF: If you just want to briefly just identify a little bit of your career and your history with the Navy, we can start with that.
01:10
LV: Okay. I've been in the Navy for 13 years and I came actually out of high school in San Diego. I joined the military, so it was very natural for me to join the Navy. I remember seeing all the helicopters flying by, and I'd actually come down and check out the training on the Strand when I was a kid cause I was really interested in that kind of thing (DF: Cool). Also grew up going to Miramar Air Show, and I remember seeing the jump teams at the air show and seeing the boats and, you know, the SEAL booth and the SWCC booth. I just remember thinking at a very early age that this was, this was exactly what I wanted to do. So, I joined the military back in 2005, and I decided at that time that I wanted to become a Navy SWCC, so what I did is I got a contract and joined the military, went to boot camp, did all the screening that was at Great Lakes at the time and went to SWCC school back in 2006 and graduated SWCC class 5-4, which happened to be the first class that we were actually awarded the SWCC designator, so SB. That was the first year SBs and SOs, SEALs, got their own designator, so that was, that was very privileged to graduate as a full blown SWCC at that time. From there, I checked into my first command, which was Special Boat Team 20, and that's in Little Creek, Virginia. I did three good years there, deployed twice. One of the deployments was an around the world tour (DF: Wow), so we went to the Middle East, we went all over the Philippines, Indonesia, so we did what we call the world tour, and it was a really great experience, especially for a first deployment. From there, I deployed again to Iraq, and I augmented one of the SEAL teams at that time, and basically what we were doing is doing a lot of over the land mobility with Humvees and then also doing some stuff on the water using some boats that we had basically built from the bottom up as a combat craft, so that was a really interesting deployment.
LV: From there, I went to, screened and selected for Naval Special Warfare Development Group, and I spent five years there. Had a great time there, did three full deployments out of Development Group. And then at that point, I'd been in the Navy for about nine years, and I wanted to kind of do something a little bit different. So, at that time, I requested to become an instructor over here on the West Coast. Like I said before, I was from San Diego, so I wanted to come back, and that's what I did. So, I came back, I went to Advanced Training Command, and I taught what we call ‘air operations'. So, I was teaching Static Line Jump Masters school. I was also running the Navy Parachute Course, which is the free fall and static line, and then at the same time, we were doing the HRST-Cast Master Course, which is the helicopter rope suspension techniques(continued)
8 JAN 2019 · The Medal of Honor is our nation's highest award for bravery in combat. We asked Senior Chief SEAL Ed Byers, Medal of Honor recipient, what it means to serve to our country during dangerous and covert operations. For more, check out www.sealswcc.com
00:00:21:23
Daniel Fletcher: Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Edward Byers is the 6th SEAL to earn the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM on December 8, 2012. He discusses the challenge of going from a life of secrecy to the responsibilities of a life in the limelight. He says he wears the Medal to honor his fallen teammate from that mission, and continues to humbly serve as a mentor and inspirational representative of the Naval Warfare Community. Here's his story:
00:00:55:17
DF: The main objective of this podcast is really to assist in continuing or growing the quality and preparedness of NSW candidates, specifically SEAL/SWCC guys. In many ways, you set the bar for standards for people in other branches of the service and as well in the Navy, but at the same time I think if people that are coming into this process are trying to shoot for fame or success that they're probably going to miss their opportunity to be successful because, as I've learned, so much of success in the teams is about that team, not about the self.
00:01:34:19
DF: How, how can people that are intending to become high performing NSW operators kind of navigate that duality between self and team to be successful team member?
00:01:44:14
EB: Well, one of the, one of the fundamental principles of, of BUD/S is in the very beginning, is they have to have, they have to start off with a clean slate with the people that make it through the pipeline and actually show up to the teams. So, what they do through a whole lot of pain and some suffering and trials and tribulations is they get you to repeatedly fail or struggle through things in the hopes that you start to realize that you cannot do this process alone. You can't make it through BUD/S alone. So, they strip away your personal identity in the very early stages, and they do that through a multitude of different exercises, and while you're going through that, you really don't understand it at the time what they're trying to get to, and what they're trying to get to is to make you realize that you have to start thinking about team before self. And when you start to do that, as pretty indicative of each class, is the class will start to grow together, and they'll become more efficient, which means they'll get beat less, and you'll end up with this core concept of, you know, team gear, your gear and then yourself, and that's the order in which you take care of things.
00:03:10:19
DF: So, do you think it's fair to say that maybe in the beginning parts of the process or even through professional development after BUD/S, that there is more of a focus on self because obviously when you're working together, there's a big aspect of like you're saying, you're kind of almost becoming, the team is yourself, right, or kind of becomes yourself, (EB: right) so that is where you're focused on, where success is. Are there aspects of your career in NSW that are more focused on yourself, like whether it's professional development? You think that's something that people should hone in on, the ability to kind of switch back and forth and have that awareness?
00:03:47:23
EB: Well, there's always going to be an aspect of self. We are individuals. We, everybody has their own personality and their own, their own things that make them tick and what defines them, but just like any good building, it has to have a good foundation, and that's where BUD/S comes in. They have to lay the foundation first and teach you these inherent traits that our community believes makes a good team guy. Eventually, there will be times where you'll be out on your own. It's no secret that at any one time in this world right now, Special(continued)
28 NOV 2018 · Future Navy SEALs and SWCC must make it through one important course before they attend training in San Diego: the NSW Prep School. In this episode, the director of Prep discusses how his staff physically and mentally prepares the students with running, swimming, strength and conditioning, exercise science, and kinesiology. For more info check out www.sealswcc.com.
DF: Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School, otherwise known as NSW Prep, occurs in Great Lakes, Illinois over two months. There is one goal of NSW Prep: to improve SEAL and SWCC candidates' mental and physical readiness to prepare them for the challenges of BUD/S and BCS. Cordy Pearson, who you'll hear from today, is the Program Manager for NSW Prep and speaks about expectations for this major milestone in the process.
00:00:39:26
DF: Cordy, thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. Obviously, you have a really unique perspective. We're hoping that we can transfer that to as many people as possible that want to find out more about what you do here. If you want to start a little bit about your career and how kind of what led you here. We can start there, or if you just want to jump right into what you do right now, we can do that.
00:00:56:04
CP: Came in right out of high school. I was a state champion boxer before that, not much pool work or swim work, came straight into the Navy. September 11th happened when I was in first phase, changed the course of how things I thought (DF: Right) were going to happen, and I ended up doing two platoons with SEAL Team One. I was a lead breacher and lead vehicle driver for both those deployments, ended up getting out I was looking to start my own business, got a call to come up here. This place had just started, then they offered me a lead instructor position, then over the course of four years, worked myself into the program manager position, I've been the program manager for six years.
00:01:34:16
DF: In an overarching way, what is the Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School, and what is its kind of mission and goals?
00:01:40:18
CP: The mission of the NSW Preparatory School is to train, mentor and coach perspective NSW SEAL and SWCC candidates and NSW-centric specific core physical and mental skills.
00:01:54:17
DF: Unpack that a little bit. What does that kind of mean in say real world terms, on a day-to-day basis for you? What types of things do you try to do?
00:02:00:09
CP: We try to prepare the students as best we can for the rigors that they're going to face out at BUD/S (DF: Okay) and BCS. We basically want to help them get through the next major crucible, which would be Hell Week or The Tour. That's how we gauge our success. We do that by running, swimming, strength and conditioning. We have professional staff that does that, and we help them with their mental toughness, their military bearing. We also talk to them about ethos, core values, and some nutrition and injury prevention as well.
00:02:31:29
DF: Is everyone that's working at Prep here Navy staff?
00:02:34:24
CP: So, we have a mix of Navy and civilian staff here. Civilian staff consists of coaches, so they're subject matter experts in running, swimming, strength, conditioning, they have educations in kinesiology, exercise science. We have two former SEALs that are working in tandem with those coaches to help deliver the NSW message and the way the students should be acting (DF: Right, part of that ethos you spoke about)…and those evolutions, explaining to them why we do some of the things that we do.
00:03:02:00
DF: Okay, so how does this tie into the boot camp piece that they're all going through at the same time? Is this after, is this before, is this during? For the layman, can you kind of paint that picture for us a little bit?
00:03:11:23
CP: So, yes, for how this is structured, going from boot camp, all enlisted people come from boot camp, and anybody who's from the fleet would come here, (continued)
8 NOV 2018 · Comfort, speed, and efficiency in the water are all hallmarks of a successful NSW recruit. Aquatics expert Dan Kish talks with us about developing confidence in the water. For more information visit www.sealswcc.com.
Sound ups:
"Get your heads up and get your eyes open. Stop trying to hide from the pain."
"Heads up; eyes open."
DF: Welcome to, "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday," the official Navy SEAL podcast.
DF: Comfort, speed, and efficiency in the water are all hallmarks of a successful NSW recruit. Today at NSW Preparatory School we continue our discussion with aquatics expert, Dan Kish, to speak specifically about safely developing confidence in the water.
00:45
DF: This will be a popular episode because there are so many people that are not comfortable in the water and even before that flat out can't swim or have had very little exposure to the types of swimming that you're talking about. For people who are in that camp, what is your recommendation for them in terms of kind of introducing water sports initially into their training regimen? Do you recommend people kind of start with the real basics like modified freestyle just to kind of learning to at least kind of start the crawl, walk, run kind of part of this swim process? I can't help but think that there's going to be a lot of people that tune into this episode to learn like, "Hey, I'm a bad, I know I'm a bad swimmer," or, "I think I'm a bad swimmer. Where do I even start? This combat sidestroke, I can barely even get in the water without feeling like I'm going to drown, you know what I mean?
1:29
DK: That's common. A lot of friends that joined, you know, higher military branches and very weak and deficient in the water, and they knew it, and they asked me like, "Hey, I know you can swim. Can you help me out here?" and I would drag them to the pool with me. Water polo is another great way to become comfortable and confident and with team building going on. It's the most calories you'll ever burn in a match or game, you know, one game of polo. There is no rest cause you're treading no matter what you are doing. You're in the pool. You are sprinting. And great ways to become, you know, a little bit more comfortable and confident. You don't have to be the fastest swimmer. We just want you to have a good foundation or base that we can build on and make you, you know, get dialed in and tuned in to become much, you know, more efficient in the water, and it should be the last of your worries once you get out, you know, two mile swims in the bay, water rescues, pool comp, knot-tying should be flawless once you get out there I hope.
2:30
DF: So, you just mentioned a comfortable or confident base. Can you maybe give me your definition of that? It doesn't have to be precise, but I'm sure people will, set that as a benchmark for where they want to get at a bare minimum. And so, kind of maybe give me a picture of what that means to you.
2:43
DK: It's very easy to identify who is scared or uncomfortable in the water from day one. If you're swimming with big eyes, panic mode, just trying to find the wall as fast as you can, that's wrong. You know, slow things down. You should be able to swim, you know, longer distances. You don't need to have a ton of speed, but your 500-yard times should hopefully be under that ten minute, you know, nine minute base to be good and comfortable in the water. If you're over eleven, twelve minutes, you're going to struggle significantly in the pool evolutions that take place here.
3:24
DF: So, that's a pretty good number then. People can actually kind of have a metric for themself to say, you know, "Where I'm at in this spectrum in terms of comfortability." Obviously, I think with the type of instruction you can provide in your other teammates, obviously people can get much better and much more comfortable, especially with additional exposure, but that's a good place for them to start is that what you're sa(continued)
8 NOV 2018 · Naval Special Warfare is always looking for hard-charging, motivated applicants, including Sailors already serving in the Fleet. We talked with a SEAL Officer whose job is to pick the best applicants from the "Big Navy" for a career in NSW. For more information visit www.sealswcc.com
Sound ups:
The only easy day was yesterday...
DF: Welcome to, "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday," the official Navy SEAL podcast.
DF: Naval Special Warfare is always looking for hard-charging, motivated applicants from all communities. However, specific attention is paid to existing Navy sailors wanting to convert from a career-path in the "Big Navy" to one in Naval Special Warfare. I'm Daniel Fletcher. Today I speak with the Special Operations Enlisted Community Manager, a SEAL Officer, to find out more about the conversion process.
00:46
DF: First, thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. I know you're a busy person. You have an important job; you have a lot of stuff going on. I think the information that you'll be able to give us will be really valuable to people coming through the pipeline, so thank you first and foremost. Tell us a little bit about your roles and responsibilities, kind of your baseline areas of focus.
01:01
ECM: I'm a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy. I'm an 1130 Designator, that's a SEAL Special Warfare Officer. I'm currently the NSW Enlisted Community Manager. This is typically like on O4, O5 SEAL assigned to the Bureau of Personnel. We advise the Commander at NPC and staff on SEAL enlisted personnel matters, so anything from policies to planning, to trying to develop incentives to keep people in the Navy or join the Navy.
01:31
DF: Correct me if I'm wrong here, you're kind of a strategic piece in keeping the right numbers and types of personnel coming into the pipeline to keep mission capabilities where they need to be?
01:40
ECM: Numbers is certainly a big part of it. We also focus on the quality and putting everything together, whether it's the recruiting mission, the training at the Naval Special Warfare Center. We don't necessarily oversee that, but we're definitely influential (DF: A big part of it) in all the decisions.
01:57
DF: One of the main reasons why we're here is to talk about the specific selection and the draft process. Just to give people an idea of some of the stuff that might be a little intangible that kind of contributes to whether they make it through or not, maybe if you could speak to that a little bit and give us a little bit of your insight of some of the things that might be a little bit overlooked in terms of what you're looking for in these candidates.
02:18
ECM: We use what we call the whole person approach, so we look at the candidate completely. Everything that we know about the candidate, everything that's put into the package, we assess, and no one single factor is going to disqualify that person. We take what we're seeing of the candidate, and we compare it to what our needs are. We have certain needs with year groups to correct inventory shortfalls… (DF: When you say inventory, sorry to cut you off, you're talking about personnel?) Right, absolutely. So, when we're short on year, whether that's not enough people made it through BUD/S or the SWCC schoolhouse, we'll look to make up those shortfalls by bringing people that are already in the Navy, fleet sailors.
02:58
DF: Are there any areas of the process that you think candidates might overlook as being more important than they might realize in terms of this whole person approach?
03:07
ECM: No, I think a lot of stuff that make people a good sailor out of the Navy is the same things we're looking for them to make good SEALs, and that's things like being a good team player, being a leader within their organization and sustained superior performance. And we use the standard Navy assessments to, to evaluate that, so things like their evaluation reports that they get f(continued)
8 NOV 2018 · Navy SEAL and SWCC candidates get a taste of NSW training at boot camp. The Dive Motivators begin the process of familiarization -- and selection -- of candidates for the long training pipeline ahead of them. Reality sets in quickly. Listen as we talk with a SEAL Master Chief. Find out more at www.sealswcc.com
Sound ups:
"you have to pay attention to detail and you have to give it your maximum effort"
"Division, attention!…"
DF: Welcome to, "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday," the official Navy SEALs podcast.
DF: Navy boot camp is the first place Special Warfare recruits will receive unique training. It starts early, with what they call "Dive Motivation." This is where special warfare candidates perform their morning workout. I'm Daniel Fletcher, today I speak with Dive Motivator, SEAL Master Chief Steve Drum to get some personal advice about recruit fitness. From mental performance and focus to the physical standards test.
00:43
DF: Well, first of all, thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. I know you have a busy schedule. Your words of wisdom will be really appreciated and I think really nice insight for people that are going through this process.
00:53
SD: Sure, my pleasure.
00:54
DF: Tell us a little bit about what you do here on a regular basis. Your main priorities and responsibilities briefly, that would be a great start.
01:00
SD: Within our commodity, we have all of the Warrior Challenge programs, so SEAL, SWCC, Diver, EOD and Air Rescue. And so what we do here is we facilitate a progressive workout schedule to consist of roughly 26 workouts. About half of them are going to be progressive swim workouts, and the other half are going to be progressive run workouts. After you show up here at boot camp, and you pass the PST. Then you are going to be put into a schedule where you're going to start off with a three-mile run some basic, fundamental swimming drills to get stroke development down and things like that, and it's all just to get you further comfortable in the water. It's all to get you some more mileage and time on your feet okay, but it's important to note that we're here to facilitate these workouts, but dive motivator training here is subordinate to the overall training that you receive at boot camp. You're here to be a basically trained sailor. That's front and foremost here. Official Naval Special Warfare and NSO programs officially start when you graduate boot camp. That said, we're here to make sure that you're as prepared as you can for the next phase in the pipeline. So, we're here to give you not just the workouts but give you mentoring, turn the heat up on you a little bit to ensure that you're able to collaborate with your shipmates to the left and right of you to be able to buy into something greater than self. That you're able to get along, and you're able to buy into the mission that we have here.
02:31
DF: You're kind of a bridge in terms of the fitness piece between people taking their initial PST and then arriving at BUD/S if they make it that far? Is that fair, or is that not accurate?
02:40
SD: We're going to make sure that when you show up, it's a different animal than when you were probably taking the PST back with your mentors and your coordinators. This is why we always advise that you have a good cushion when you show up here at RTC.
2:53
DF: When you say cushion, you mean a baseline fitness level, or what do you mean by that?
2:56
SD: If you are leaving at your 15-day PST, and you're just doing the bare minimums, it's going to be hard here for the following reasons. A: you're going from, unless you worked a really difficult job right before you shipped, you're going to go from a minimal amount of stress, plenty of sleep, good nutrition, and maybe some of these guys, two workouts a day, and you're going to come over here, and you're not going to get the sleep, you're not going to get the high quality food, you're going to (continued)
20 SEP 2018 · Physical and mental health is important to the recruiting process for SPECWAR candidates. We spoke with an expert at the Navy's Recruit Training Command to find out how Navy SEAL and SWCC candidates can stay on top of their game. For more info check out www.sealswcc.com.
Sound ups:
"You have to pay attention to detail and you have to give it your maximum effort"
"Division, attention!…"
Daniel Fletcher: Welcome to "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday," the official Navy SEAL podcast.
00:15
DF: Mental and physical health is essential to a successful trip through Navy Boot Camp, even more so for NSW candidates. I'm Daniel Fletcher. As we continue our boot camp series from Great Lakes, Illinois, we sit down with medical liaison for crew training command, Chief Hospital Corpsman Jeff Ramirez. We answer some common questions about recruit medical history, mental health, medications, and preventative care. Listen up.
…music continues
00:44
DF: Thanks for sitting down with us for one, and if you could just briefly talk about what you do here that would be a great start.
00:49
JR: I deal with all medical related issues, in terms of recruit appointments, any injuries that we have here going to network hospitals, to the federal healthcare center, outsourced down to Chicago. Any questionable areas that the doctors have that they need to liaison with the RDCs here in terms of missed appointments or recruits not eating enough, or even if they feel like they're getting too much exercise, because there's instances where we start breaking some recruits down that are couch potatoes, and then they get over here, and they learn right away that it's a little different here.
01:21
DF: What types of tests or any type of screening do you administer, or is that not part of your position?
1:28
JR: So, that's not part of my position here. So, I deal with the docs, and it's going to range from mental health to your physical therapy, your preventative meds and then general, sick hall, but it's every illness or injury or anything medical related between RTC and the providers.
01:46
DF: Okay. Are there any ailments or injuries that you see specifically for the 800 guys that are coming through the pipeline here?
01:51
JR: 800 guys... I would say the biggest injuries that I see would be shin splints, stress fractures and not getting enough nutrients. Rhabdo, Rhabdomyolysis. We'll see that. They didn't train for the pipeline before they got here. So, when they're doing the DIVEMO PT, their body is breaking it down. (DF: Pretty severe.) Their muscles are breaking it down pretty severe, yes.
02:13
DF: I guess that is kind of a form of a failed test so to speak, if someone's put in a position physically where their body is not holding up. Are there any other specific medical tests that are given periodically or on a routine basis that you see NSW candidates having issues with?
02:30
JR: Special physicals. They'll go to special physicals. They'll answer the questionnaires there, go through their overall history to see if there's anything that raises any red flags. In terms of anything periodic, that doesn't happen unless they, they choose to go to sick hall. You know, if they're having some issues that RDCs say they see, any 800, any recruit really walking around with limps or looking distressed or sick, we're going to send them to sick hall regardless. You'll get your labs drawn over there, or if you've got to go to bone density scan or X-rays. A lot of 800s, you know, they really want to be here most of them, so it's kind of hard to get them to go to medical sometimes. So it's, you know, its our responsibility, and I get a lot of phone calls about that, "Hey, I have a recruit that's kind of been limping around. He says he's okay, but, however, my spidey senses are telling me he probably needs to get seen." Then we'll go ahead and send him in there and usually find out something else.
03:22
DF: If there'(continued)
19 SEP 2018 · To be a Navy SEAL or SWCC, you must first be in the NAVY. The first stop in the training pipeline is Recruit Training Command, known informally as "boot camp." In this episode we visit RTC and learn more about boot camp for NSW candidates.
DANIEL FLETCHER: To become a Navy SEAL or SWCC you must first learn to be a sailor. This essential process starts at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois. First utilized in 1911 and home to the United States Navy Boot Camp. This, is where it all starts.
Sound Ups:
"you have to pay attention to detail and you have to give it your maximum effort"
"Division, attention!…"
…music continues
DF: Welcome to The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, the official Navy SEAL podcast. Every aspect of a Navy recruit's life is scheduled, categorized, and inspected. There are rules and standards for how the toilet paper, toothbrushes, and T-shirts are stored to how they eat, dress, walk, and speak. I'm Daniel Fletcher. Over the next few episodes you'll hear from a select group of people responsible for on-boarding NSW candidates into the Navy. Today I speak with Chief Petty Officer William Roberts, one of the Recruit Division Commanders conducting this eight-week orientation.
01:00
DF: This podcast is meant specifically for people in the SEAL/SWCC pipeline. For a minute, if you could talk a little bit about how those candidates are treated or the process. Maybe, is it different than people that are off the street joining the "Big Navy?"
01:15
WR: As an RDC, which is a short term for Recruit Division Commander, we're just responsible for how ever many recruits come in. It doesn't matter if it's 105 recruits, 60-something recruits. We're just responsible for their day-to-day care and their day-to-day wellbeing from the time they arrive to the date of departure. We take care of when they eat, when they sleep, what training they need, where they have to go, when they have to be there, how they fold their clothes. We train all of that from beginning to end, from day of arrival to date of departure.
01:44
WR: For anyone that's in what we call 800 Divisions, which are your SEALs and SWCC recruits or candidates, boot camp is not any different for them than it is for anybody else. There's a few other requirements in regards to what we call Dive Motivation PT that they have to participate in on a daily basis Monday through Friday. Outside of that, the only difference here is that there is an expectation that they are going to be better than those that are coming in for "Big Navy" just "Regular Navy" as we call it. There's an expectation that they're going to perform a whole lot better than those recruits, so there's, for lack of better terms, a bull's eye on their back. Everybody's gunning for them; all the other RDCs are gunning for them. Staff, not necessarily gunning for them, but every simple mistake they make, it's highlighted because they're what's called an 800 Recruit.
02:36
DF: So the 800 Recruits coming in here, they have a higher expectation of themselves as well and that they're going to be held to a higher standard later on through their employment with the Navy.
02:47
WR: Definitely. The idea is that they come here, they know why they're here as far as being in the Navy. The Regular "Nav" is more, "I didn't have a choice. There was nothing else left for me to do. I don't know what I want to do, so this is just the option for me to try right now." Whereas in SEALs and SWCCs, they kind of know they're signing up to put their lives on the line. They...know... that's what they're going to do barring that they make it through the training pipeline.
03:13
DF: Right. Right. Yeah, I think a lot of people think that if you want to become a SEAL, you go to Coronado, you go to BUD/S, and you become a SEAL, and they kind of skip over the process of basic training or Navy recruitment process. Probably do a lot of reading about Navy SEALs and the BUD/S training and(continued)
4 SEP 2018 · The open water can be deadly, and Navy SEALs and SWCC must master this unpredictable element to make it their ally. This episode explains NSW's secret technique: the Combat Sidestroke. More info can be found at www.SEALSWCC.com.
Music Intro
00:20
The open water can be both deadly and unforgiving. Before sailors become SEALs or SWCC, they must demonstrate mastery of this punishing and unpredictable element; making it their most valuable ally. I'm Daniel Fletcher, today we speak with aquatics expert Dan Kish at the Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School. We discuss the best practices, tools and techniques used exclusively by Navy SEAL or SWCC candidates and operators, particularly the Combat Sidestroke. Let's DIVE in.
00:53
DF: For starters, thank you for taking the time. Your expertise is super important to be able to share with as many people as possible that are trying to get successfully through this program. For starters, if you can just go ahead and spend a little bit of time talking about your role here in Naval Special Warfare, and then we can take it from there.
01:06
DK: Sounds good. My name's Dan. I am one of the physical training leaders here at Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School, and my main point of focus is the aquatic side. So, it's much more than just swimming. We spend a lot of time on treading, water rescue, pool comp skills. My job is to help make the candidates as comfortable and confident in the water over the eight weeks here and plan and execute all the workouts safely to the highest standard that we expect of them.
01:38
DF: The water aspect of, of kind of the initial exposure to the standards of the, the physical standards test is usually where a lot of people I think are at their weakest. At least most people have not been exposed to the level of swimming that is needed, required to be able to make it in the program or even kind of start training. So, I think that your information will be really valuable for a lot of people listening. Maybe if you could just start off with talking just a little bit about your background in aquatics. I'm guessing that you were a swimmer, or you were involved in some sort of water sports before you came into the program.
02:11
DK: So, correct. I always loved being in the water. I was that kid you couldn't get me out of the pool, the lake growing up. I got pretty good at swimming, so I swam, you know, the aquatic kid, high school, club, college, a little bit of postgraduate swimming, so all the staff members are Division 1 swimmers, collegiate swimmers. Did some postgraduate swimming, was good, got into coaching, became successful at that, and I've been here since class 297, so just over five years now, and I love it. We get all walks of life from kids that have barely seen a pool, barely passed the PST to get in, to Olympic Gold Medalists and everything in between there, so all walks of life come through, and kids just want to learn, get better in the water, but water is majority of time their weakest, you know, environment to be in. We're humans. We don't belong in the water at all, and a lot of kids come to prep not prepped for what we're about to do here.
03:11
DF: The focus of this episode is the Combat Sidestroke, and we'll get to that in just a second. You mentioned a couple other areas that your focus is on, whether it's treading water and stuff like that. Are there areas that maybe other than the Combat Sidestroke that people should maybe investigate in addition to that stroke specifically to at least kind of get themself familiar with?
03:32
DK: Absolutely. Besides just swimming the Combat Sidestroke, we swim slick, so without fins on and then with fins on. We also train freestyle almost every day, and we also swim breaststroke here, so they all are great assets to know and learn. The better you are at all the strokes, the better you'll be at any one. We'll even throw some butterfly just for fun in there as well(continued)
20 JUL 2018 · Hydration and blood sugar are crucial during intense physical training. Our staff nutrition expert explains how a solid eating plan may be the key to avoid training failure. For more go to www.SEALSWCC.com.
00:00:03
The only easy day was yesterday. (Intro)
00:00:22
DF Intro:
What we put in our bodies affects everything. Today we sit down to talk with a Navy SEAL and SWCC nutritionist.
You'll hear from my colleague, Angie Giovannini as she speaks with Justin Robinson about the importance of nutrition during and after training.
00:00:38
AG: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us a little bit about a really important pillar of training, which is nutrition. If we could just start out with you giving us a little bit of your background and how that fits into your work here at Naval Special Warfare. That would be really helpful.
00:00:52
JR: Great, well I'm happy to be here, too. I've been working at this Center, AKA the schoolhouse, for the last two and a half years. So, I started in June of 2015. Before that, was teaching college for a year, was in a similar position to this with an Army unit for a couple weeks before the government that had some cuts that came down, so it's nice to be back into that system. Prior to that, I worked in professional baseball. I did a dual undergraduate in kinesiology and nutrition, and then my master's degree is in kinesiology as well. I am a registered dietician and board certified specialist in sports dietetics, which I know is a mouthful, but…it's the sports nutrition credential for dieticians.
00:01:38
AG: And so what drew you to Naval Special Warfare? How does that all fit in here?
00:01:41
JR: Really just working with people who are highly motivated. I've done the general training. I've done the personal training, I've done the general nutrition counseling, worked in the hospitals, and that's great. You can make an impact, but I feel I'm at my best when I'm working with people who are highly motivated, people who will push me to do more research, to read more articles so I can come back to them and provide them with resources and information that will improve their careers, try to add some longevity to their careers. So, that's probably the most, is highly, highly motivated population.
00:02:17
AG: And so, just to start out, let's talk about how important nutrition is. Why is this something we're even talking about today?
00:02:23
JR: Great question. Everybody's got to eat. I look at it this way, that nutrition won't be necessarily the difference maker. Having a solid nutrition program will not make you make it through this training pipeline. However, poor nutrition can be the reason that you don't make it. So, we definitely see early on, in the early parts of phase and early parts of training when the intensity level is very high, we see low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. We see dehydration, we see heat injuries, and so, the individuals coming through the pipeline, the students who aren't hydrating, who aren't fueling high enough are going to get that low blood sugar, and it doesn't matter how motivated you are, how fit you are, how strong you are, if you have low blood sugar, you can't perform. And so, I like to say that it won't be the reason you make it through, but it absolutely can be the reason that you don't, so I want to eliminate that.
00:03:19
AG: Okay, on the flipside, there's certain diets and certain eating choices that you make that can make you perform at your best… (JR: Absolutely) So, what are some things that you would recommend?
00:03:31
JR: So, it's funny because especially now with so many different diet plans being very popular, it's almost like a dichotomy. You have the vegans over here saying that plant-based is the only way to eat, and it makes you healthy, etc., etc. And on the other side, you have more of the carnivores, whole 30, Paleo and even the ketogenic crowd, who's saying, "No, no, no, this is the onl(continued)
Our mission is to explain the training and selection process, requirements, standards and accomplishments of Naval Special Warfare.
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