No New Wheel Needed for the Tactical Athlete

I talk to people every day about fitness, specifically Soldiers preparing for competitions, selections, or for their profession. 

Just about every day, those conversations are the same. They revolve around stress management, work-life-training balance, or last second changes to timelines and schedules. They often evolve into whatever the current fitness vernacular happens to be.

What about this protocol? This supplement? How much Zone 2 is too much? What is Zone 2 anyway? I heard I need 140 grams of carbs per hour, should we add it? Can I get stronger and faster at the same time? I feel fine, should I keep adding volume? I go to the field next week, how should we adjust?

The problems, concerns, limitations, and structures of tactical athletes are not as unique as we think. They may differ somewhat from our civilian counterparts, but for those of us still serving, they are largely the same.

We have training requirements to meet, maintenance to manage, and field exercises to execute. All demand our attention. All are required to keep our force the best in the world. The tradeoff is time and energy. These are commodities we often hope to invest in our fitness. As that reality sets in, some walk away from training altogether because it feels less valuable when consistency fades.

While our environment may be different, the fitness we seek is not.

I often listen to and read work about training “tactical athletes,” and it often feels like we are trying to reinvent the wheel. The truth is, the wheel has already been built.

Look no further than the Winter Olympics, where biathletes demonstrate that high intensity output and world class marksmanship can coexist. Or a soccer pitch, where endurance and power collide across a season. Or even the niche world of multi day Fastest Known Time athletes, who cover hundreds of miles in a handful of days on minimal sleep and a backpack of calories.

The answers already exist. We just tend to overcomplicate them.

We are complex creatures, and effective training is individual. But the fundamentals remain. That is what this platform is about. The basics.

The conversations I have every day are nothing more than echoes of the same questions we all share. How do we prepare for a profession that demands physical excellence under imperfect conditions? For high performers, those questions are universal.

For a long time, we chose not to share these answers publicly. We assumed no one would read them. That changed when a probability professor posed a simple idea about how thoughts spread exponentially. You tell one person. They tell four. Those four tell four more. Suddenly, it matters.

We do not know if these ideas will spread. But within the Army, within a team of teams, the reality is they might.

If we can equip a team leader or squad leader with better knowledge on how to train, fight, and win, then maybe they can make a difference for their Soldiers. For me, that is enough.

In the posts to come, let’s make a few promises.

First, we will not try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we will rely on established research and proven examples from elite athletes to reinforce training fundamentals that work.

Second, we will do so in 800 words or less, because you are busy and because simple ideas travel further than complex ones.

Finally, we will apply everything through the lens of a squad leader responsible for the physical training of their Soldiers.

If you read something you disagree with, good. We improve through dialogue.

If you read something worth sharing, good. Pass it on and take the credit.

If you have a question, good. Send it our way and let us be your research team.

Together, we will build a more fit fighting force and maybe a smarter one too.