Summer 2023 - 29

"
I TRAINED HARD, WENT IN WITH A
GAME PLAN, EXECUTED THAT GAME
PLAN, AND UTILIZED A VARIETY OF
HUMAN PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION
(HPO) TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES ...
"
I can see the water below me in my peripheral
vision but know better than to focus down
there too much. I force my face into a façade of
confidence trying to convey outwardly to the
Ranger Instructors (RIs) that I'm not a soft target.
I'm unbreakable. Inwardly, I know that's a lie. The
beam sways in the wind and it bounces as other
Ranger students in front of me and behind me
climb the ladder and walk along the beam.
I force my mind to stay on task. I remind myself
of the training I've done to get here-hours spent
with a heavy ruck early in the morning, in the
pool, on the track, in the gym, studying. I'm in the
Best Ranger Competition (BRC) class of the U.S.
Army Ranger School. This means that if I recycle
at all, I'll have to wait six-to-eight weeks until I
get to continue with another class, instead of the
normal one-week recycling. Only about 20% of
Ranger students go " 62 and through " with no
recycling, according to a 2015 NPR article by
Laura Wagner.
This isn't an option for me, though. My wife is
pregnant with our third son and will be delivering
him while I'm in Mountain Phase. A recycle means
she is stuck being a single mom for even longer
and I'm stuck without meeting my baby boy.
" Burn the boats, " I remind myself. It's the mantra
I've repeated to myself in training. Going home
without my tab isn't an option. I remember to
breathe. I use a psychological sigh: deep inhale,
second inhale for even more air, then slow exhale
through my mouth that takes about twice as long
as the inhale did. I continue to do this while I focus
on keeping my core engaged and knees slightly
bent to fight the swaying beam and wind in order
to maintain my balance. I'm stressed to the max.
Inwardly, I'm a ball of nerves. Outwardly,
though, I'm Mr. Cool, Calm, and Collected. " Is that
all you've got, Ranger School? "
I made it through that experience along
with countless other terrifying and miserable
experiences during my 62 days in Ranger School.
There's nothing special about me or the effort I
put forth to accomplish this. I trained hard, went
in with a game plan, executed that game plan,
and utilized a variety of Human Performance
Optimization (HPO) tools and techniques that
are the bread and butter of what I do as a Mental
Readiness Director on the Holistic Health and
Fitness (H2F) team in the U.S. Army. I'm an
Active-Duty Army Occupational Therapist and
my primary areas of expertise on the H2F team
are Mental or Cognitive Readiness and Sleep.
How do you prepare for an experience like
Ranger School, specifically in the Mental and
Sleep Readiness domains? I was under enormous
tacticaltrainingandconditioning.com | 29
http://www.tacticaltrainingandconditioning.com
Summer 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Summer 2023
