{"id":849,"date":"2019-11-06T20:52:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T01:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/?p=849"},"modified":"2022-01-27T11:00:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T16:00:55","slug":"working-with-special-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/working-with-special-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"Working with Special Forces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From elite high performance\nsport to working with Canadian Special Operation Forces. Dale works with\nprofessionals who train because it can be a matter of life or death. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSCA – How did you get your\nfirst job working tactical forces individuals? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been my 10th year working within the field of high performance.\nI began my career working part-time for the Queen\u2019s University Varsity Strength\nand Conditioning program where I was completing my undergraduate Bachelors of\nPhysical and Health Education.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as that first door opened in the performance world, I knew that\nwas exactly what I wanted to do. I spent the next decade seeking out the best\nand the brightest in the field and took every opportunity I could to learn from\nthem. I continued to take jobs that I thought would immerse me within\nenvironments where I could gain exposure, challenge my beliefs, and expand my\ncoaching toolbox. Having put in the hours and paying my dues, I was hired at\nYork University as a Strength and Conditioning Coach for their Varsity Strength\nand Conditioning program, and from there, I was led to the Canadian Sports\nInstitute Ontario (CSIO) as the head Strength and Conditioning Coach and\nEastern Hub Lead of Sport Science for Athletics Canada.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My career has cumulated to this point with my current role as Lead of\nStrength and Conditioning for Canadian Special Operations Force Units from\nPetawawa. This is my first professional experience working with a tactical\npopulation, where I have been able to bring my decade of coaching knowledge and\nnetwork in tow. I attribute my readiness to work within this area to two\nprimary factors:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Build a strong network of\nprofessionals you want to collaborate with and learn from   <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    For any young professional entering this field, I urge you to place a\npremium on developing your network. There are many passionate people in all\nareas of human performance, you can learn something from all of them. We are\nfortunate within this industry, few fields have so many people, who, if you make\nthe effort, are willing to share and help you along the way.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of my favourite quotations by Isaac Newton represents this\nperfectly; \u201cIf I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon shoulder\nof giants\u201d. I think it is important to make the distinction between online\nacquaintances and a real relationship. Your network is not how many followers\nyou have on twitter but the time you\u2019ve spent developing real relationships\nthrough learning, sharing and demonstrating that you care and value mentors and\ncolleague\u2019s time and expertise.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Because of the network I have throughout the sports system, my current opportunity was made available. This position gives me the chance to work with a group of passionate colleagues who had decided to leave sport to build something that had not been done before within the Canadian Special Operations community.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Capitalize the opportunities to learn and grow from all of my previous successes, lessons, and failures   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have had many successes and failures throughout my career. These\ngrowth and development opportunities allowed me to comfortably take this job\nand gave me the confidence and competence to succeed in this challenging\nenvironment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Even 5 years ago I would not have been prepared or mature enough to\nsucceed in this role. This doesn\u2019t mean others won\u2019t succeed at a younger age,\nnor is it intended to discourage young coaches from applying to any jobs that\nmay become available. But, in being honest with myself, I would have been challenged\nat a younger age to succeed in this environment, I needed to gain maturity in a\nvariety of environments with a wide variety of personalities to understand my\nstrengths, weaknesses and blind spots. The mistakes and lessons allowed me to\nbe able to handle the responsibilities of working with Canadian Special\nOperations personnel.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    CSCS – What Skills do you\nneed to be successful in this area? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Not unlike all coaching and human performance roles, the ability to\ninteract and connect with Special Forces Operators (SF Ops) within our group is\ncritical to any successes we might have. Trust, connection, and the ability to\nshow value are the only currencies we possess as performance practitioners.\nWhen it comes to working with SF Ops, the increased stakes make these values\n(connection, trust, value) the foundation of our decision-making process. This\nis achieved through:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Developed competency within\nyour given space <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      The SF Ops we work with are highly intelligent and invested in making decisions that allow them to do their job and survive, therefore whether they choose to listen to recommendations is largely dependent on their appraisal of our competency. In this sector, we will be questioned frequently and challenged (much more than in sport). For this reason, it is crucially important that as a performance practitioner working with SF Ops we possess a wide knowledge base on performance related subjects, keep current on what information they may have been exposed to, provide feedback when we understand a subject and defer to experts when we do not. The best way to destroy trust within this environment is to provide false information for the sake of trying to appear competent.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      2. Mature interpersonal skills   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Our SF Ops come from all walks of life, have overcome immense challenges and as a result have a wide variety of personalities. Putting a priority on developing mature interpersonal skills allows members of our High Performance cell (HP cell) to serve the SF Op who choose to put their life on the line for others and their trust in us. By developing a mature ego and understanding of our Operators’ life demands we can also, within the HP cell, develop the humility and understanding that our role in developing their physical competencies and capacities, while important, is only a minor piece of what makes an SF Ops successful.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      3. Dynamic planning and flexibility <\/p>\n\n\n\n

       We all know the dynamic nature of sport, the best-laid plans can change at the drop of a hat, in Special Operations this is no exception flexibility is central to Canadian Special Operation Forces description \u201cHigh-readiness organization, able to deploy special operation forces on very short notice\u201d (Canada.gov.ca). Individuals who require highly structured environments, consistent schedules, and rigid plans will have a difficult time accepting and excelling in this environment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      4. Move past dogmatic training philosophies <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Many of our SF Ops have a high training age and have been high\nperforming for many years. Therefore, many of the SF Ops we work with have\nextensive experience in a wide variety of training methodologies and are\nwell-read in health and human performance. Within this field, you need to\nrespect what may have worked for others in the past. This will challenge you to\nremove any dogmatic pedagogy around how someone \u201cshould\u201d train, you must become\neducated and well versed in working with a variety of training theories and\nbeliefs. Understanding how powerlifting, strongman, CrossFit training, etc. can\nbe intelligently modified to fit our SF Ops\u2019 needs are critical to buy-in and\ngaining access. After time, gaining trust and demonstrating competence we\nimplement incremental changes in programming to ensure sustainability,\nlongevity, and expanding their bandwidth.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      CSCA – What are 1-2 of the\ndifferences between roles in this area compared to previous S&C jobs you\nhave had? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      There are similarities in the preparation of Athletes and SF Ops, but it\nis not the same; SF Ops, like athletes, are high achievers within their realm\nof expertise, they can execute tasks the average individual could never dream\nof. However, Operators are not athletes, they have athletic traits, they\nexpress impressive physical capacities and exceptional skills but equating the\ntwo is something that stunts the progression of Human Performance in tactical\npopulations. While our SF Ops may cycle through periods of \u201chigh readiness\u201d\nthey have no \u201cseason\u201d, an Operator must always be prepared at a moment\u2019s notice\nto be deployed to any location and effectively execute a potentially \u201cunknown\u201d\ntask.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      By necessity, this affects the way we prepare them. If our job as human\nperformance practitioners is to simultaneously improve the human weapon system\nand increased longevity of the SF Ops, then we have to escape the dogmatic\nthinking that preparing high performing SF Ops is equivalent to athlete\npreparation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      During varying periods of an athlete\u2019s preparation cycle, they will\nprepare in ways that move them across the health vs. performance spectrum, by\nnecessity there will be periods of increased risk to augment performance, this\nis followed by periods biased towards prioritizing health, rest and\nrestoration. How a performance team manages this shift is akin to the natural\ncycle of athletic preparation; intensification, peaking, recovery. With SF Ops\nno such cycle exists because no season is present, therefore how the\nperformance team and individual SF Ops manage their micro undulations of stress\nand recovery is the critical factor to providing an opportunity for the\nOperator to have a long successful career.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      All our programming is centered around longevity, sustainability,\naccessibility of skill and establishing a broad operational bandwidth. My\nprevious job in track and field was centered around specialization, preparing\nan individual to execute a specific task at a world-class level 4-6 times per\nyear.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      SF Ops by necessity are master generalists, they succeed on a wide\nvariety of task requirements under an ever-changing environment. Because there\nis no defined \u201ccompetition\u201d it is a challenge to benchmark an Operator\u2019s\nprogress. We monitor our Operators through many of the traditional methods\nutilized in sport performance but without a period where you and the Operator\ncan assess progress in training it can quickly turn into simply working out, or\npreparation without purpose.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      To help combat this we try to develop \u201cfunctional\u201d tests and\nopportunities for unit members to express their fitness. Several times\nthroughout the year we attempt to create challenging environments for our\nmembers to demonstrate their abilities, this is usually centered around some\nform of team challenge involving both physical capacities and skill-based\ncompetencies. This artificial competition allows us to improve cohesiveness and\nprovides individuals the confidence that the training they have engaged in has\nprepared them to execute physically diverse and demanding tasks on\ndemand.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The variability of our SF Ops; The average age and variety of life\nexperiences of the individuals I now work with is another major difference from\nmy previous job. In my previous roles, most athletes I worked with were 18-30\n(predominantly under 25). The cohort of individuals I now work with vary from\n22 years old to over 50 years old. This provides challenges to applying a\nconsistent approach across our population. The aging SF Operator has many\ndifferent considerations than an individual freshly coming off course. Life,\nfamily, injury and work requirements of SF Operators with years of service are\nmuch different than anything I\u2019ve experienced previously with collegiate,\nprofessional or amateur athletes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The number of considerations that need to be accounted for when\ndeveloping a program is vast and decisions around efficiencies and longevity\nmust trump all. It is not unusual for some of our SF Operators to have\nschedules that are full for 12+ hours of the day and, in these cases\noptimization is king, critical windows of trainability can be\nshort.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Working with a more mature population has also provided the opportunity\nto develop deep friendships with the SF Operators I work with. Many of my\ncurrent relationships are built around a two-way mentorship, the people I get\nto work with teaching me things daily, it is not as much a formal coach-athlete\nrelationship like I\u2019ve experienced in the past but a mutual exchange of\nknowledge, ideas, and experience.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      CSCA – How do you upskill\nyour knowledge and network as an S&C coach? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      We are now in a time where knowledge is abundantly available to young\naspiring strength coaches. There is so much knowledge available that it becomes\ndifficult to develop an effective lens to filter all the information the\ninternet has to offer. Establishing your core principles as a Strength and\nConditioning Coach will help establish your \u201cnorth star\u201d with regards to\npreparing others for performance.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Establishing your core principles and values should come through\npersonal experience, trusted mentors and principle-based material. Physical preparation\nis complex but not complicated, establishing a few core principles can\neffectively guide your practice.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Once you have established your core principles you can take the first\nstep to upskilling your knowledge and network. To do this you must effectively\ndevelop a system to identify your pressure points, weaknesses, and blind spots.\nThrough regular reflection and an honest review process, you can effectively\nidentify the areas where you can benefit from skill development. Getting\nregular honest feedback from peers and mentors will also help this process.\nOnce you have established a strategic needs analysis for your professional life\nyou can effectively develop a plan, this will then drive your professional\ndevelopment and networking efforts.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      We are lucky in Canada; we have such a strong network of world-class\nperformance practitioners throughout a wide variety of organizations that are\nwilling to help anybody who reaches out. I believe that this is a real strength\nof our Canadian system, it is encouraging that we have individuals who have\ncreated organizations like the CSCA as a vehicle to connect professionals\nacross this country. To anyone that is looking to have a career in this field\nor is facing a challenge they are struggling to overcome, I encourage you to\nreach out to anyone of the individuals within this network, I guarantee if you\nshow passion for this field they will readily help you to the best of their\nabilities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      CSCA – What advice do you\ngive individuals just entering the field who desire to work in the same area as\nyou? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It does not matter which area of performance you want to work in; sport,\ntactical, health or wellness, your first step to having a successful career is\nto develop your coaching skills. I encourage anyone new to this field to take\nevery opportunity available to develop their toolbox as a coach, it is a really\nspecial thing to have someone trust you with their goals, aspirations and the\nopportunity to guide them through whatever their dreams might be.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      While coaching has many technical components to it, it is the ability to\nconnect and develop trust that will set you apart as a coach. When I am hiring\nsomeone, I want to see that they have demonstrated the ability to coach a wide\nvariety of individuals, have success in a variety of contexts and have\ndemonstrated the ability to learn. Because of the high performance setting in\ntactical populations is relatively new we currently draw our hires\npredominantly from the sport performance world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      As a young coach don\u2019t worry about trying to get tactical specific\nexperience, find the best opportunities to coach as many individuals as you can\nand surround yourself with the best coaches available   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The final piece of advice that I would give to anyone who has a desire\nto work in this area is to make it your mantra to be a solution-based\npractitioner. Curiosity is valuable, it will drive innovation but in the end,\nthe individuals and groups we work with have hired us to help solve their\nperformance related problems.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Just like training methodologies, performance related issues are often\ncomplex but not complicated, we often lose sight of this by complicating the\nperformance enhancement process. You will always be a valuable asset to your\nteam if you keep solving performance related problems, people will always make\ntime and resources for someone who helps alleviate their road blocks, pressure\npoints, and obstacles. At the heart of it, all we do is build relationships and\nwork to solve problems.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      From elite high performance sport to working with Canadian Special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":2453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianstrengthca.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}