swcc

A Treading Water Guide for SOF Selection Candidates

By Craig Weller / August 2, 2021 / 0 Comments

Being comfortable in the water is a generalized skill, but treading water efficiently is a very specific essential skill in SOF selection. There’s a right way and a wrong way.  Treading with fins is straightforward and doesn’t require much discussion. It’s more about physical endurance than technique, as long as you have the basics of […]

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Underwater Knot Tying Building the Elite

Underwater Knot Tying

By Craig Weller / July 26, 2021 / 0 Comments

Underwater Knot Tying Most maritime special operations programs involve some form of underwater knot tying. This is a way of testing your ability to execute a useful skill (quickly tying a knot) while simultaneously demonstrating another skill (staying calm in the water).  It’s important to learn the knots that are required of you in advance […]

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Water competency training in swimming pool

Water Confidence Training

By Craig Weller / July 6, 2021 / 2 Comments

Water-based events in SOF selection are ruthlessly effective ways to reveal the interaction between mind and body. To a much greater extent than with things like running or doing lots of pushups, you can’t solve problems in the water by just physically trying harder. You have to try better, and this is highly dependent on […]

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A Pair of Boots

By Craig Weller / January 30, 2021 / 3 Comments

I was still 17 when I enlisted in the Navy. My parents had to sign the enlistment paperwork for me since I wasn’t of legal age. This wasn’t without some resistance. I could have become a doctor. Or a lawyer. These are the two jobs that are supposed to be in your future when you’re […]

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Attention

By Craig Weller / April 27, 2020 / 0 Comments

We were standing in ranks on the beach in Coronado, California, in front of the Naval Special Warfare Center. We were about to start an open-ocean swim, and each student was being inspected. Along with the mask and fins, we each carried an SRK dive knife, emergency flares and a UDT life vest. The vests […]

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Hardiness personality components in special operations forces

Commitment, Control, and Challenge: How Hardiness Helps Special Operators Succeed

By Craig Weller / March 21, 2020 / 3 Comments

Bodies can be remarkably strong. They’re hard to truly break, and – given the right circumstances – easy to repair. Bodies of SOF candidates are even stronger. So, it should be no surprise that people usually fail out of selection not because of physical factors, but mental ones. The mind breaks before the body. Physical […]

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You Will Have Your Waterloo

By Craig Weller / January 21, 2020 / 0 Comments

By: Craig Weller In the early 2000’s, the Naval Special Warfare program for students who have been successfully screened into a special program and are awaiting formal training was called SCRUFT Duty. It stands for Screened Candidate Reported and Undergoing Physical Training.  I spent six months in SCRUFTLand. We got up at three in the […]

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