Special Forces Training and Selection | Green Beret Jon Hamilton | Tactical Dietitian Susan Lopez

Find Jon @infinite.grit on Instagram and YouTube

Transcript:

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:27:04
Susan
I get the extreme privilege of introducing you guys to one of my favorite accounts on Instagram. So today we're going to be talking to Jon Hamilton from Infinite Grit. Now, Jon is a former Green Beret who now helps coach other individuals who are looking to get into special operations. So today, he's going to share with us some of the things that you need to know in order to be successful at selection.

And once you get on a team, what do you need to do in order to show value as a new team guy? We're also going to be talking about body fat percentage. Is there an optimal body fat percentage that you should be trying to get to before heading off to selection? So stick around. We're going to talk about all of that.

I'm Susan Lopez, tactical dietician. And this is the Tactical Nutrition and Performance podcast where we help tactical athletes bridge the gap between nutrition metabolism, sleep, stress and training so that they can perform better and live longer. John, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you here and dive into this conversation today. Go ahead and tell our listeners today a little bit about yourself, and what is the mission and the vision behind Infinite Grit.

00:01:19:01 - 00:01:45:00
Jon
I got out of the Army in January of 2023. I was in 10th Group. originally started, you know, in the 1/60, went to selection, transferred over to S.F., all that good stuff. and it was, you know, I started it just, you know, answering questions. Guys would like, ask questions about programing, things like that. I've always been in the the fitness, I guess.

00:01:45:00 - 00:02:03:17
Jon
Obsessed with fitness. been a, you know, personal trainer for, for a while now. so I started just answering those types of questions, and then it kind of morphed into building the coaching program. and then brought some guys on, to teach at guys, and then one of them is going for his master's. The other one's going for his doctorate right now.

00:02:03:18 - 00:02:31:11
Jon
So, they're kind of like the, you know, like the subject matter experts in regards of strength and conditioning. and then I leverage, obviously, like the regular Nasm, personal training, things like that. But a lot of my experience, and going through the pipeline and what has worked well for me and what works best for our clients, so we pretty much, you know, every coach has their own methodology and little tweaks to programing.

00:02:31:11 - 00:02:53:16
Jon
So we do a lot of like split testing and, comparing what is working against, you know, different metrics for, individuals that fit those, those different avatars. and then just optimize the program as we go. So, yeah, it's kind of morphed into this whole team of coaches thing and, kind of something bigger than I expected it to be.

00:02:53:16 - 00:02:55:19
Jon
But, having a lot of fun with it.

00:02:55:21 - 00:03:10:17
Susan
And I think I saw on one of your recent posts that you do, maybe some in-person events and things as well. Is that something that you're starting up or, you know, part of the community that you're building? Is that something that you guys do pretty regularly?

00:03:10:19 - 00:03:35:05
Jon
Not yet, but it is something that we want to do. so I do in-person training just in the mornings, you know, in a limited capacity. but we've ran a couple in-person events, kind of one, like challenge event, and then we're leaning into more of the land navigation. So we had a couple guys from the community that were local, to Arizona and wanted some land navigation, you know, practice.

00:03:35:05 - 00:03:56:12
Jon
So I was like, why don't you guys just come up and we'll drive up to the mountains and go do some camping, grilling out, and then do some land, have practicals, kind of run them through what to expect at selection of like, you know, route planning, terrain association, things like that. but it's not something that we have turned into, kind of like a recurring event.

00:03:56:16 - 00:04:24:20
Jon
But in the future, we want to kind of travel around and offer those things first and foremost for the members of the community. So we kind of have like pockets of the members. we have, you know, quite a few, military personnel so we can travel around to different bases or the areas around those bases and then offer that, that land of maybe get a workout in some type of challenge and then kind of build the community through, you know, that in-person connection.

00:04:24:20 - 00:04:43:19
Jon
So that is something we want to lean into more in the future. haven't really had the the time yet. still figuring out how to manage everything without working 14 hours a day. But, once we once we got to get that thing nailed down, then we can kind of free it up and and then start incorporating those more.

00:04:43:21 - 00:05:05:14
Jon
we're actually down in Arizona, so, my wife and I are down in Arizona, and then our other coaches are down in, College Station, Texas. And then, they help coach the Texas A&M Ranger challenge team, over there. So, kind of bounce back and forth. And then next month, I'm, I'm headed out to Texas and going to spend some time out there.

00:05:05:16 - 00:05:14:09
Susan
so tell me a little bit about, like, what is your mission over an infinite grant? Like, what is your mission? What's kind of like your vision for what you're wanting to achieve?

00:05:14:11 - 00:05:51:05
Jon
Yeah. So, our most, our biggest goal is to enable individuals to, you know, live the life that they want, right? Whether that's in the military, whether that's in law enforcement, whether that's in, you know, firefighters, we have police officers both, you know, domestic international. we want them to be able to go out and perform their jobs at a high level without, you know, training the way that, you know, typically, people in those environments train where you start breaking down your body and then you get to the end of your career and your backs or your knees or things like that.

00:05:51:05 - 00:06:16:21
Jon
So our focus is on building strong, durable, you know, bodies that can withstand the, the pounding of these types of career fields, and then come out of them feeling good and able to live a fulfilling life. So that is our number one mission. you know, we have a lot of individuals who are training up or on the front side of SFA's safari, rasp, things like that.

00:06:16:23 - 00:06:43:06
Jon
I would say that makes up, about half of our, our clientele, the other half are in those environments. or, you know, coming out of them and wanting to just build up their overall durability. So, our focus is on strength and conditioning, but, a lot of guys that come to us have those nagging injuries and we really try to, get them to a point where they can perform at those high levels without those nagging injuries.

00:06:43:08 - 00:06:50:00
Susan
Yeah. And I know we have a couple of specific things that we were going to talk about today, but I'm going to throw a couple of adlib questions at you if you're cool.

00:06:50:00 - 00:06:51:10
Jon
Yeah, of course.

00:06:51:12 - 00:07:14:22
Susan
Yeah. So since we're on the topic of really trying to get guys from, you know, the beginning of their careers through mid-career and getting them through the end of their career or hopefully not, is not in poor shape when they come out. So they can kind of live the second half of their life. What are some common mistakes that you see these guys making at different stages of their career?

00:07:15:00 - 00:07:24:11
Susan
That leads to some of those situations where they're in rough shape. By the time that they're ready to retire or get out.

00:07:24:13 - 00:07:46:15
Jon
The number one thing that we see, two things. Number first, one is, putting way too much of an emphasis on lifting. obviously lifting is a big component. It's a big component of our, our training. But guys get fixated on hitting these max like one rep max numbers and trying to hit this 500 pound deadlift or 500 pounds squat.

00:07:46:17 - 00:08:12:09
Jon
when and the biggest thing that I preach to our community, you know, the people that follow us on social media is the gym is a tool that enhances our ability to perform outside of it. So, lifting, we want to, you know, obviously impose like lift heavier weights, impose a rule of progressive overload. But we don't want to get so fixated on trying to hit a specific number that we have a breakdown in form, and then end up developing injuries outside of it.

00:08:12:09 - 00:08:41:19
Jon
So that's the number one thing that I've seen, both going up through the preparation, going through selection and going through that, those environments that I see is guys trying to just do way too much, instead of just prioritizing consistency, prioritizing obviously, like full range of motion, even with the running and rocking like an actual progression. and then having a little bit of patience with their performance, instead of trying to just jump up in weight very quickly.

00:08:41:21 - 00:09:12:02
Jon
And that leads to a lot of breakdown that leads to a lot of injuries. And even in the NSFW environment, I'm sure you see it, you know, down in Ranger Regiment guys, you know, there's a lot of egos and there's a lot of ego lifting. it's cool that guys push each other and things like that, but when you're in an environment that requires you to perform at a high level physically, even a small injury that, you know, something, you strain something, something pops whatever, from putting way too much of an emphasis on hitting this one rep.

00:09:12:02 - 00:09:35:08
Jon
Max, you know, causes a lot of lasting injuries. And, you know, in these, these types of places where you're it's always go, go, go. You don't get a whole lot of downtime. Or sometimes it can be hard to kind of take a knee and let that heal up. So then the injury just, gets, worse over time and then obviously ends up developing further issues down the road.

00:09:35:08 - 00:10:02:04
Jon
So, that is one of the biggest things I see. The other is with the running side of it is just not having a progression. or guys train like they're in selection, just doing way too many miles, just putting up in way too much weight on their back. there and or just like forgoing the progression as a whole and then developing those nagging injuries associated with it, you know, shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, all that good stuff.

00:10:02:06 - 00:10:30:11
Jon
you know, we could get into the whole realm of lack of recovery and, and poor nutrition and things like that. but typically the, the one that is the most simple fix for those those guys is, changing their the way that they view preparing or training. and instead of getting fixated on those numbers, like understanding the purpose behind a specific session, and, and building off of that.

00:10:30:13 - 00:10:49:06
Jon
So that's probably the biggest one that we see, which is a mistake that I made when I was going through to when I was, you know, the 18 year old. I went to selection at 22. So when I first started preparing for selection, I did the same stuff, right? I, I increased by mileage too quickly, got Achilles tendonitis.

00:10:49:06 - 00:11:07:05
Jon
I tried to lift too heavy. hurt my back like I made all the mistakes. So one of our biggest goals is to just share the lessons learned and those insights from the mistakes that we made. So, you know, in the next generation, going through, doesn't make them and they can obviously perform much better than we did.

00:11:07:06 - 00:11:29:12
Susan
Yeah, I and I totally agree. I think there's, you know, every unit is different, but there's definitely going to be those individuals who, you know, they're they're going to be, really talented in one area or maybe focusing a lot of their time in one area. So like those one rep max deadlifts, but then maybe they're not really focusing on work capacity.

00:11:29:14 - 00:11:46:03
Susan
you know, and so there can be kind of sometimes an imbalance or I'll see it the opposite, where you have these, individuals who have like Justin, you know, great VO2 just running all the time, but then they don't have a lot of strength. And so as soon as you put them under load, they just fall apart.

00:11:46:05 - 00:12:11:10
Susan
Yeah. so I think mentioning that you really need that balance in your training is important. And I think for individuals who don't have a background in strength and conditioning, you know, if you're not working with someone who can smartly program that for you, it can be very easy to get into a state of overtraining. Yeah. Especially because when we look like at athletes at that level, you know, you're soft guys.

00:12:11:10 - 00:12:37:16
Susan
You Rangers, you're Green Berets, right? And even beyond that, it can be very easy to get into a state of overreaching or overtraining because unlike the gym path, it's very easy to outwork your calories. in a lot of, different training scenarios, you know, even just on a day to day basis, most of these guys who take their physical performance seriously are to be training probably twice a day.

00:12:37:18 - 00:13:09:05
Jon
Yeah, yeah. And that and you brought up a good point. outpacing your calories is another issue that we typically see is, once we get guys in and start looking at what they're eating, we often find that they're simply not eating enough. Right. that is a huge, issue, a very common issue, I would say. But yeah, in regards to the training aspect, I think it it breeds an environment where individuals think they need to be doing way more or way more complicated training than what it actually takes.

00:13:09:05 - 00:13:32:14
Jon
Whereas, you know, prioritizing consistency, training with intensity is the way to get there. So a lot of it is simplifying. and then kind of just removing that guesswork from, you know, the noise of, of social media and, and obviously the internet today saying like how much you need to be doing. And in reality, it's it's much more simple than, than most people really think.

00:13:32:16 - 00:13:53:10
Susan
Yeah. And the patients that you mentioned, that's really important. And then also just like the mental aspect of, you know, maybe you have gotten to a place where you're injured or you're dealing with some nagging injuries or worst case scenario, you have, you know, kind of a catastrophic injury or now maybe you're in a boot, you know, maybe you have a rod shoved up your leg.

00:13:53:12 - 00:14:17:10
Susan
you know, maybe you're having to have, like, multiple surgeries. And that can be really difficult for someone who has a high performance mindset, has never really had to pump the brakes before. And I think that it's really common also just to see people, either they either seem to do really well and buy into their rehab process, or they just kind of fall apart, right?

00:14:17:10 - 00:14:36:21
Susan
And for those individuals who experience that, you know what are some ways, you know, I don't know if you've experienced any injuries yourself, but, you know, what are some ways that somebody who's injured, maybe going through the rehab process can, can mentally kind of get themselves through that?

00:14:36:23 - 00:14:58:08
Jon
Yeah, I think the biggest one is demonstrating the patients that we talked about and understand that, there's going to be times, especially in a, in a, a time where you're going through a like rehabbing an injury. that taking time off is going to be the way in which you get to that level of performance that you want to reach the fastest.

00:14:58:10 - 00:15:16:20
Jon
so one thing I talk about a lot, and this is, you know, again, where I ended up when I started developing these injuries when I was that 20 year old kid. but I talk about something I call like the the cycle of the plateaued athlete. That's where someone starts to overtrain. They think they need to be doing all of this stuff.

00:15:17:02 - 00:15:37:00
Jon
They develop those nagging injuries, so they take a little bit of time off. not as much as they need. And then they feel like they're behind. So then they, they bump up the volume when they try to come back, or when the injury heals up a little bit way too quickly, and then the injury comes back and they just go through this, this cycle, staying at this plateau and their performance.

00:15:37:00 - 00:16:10:06
Jon
So it's super common. And I think having the patience and making sure that you actually heal the injuries, and then when you are reintroducing the running, working, lifting things like that, you go back into a progression instead of diving in where you currently were, thinking where you're thinking, or trying to be where you think you should be, and that's, you know, I think, the biggest thing that separates, you know, a mature athlete or tactical athlete from, someone that's a little bit more immature.

00:16:10:09 - 00:16:25:00
Jon
And the, the world of performance, is just understanding that progressions are the fastest way to get there. and long term, you know, performance and consistency is ultimately the only way to get to that high level of performance.

00:16:25:02 - 00:16:51:21
Susan
Yeah. And I'm just going to you know from a nutrition standpoint I'll just throw in a quick plug too. Because I see this a lot is when athletes will sometimes in intentionally then start under eating because they're concerned about their body fat increasing and seeming to not understand that hey like in this time, this is the time when you potentially need more calories, or at least at your maintenance calories.

00:16:51:23 - 00:17:13:05
Susan
Get that micronutrient, support in there and get that mineral support in there. so that whatever's happening in your body so it can heal, right? You know, if you don't have those nutrients coming in, you don't have those calories coming in to support the healing process, then it can seriously slow down your return to to duty.

00:17:13:07 - 00:17:40:07
Jon
Absolutely. Yeah. No, I completely agree. And I think from a, you know, in that space, again, especially, I'm primarily focusing on the younger demographic, going into or on the front side of those careers. I don't think there is a big enough focus on nutrition. guys typically trained very hard, and they take their training very serious, and then they kind of eat whatever they want.

00:17:40:09 - 00:17:59:22
Jon
and they have no idea really, even relatively, how much calories they're taking in where their maintenance calories roughly is, or what that even looks like. So, yeah, I think absolutely, from a recovery standpoint, it's a time to even get more serious about it. Then, you know, when you're, you're training and feeling good. So, yeah.

00:17:59:23 - 00:18:21:17
Susan
I can be a limiting factor for sure, not just in the recovery process, but just in general performance. and I'll say this, you know, there's a lot of guys that I work with where, you know, we don't even necessarily need to count calories. We really focus on, hey, or just eating the right foods at the right times around your Perry workout times or your Perry workout nutrition and and just making sure that they're hitting some certain markers throughout the day.

00:18:21:17 - 00:18:38:22
Susan
So, I mean, you can make it as complicated or as simple as you want. I think, it really just depends on the person. But let's kind of I want to dive into the things that I kind of mentioned to you earlier today. I'm actually going to play this clip. This is the one that really got my attention.

00:18:38:22 - 00:19:13:18
Susan
And I was like, you know what? I need to contact John. I need to get him on the podcast so we can have a conversation around this. because this I think is really common to. So I'm going to play it.

00:19:13:20 - 00:19:55:07
Susan
So you talked about the best body fat percentage for tactical athletes. And you know where the focus should be in regards to your body fat percentage versus performance. So let's dive into that a little bit, because I think a lot of people do get fixated on their body fat percentage. And there's definitely a lot of people who believe that your body fat percentage is tied to your athletic performance and and definitely your weight can have an impact on metrics like video to up or down, but there really is no no body fat percentage that's necessarily tied to high performance.

00:19:55:07 - 00:20:01:06
Susan
So I just want to get your thoughts on that. And what prompted you to to post that. Let's talk about it.

00:20:01:08 - 00:20:29:06
Jon
Yeah. So it stemmed primarily from many of the questions I get, which typically my content does. If I see patterns and questions that I'm getting, you know, I'll typically make a, a video addressing it. And the questions I was getting is guys thinking that they need to be way more lean than they need to be. and I think it, it stems from social media as a whole, especially with like, the rise of the hybrid athlete.

00:20:29:08 - 00:20:54:06
Jon
you know, you'll see a lot of these guys who are primarily bodybuilders or come from a bodybuilding background. A lot of them are, taking, you know, all kinds of different stuff. They look very good on the internet. And then they started running a couple of months ago, and now they're posting videos about how you can be 7% body fat and, or you can, but how you should be 7% body fat and how to maintain it up over.

00:20:54:08 - 00:21:19:15
Jon
And it leads, you know, individuals in the tactical athlete realm or training for selection, stuff like that, to believe that, you know, to perform best for endurance, they need to get to this absurdly low body fat percentage. and it's just not true. Right. it obviously depends on the individual. Everyone has that, kind of optimize zone for their performance.

00:21:19:17 - 00:21:50:11
Jon
I'm typically around 12%. That's where my run times are best. That's where I have a balance with the strength I can carry, load, manage, load, recover well, sleep well. you know, regulate temperature, those types of things. but, it doesn't, you know, they're it's not it's not important to drop down to sub 10% body fat and, look good, but you, you have to think about, like, what you're actually training for.

00:21:50:14 - 00:22:07:13
Jon
And if you're training for an environment where you know you're going to be performing for weeks at a time, or you're going into the Q course, you're going to be performing for months at a time and you have to sustain it. you're going to develop injuries. you're going to be carrying a load. You're going to have to recover things like that.

00:22:07:15 - 00:22:47:01
Jon
then it's not a good idea to get fixated on becoming super lean so that you can see, you know, every abs and every striation, in your body. So that's kind of where it stemmed from. And, kind of wanted to, squash that and, and make guys feel like, you know, the make guys think about more about their performance metrics and, less about what they look like in the mirror, because what we're training for, obviously, the performance metrics, being able to perform in the environment, under load, under stress, in, you know, austere environments is much more important than, seeing an AB or two pop out in the mirror.

00:22:47:03 - 00:23:14:19
Susan
Yeah, absolutely. And I'll kind of put some just some statistics behind that. Right. So when we look at, different body fat percentages across different units, I think in one article I read, Navy Seals typically going to be somewhere between 15 to 18%. Right? So much higher than single right fat. I will say Rangers usually between 12 to 15%.

00:23:14:21 - 00:23:47:03
Susan
if we look at Green Berets, I worked in a unit where the average was 18%. you know, and then when we look at individuals who are preparing for selection and we're talking about 7% body fat, you're going to have to expect that going through a selection process, any type of assessment process, you're going to lose some additional body fat because you're going to be in a hyper caloric environment, and you're going to be just pumping out calories, and you're just not going to have a lot of calories coming in.

00:23:47:05 - 00:24:10:15
Susan
and so this is immediately going to lead to additional body fat loss. Also some lean muscle mass loss. And if you're rolling in at 7% body fat, okay, just to give you another example, you know, like so we were I was part of a pre dive, course where I was doing the nutrition for those guys and kind of just checking in on them periodically, doing body comp measurements.

00:24:10:17 - 00:24:31:06
Susan
And over a three week time period, we saw on average where these guys would lose about 3% body fat, that most of them would maintain their lean muscle mass just in a three week period. Right. Wow. but we had a really controlled nutrition environment. They could still eat a ton of food. We were bringing them breakfast every morning.

00:24:31:06 - 00:24:51:00
Susan
We were bringing out sports supplementation for them. They could still go home every night and eat like a regular dinner, like a massive dinner. not that it matter, because a lot of them lose their appetite by day four. but we were just trying to feed them as much as possible. Right. And so you're not always going to get that in a selection environment or an assessment environment.

00:24:51:06 - 00:25:09:03
Susan
And so just think about that. If you're 7% body fat and within three weeks you lose 3% body fat. Yeah. You know, where is that going to put you. What's going to put you down into those essential body fat ranges. And then you start just falling apart mentality. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

00:25:09:05 - 00:25:12:13
Jon
The the potential for injury goes way up. Right.

00:25:12:15 - 00:25:30:01
Susan
yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. you know and just talk maybe talk a little bit about your experience like maybe going through the course or selection, you know, the guys that perform the best aren't always the cleanest guys.

00:25:30:03 - 00:25:58:18
Jon
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. you know, I, I was joking about it with my, my friend TJ, who's, strength and conditioning coach with us. he's a higher body fat percentage. He's one of those guys that's more typical growing up around that 17, 18%. But he runs an 1142 mile like, it's, you know, it doesn't, directly translate to it, but, you see a lot of guys in all different shapes and sizes.

00:25:58:20 - 00:26:27:10
Jon
and that's why I say it really comes down to the individual, their body type, where they perform at the best. but it for the guys going into those selection environments, again, you got to think about what you're actually doing. a lot of times guys get so fixated on that initial two mile run that they think, you know, having a 1242 mile versus, you know, being super lean and having a 12, 15 two mile is going to be the difference between them getting selected or not.

00:26:27:10 - 00:26:48:23
Jon
And it's not the difference. what I always tell guys is being, you know, super fast, both with the two mile run and the ruck really only gets your foot in the door, and then you have weeks of walking with a heavy pack on your back through the woods, you know, tripping, in the middle of the night, obviously getting the team weak and carrying absurd loads on your back.

00:26:48:23 - 00:27:21:03
Jon
So you have to have the durable ity to get through that. Right? So, I think it probably stems one from, what they see on the internet. These guys that are doing, you know, the essentially the hybrid athletes who are going out and running a single day event like a marathon, which does not compare to a selection environment or, thinking that they because they run, you know, 1015 20s faster when they're at a significantly lower body fat percentage at that's going to be the difference that gets them selected.

00:27:21:05 - 00:27:33:03
Jon
instead of prioritizing durability, having solid numbers with your run, and rocks and obviously, but really prioritizing the ability to last in that environment, which is really what it comes down to.

00:27:33:05 - 00:27:54:09
Susan
Yeah, definitely. And if you're in that single digit body fat, that's going to be so much more difficult. Yeah. All right. And definitely we want to talk about just, something else that's kind of been popping up in my feed recently. You know, we're kind of going to move away from like maybe the, the physical training and the nutrition piece, of the selection process.

00:27:54:11 - 00:28:54:01
Susan
And, I'm going to play another clip here for us. and in this one, we're going to be hearing a little bit about the 18 x ray program. And I thought this statistic was really interesting. So I'm going to play this for us now.

00:28:54:03 - 00:29:31:21
Susan
So that was Major General Ferguson. So the commanding general of, first SFC, which is, the command over, special forces groups talking about the 18 x ray program and how 50% of Green Berets essentially are coming out of that program right now, and they're coming in super fit, but super inexperienced. So, maybe you could talk a little bit for those who don't know what the 18 x ray program is, you know, if you're comfortable sharing your thoughts around that.

00:29:31:23 - 00:29:45:10
Susan
and then let's talk about, you know, some of the things that if you're coming in with no military experience, you know, what you can do to maybe set yourself apart. But also just be a good team guy.

00:29:45:12 - 00:30:11:15
Jon
Yeah, yeah. So first off, the 18 x ray pipeline is a program, that enables, you know, individual civilians to go directly into, as a special Forces candidate. So the the way the pipeline is structured currently is you go to basic training, one station unit training. So OSHA so you become an infantryman, out of that, once you complete those, you move on to airborne school.

00:30:11:18 - 00:30:33:16
Jon
After airborne school, you go to now Fort Liberty. and you, start preparing specifically for selection. They have a, a course called SOP C, which is, essentially a prep course for selection, where they teach you a little bit more about land navigation. What you expect is selection. obviously the physical performance metrics, is a big focus of theirs out there.

00:30:33:20 - 00:30:59:08
Jon
And then you go to selection, if you get selected, then you move on to the Q course and you go right through the Q course and become a Green Beret within the first couple of years of your career. So, you know, it is a, a great, pipeline, I think you know what I always tell guys, in my experience, I'm I'm not an x ray, but I obviously have worked with many x rays, on the teams and both both obviously through the Q course.

00:30:59:10 - 00:31:18:19
Jon
And it is your best chance to get selected. one part of that is because it is the only time in your entire military career where you will have nothing to do but prepare for selection. oftentimes when guys get to Fort Liberty, they end up in student company and they spend months. You know, just preparing for selection.

00:31:18:19 - 00:31:36:16
Jon
They go to SOP C and then, you know, by that time they might have three, four, five months depending on what time of the year they go there. specifically preparing for selection. And if you go prior service, you know, in my experience, you will never have five months to only, you know, focus on preparing for selection.

00:31:36:16 - 00:32:03:03
Jon
You're going to be managing a different job deployments, TDY trips, temporary duty trips, things like that. And it becomes very difficult to to manage all of those those other aspects, in regards to being, or lacking experience, it depends on the individual. Right there. There are a lot of younger guys that that go into selection. Maybe they are coming straight out of college, which is super common.

00:32:03:05 - 00:32:27:13
Jon
and maybe they lack a little bit of life experience. They haven't had jobs, things like that after their, their college time. but you do get a lot of varying experience in the x ray pipeline. you know, you get older individuals, 25 year olds who had life or had a, a career field outside the military, and they bring a whole different set of skills.

00:32:27:13 - 00:32:54:03
Jon
What they do lack is that, you know, military experience. So, the operational experience, maybe the way in which they communicate with, you know, foreign nations, things like that. and that is a a decently important factor in my opinion. but, you know, some of the best Green Berets I've ever met were x rays that came in with no military experience, but a lot of life experience outside of that.

00:32:54:03 - 00:33:15:02
Jon
And oftentimes, you know, based off of that, they demonstrate that very high level of, of common sense of problem solving skills, things like that. I think one of the the downsides of, you know, the route I took, I, I joined the military straight out of high school, ended up in the 1/60. I had a couple deployments prior to going to selection.

00:33:15:02 - 00:33:44:15
Jon
So I had the military experience. Right. But I came from an environment where, it was pretty controlled. You're pretty much always controlled in, the military. And I think it takes away some of your problem solving ability, because you always feel like you have to stick in between the lines. Typically, in my experience, a lot of the x rays that, you know, and I'm speaking, mostly about the x rays that had careers prior to going into the military.

00:33:44:15 - 00:34:06:16
Jon
And they have life experience, they have very, very good problem solving abilities because they're used to, not working within this kind of box or constraints of how this is done. so I think it, you know, it varies wildly on the individual, but as a program overall, I think it's one of the best things that the military has ever done for the Special Forces community.

00:34:06:18 - 00:34:27:20
Jon
and kind of like what he said in that clip, it makes up 50% of the fighting force. And you'll get a lot of guys, you know, who, want to be a Green Beret. They want to serve at that high capacity. And if the x ray pipeline was never was not there, they probably wouldn't just join the military to become an infantryman to to maybe have the opportunity down the road.

00:34:27:20 - 00:34:42:13
Jon
So I think without the x ray pipeline, you would immediately, you know, eliminate a lot of the, recruits that would otherwise come into it. So overall, I think it's a fantastic program. I'm glad they they have it around and I'm glad it is what it is.

00:34:42:15 - 00:35:15:05
Susan
Yeah. And I think that's important point to bring up is it. It does bring in a lot of guys who maybe wouldn't join otherwise. And I think, you know, having that life experience that's kind of a story that resonates within our family too. And so, you know, if we've looked at kind of okay, I'm I'm into selection, I've made it through selection, even go into the Q cause, you know, I make it to a team as the new guy on the team, you know, what am I doing in order to make sure that I'm providing value to the team that I'm on?

00:35:15:07 - 00:35:22:08
Susan
What are some of the mindset things that I need to be thinking about coming in?

00:35:22:10 - 00:35:41:04
Jon
Yeah, the biggest thing I always say, and this goes for your performance and selection. This goes for showing up to a team as a new guy is just looking for work. Right. one you always hear about, you'll, you'll hear guys say, like, when you show up to the team room, just keep your mouth shut. Just listen.

00:35:41:06 - 00:36:01:01
Jon
that is true to an extent, but you also want to look for work and provide value where you can if you have, you know, like if you come from a background, maybe a guy worked in it before joining the military. And there's a problem. One of the echoes is having a problem with the system. then he can interject and help and work, look for work, and actually provide value.

00:36:01:01 - 00:36:19:12
Jon
That is the best way to kind of blend into a team. and I'll kind of share a story there is, you know, we had multiple new guys kind of come to the team, and one of the times we had, two new guys come to the team at once. One was, echo, one was a Delta.

00:36:19:14 - 00:36:39:03
Jon
The echo, was a little bit more reserved, but he still spoke up when it made sense. But he constantly looked for work. He constantly provided value. He would stay, you know, until the last guy on the team left the team room at night, and he was helping, and he was kind of, you know, interjecting or helping where he could.

00:36:39:05 - 00:37:07:14
Jon
And the other guy, kind of had that, that almost chip on his shoulder like, hey, I'm a Green Beret too, like, and kind of had that, that ego associated with it had to be like the smartest one. and, you know, the both good dudes both went on to have successful careers. But looking at the first couple months of them on a team, the one that, wanted to demonstrate how smart he is and have all the answers and stuff like that had a very rough time.

00:37:07:14 - 00:37:33:23
Jon
Whereas the other guy on the team who simply looked for work was humble, communicated with respect, things like that, was integrated into the team immediately, and we were thankful that he was there. So I think, you know, in, Special Forces as a whole, in special operations, I mean, probably in life. Right? I think the best thing we can do is, look at how we can provide value to a situation.

00:37:34:01 - 00:37:59:11
Jon
you know, I get a lot of questions about how to prepare for Team Week. Guys are nervous going into it. obviously, how you communicate, how your interpersonal skills, how you work on a team is, is a huge contributing factor to it. And it really comes down to, looking for work. One of the biggest things I noticed in regards to Special forces, like during my time in Special forces versus like my time being out of the military is in special forces.

00:37:59:11 - 00:38:27:07
Jon
If you get up and you start working on something, if you start even, like sweeping the team room, you start going down there organizing the, the wall lockers, organizing the the, the weapons, whatever it is like, you will have kind of dudes just like trickle in and everybody will start pitching in and helping without even being told, whereas in other environments, you know, you might start working on something and then other people will kind of just watch you do it.

00:38:27:09 - 00:38:39:18
Jon
don't be the guy that that watches people do stuff. If you see someone doing something and you're not doing something, then ask or figure out how you can provide value. And that's the best way to integrate into that environment.

00:38:39:20 - 00:38:50:05
Susan
Yeah, I'm glad that you provided specific examples, but the overarching message there, it sounds like humility and and just be a team player.

00:38:50:07 - 00:38:57:13
Jon
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah yeah. To simple to simplify it. Yes. Humility and being a team player

00:38:57:15 - 00:39:19:19
Susan
I think people sometimes need to take a step back to. Right. Because I think we all have like a, you know, it's okay to have a high opinion of yourself. But I think coming into any new situation, you have to definitely have that humility. And even if you feel like you know more than everybody, right? Nobody likes smarty pants.

00:39:19:21 - 00:39:21:07
Susan
yeah.

00:39:21:09 - 00:39:21:23
Jon
Exactly.

00:39:22:03 - 00:39:39:06
Susan
Exactly. Lightly. Right. And there's going to be, even if you have a lot of value that you can give to the team, you have to also pay respect to the experience that's on the team. And because just because you think you know the right answer doesn't necessarily mean that that is the right answer, right?

00:39:39:10 - 00:39:59:23
Jon
No, absolutely. And in that guy's case, you know, I have no hard feelings against the new guy that came on. So if you ever watch is this, but when he came into the team, you know, it was identified very quickly at, like, this guy is very intelligent. He does know his stuff. but the way he goes about it and the way he communicates it, nobody wants to listen.

00:39:59:23 - 00:40:11:19
Jon
Nobody, like, gives him the time of day. So it is, you know, kind of knowing the time and place for those types of things. And it involves a lot of intuition. And that's kind of the intangibles that they look for.

00:40:11:21 - 00:40:14:21
Susan
Yeah. You got to work on the soft skills too, right.

00:40:14:23 - 00:40:16:12
Jon
Yeah. Exactly.

00:40:16:14 - 00:40:39:06
Susan
Well, I appreciate that. I think, I think a lot of what we talked about today was really interesting, really valuable. I think the listeners are going to get a lot out of it. And I'm super excited to introduce you, to anybody who's following me who hasn't given you all follow yet. So if you guys aren't following John and his team over at Infinite Grit, make sure you head over there and hit the follow button.

00:40:39:08 - 00:40:46:00
Susan
John, if somebody wants to work with your team, where can they find you? How can they get in touch with you?

00:40:46:02 - 00:41:02:20
Jon
Yeah, easiest way to get in touch with us is, just Instagram, shoot us a message. you know, we'll we'll have a conversation first. And see if it's something that we can even help with. And if it makes sense for both of us. And then we'll, you know, move forward and talk about what that looks like, but, yeah, just shoot us a message.

00:41:02:20 - 00:41:15:14
Jon
That's, that's going to be the easiest way. But I really appreciate, you know, you having me on today? I've been, you know, watching your content for for many, many months now. And, you put some good stuff out there, and I really appreciate everything you do.

00:41:15:16 - 00:41:22:06
Susan
I appreciate that. Hopefully we can grow together and keep putting the good information out there. So thanks, John.

00:41:22:07 - 00:41:22:22
Jon
Absolutely.