I don’t like to fail at anything, yet I have failed at many things over my lifetime.
Yet those failures to be the best learning situations I have encountered along the way.
When I went to Jump Master School at Fort Bragg, NC many years ago I found out just how demanding it was and how incredibly high the standards were.
If you graduated, you would hold the lives of many soldiers in your hands.
In this picture, the student is checking to make sure there are no other aircraft behind or below his plane that could hit Paratroopers when they jumped. This isn’t checked only by instruments. You have to lean outside the aircraft yourself and physically search the sky to make sure since there can be many other planes nearby.
The school was tough, but I did very well right up to graduation day. That day you had to do a total parachute & equipment inspection on Paratroopers in a specified time, and it isn’t much. When you have many soldiers on a jump, time is very important.
My test went 4 seconds over and I failed the course.
Yes, only by 4 seconds.
Some people would complain that that wasn’t fair since I passed everything else in the course.
I am glad they kept the standards high. I didn’t meet the standard. It’s just that simple.
Fast forward to today. High standards are still part of my life.
That is how I coach at the Cave. We strive for excellence every day.
I didn’t say perfection, Jesus was the only perfect person ever.
Excellence is acoomplished through diligent, consistent, well-planned training and lots of hard work. Nothing good in life comes easy, as you can see from the videos below.
Don’t worry if you are not as strong as those guys. I coach everyone at a level that is safe for their current level of health and fitness. As long as you are willing to listen well and do the work you will make good progress. Our Mace Fit® program is a good way to start, especially if you haven’t worked out in a while. You can start in person at the Cave or check out our online courses.
Call or text Frank at (941)228-8341 to schedule a free week of trial workouts.
I have said many times that the comfort zone is the sewer pit of life.
Nothing good happens there.
One of the best cures for the comfort zone is joing the military, however, many people will never do that. Only about 1% of our population ever does.
That 1% gets the job done!
When I went through Sapper School many years ago one of the things that challenged me in particular was rapelling off a cliff with another soldier tied to my back. This is one way to evacuate a wounded soldier in mountainous terrain.
Watch the video from 15 to 18 minutes in and you’ll see all kinds of people struggling with this
Of course, the entire school was tough, but I loved it.
Civilians need need to find another way to break out of the comfort zone.
The first step is getting your mind in the right place, then your body will follow.
Hard physical training is a good way to do that.
If you are not going to enlist in the military, then come to the Cave Gym and I will get you out of your comfort zone and on the road to being stronger and more fit.
I am a veteran of the U.S. Army Airborne and a graduate of the Sapper Leader School.
