AF Specwar FAQs
EPISODE 31
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WELCOME TO THE TEAM ROOM! THIS WEEK BRIAN, PEACHES, AND TRENT COVER SOME FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS. IF YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ANSWERS, YOU JUST FOUND THEM.
INTRO
Nikki Silva 00:02
You're listening to the ones ready podcast, a team of Air Force Special Operators forged in combat with over 70 years of combined operational experience, as well as a decade of selection instructor experience. If you're tired of settling, and you want to do something you truly believe in, you're in the right place. Now, here's your favorite CCT personality, JTAC extraordinaire, embracer of the ridiculous face, and like the shortest operator you'll ever meet, Peaches.
Peaches 00:27
Hey everyone, welcome to the Ones Ready podcast. You're in the team room with Brian, Trent, and I. We want to welcome everybody back. We really appreciate you guys listening in and subscribing and hopefully leaving a good review. If not tell us how bad we're doing. So like normal, we've got our partners that we partner with, we've got for your naturally born caffeine we've got alpha brew coffee company, for your energy on the go we have Strike Force Energy for your rucks, your military gear and getting out in the hunting, we have Eberlestock. And we actually brought somebody new on who is a Hoist. So it's a hydration drink. It gives you IV-level hydration. I know I've been using it for probably about a month now I really like it. I think Trent then you say you had a PR the other day and you think it was because of this?
Trent 01:19
Yeah. I mean, you know, usually I think most of the stuff is nonsense. You know, I read the label, I'm like, you know, sure, whatever. And then I start drinking it and I was just like, oh, there's a noticeable difference when I'm when I'm doing what I'm doing.
Peaches 01:31
Yeah, like smashing it after a workout. But so if you're interested in any of those or trying them out, go to their websites, and then enter the promo code ONESREADY and you'll get a discount. You know, we want to we hit a lot of questions all the time, which is great. We love the questions. We want you to keep them coming. Some of them are not some a lot of them are repeat questions. So we want to do is kind of hit some of the frequently asked questions kind of like we have done in the past, some of these might be a double tap. But there are still people that are out there asking for it. So we felt that it was important to cover. So I'm going to start asking you guys some questions, and then we'll go from there.
Brian 02:15
Let's do it.
YOUNGER VS OLDER CANDIDATES
Peaches 02:17
All right. First question is, if I'm over 18 years old, do I actually have a chance of making it? What if I'm in my 30s? What do you think Trent?
Trent 02:27
I would say? Yes. And yes, you know, what I mean? Like, it's wholly dependent on who you are, the preparation that you've put in, and your willingness to push through, you know, the all the hurdles that you're going to encounter in the pipeline. I've seen guys that enlisted when they're 17 shipped as soon as they were 18 make through the pipeline, and I've seen guys that were, you know, early to later 30s make it through the pipeline. And I've seen everybody in between, including those age groups quit. And so this, I don't think it has As much to do with age, I think there's advantages on both sides. Obviously, if you're 18, you're not going to feel like me every morning after being crushed. But if you're in your 30s, and you have a little more life experience, some of the psychological hurdles that you might come up against, you'll have a better perspective. Or you might have more perspective, I don't say better, more perspective on what those are, and the reasoning behind everything that's happening. And I might make it easier in that way.
Brian 03:28
Yeah, I think, really important what you said, the person that has 30 years in their life has a better perspective on life in general, and they've seen the more things they've been, you know, at a certain job, it may have started a career somewhere else and decided it's not for them, but they have a purpose and a reason why they're there because they could have potentially had a successful career in something else that they had studied. They probably went to college, they probably have, you know, a spouse or something like that. So there's other things that are driving them but those are also kind of distracters, so if you're in that later age group joining and the cutoff is 39, because we also get that question a lot, she won't throw that out there, 39 years old. But if you're in that old age group, just consider those factors and take care of your finances, your family, and everything. So you can focus on the pipeline and getting through selection. On the other hand, those guys that are 18 years old, or just a little bit on the young side, the best thing that they do is they recover fast, and they don't have to worry about all those other things that are back at home or whatever. You know, when I went through, I was 20 years old, I didn't really have much else back at home that I had to worry about is like, Okay, I'm in the military, they're going to pay for me to do everything I need to do. So all I need to do is focus on getting through INDOC. So that was a benefit for you know, being a little bit younger.
Peaches 05:00
If you are an older guy too, and you're coming through guy or gal and you're coming through, understand that just because of your age, unless there's other cross trainees in your team or on your team, and they're likely will be, but even then they will look to you for a little bit of, you know, hey, I need some mentorship at least in the game of life. And it could translate into that as well. But I definitely remember as a 17 year old looking up to not only the older guys, but also the guys that were cross trainees. So All right, next question. Should I take classes or study anything prior to joining or what have you Brian?
SHOULD I TAKE CLASSES/TRAINING PRIOR TO JOINING AFSW?
Brian 05:44
Alright, so the big one that we get with this is for pair rescue specifically, should we do the paramedic thing before we go into becoming a PJ? I say if you want to do that, and you have time in your schedule, you're not Don't think you're ready or something like that, sure, go ahead and do that. But don't waste time trying to do that outside of the military because the military is going to pay you and they're going to train you up with all the medical knowledge that you need to have in order to be a successful Pararescue man. And it's the same thing with CCT. You're not going to go there and try and get an ATC job or anything before you go into the pipeline. It's not necessary, you're going to be there. Yeah, that's going to be your main function, but they're going to teach you exactly what you need to know, in order to do that. I'd say, If you have time, or you're just, you know, trying to get through college because you have to experience college first. Everybody's different. I kind of did the same thing. I went to college two years because I thought that's what I'm supposed to do. But I ended up you know, switching over and going to the military. So if you have to do that, then sure. You could take anatomy, you could take all that stuff, it'll help you and if that's what you're interested in, then yeah, do it. But other than that, don't waste time. Just trying to get through a college course. I think it's going to give you an upper hand or something when it comes to selection because it's personality based not knowledge based.
Trent 07:02
Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that we like to talk about is training scars, right? Having to unlearn things to relearn them the way that we do it when you're in the pipeline, even if the way that we're teaching you is not necessarily the way that it's happening in the real world, you will be graded on doing it each task the exact way that we teach you how to do it, and you're expected to do that. So sometimes real world experience across all the skill sets that are required in the pipeline can be a little bit it can it can be something you have to overcome another thing that you have to overcome. I have an example it's kind of a silly example but when I was instructor at Keesler, we had a guy and we were teaching them how to do kettlebells and do it a very specific way to keep it safe for the guys that have never touched a kettlebell before. And we had a guy that was like a high level CrossFit dude that it's like, No, no, that's not how you do it. You swing the you know, like, and you want to get this big old argument with us. And we're like, dude, that's not it's not how we do it here. And so like to him getting past just something as simple as that on how you do kettlebell cleans and presses and all that other stuff. You know, he wasted some energy and wasted our time and it didn't really help him at all in the pipeline.
Peaches 08:13
Yeah, and if you're going to go back to Brian talking about college if you're going to have to get student loans to do some of this, you know, pre-military academics and training like it's not worth it it's definitely not worth going in debt for because we're going to pay you to learn how to do it. Okay, next question. Should I take swim classes before joining? Brian.
SHOULD I TAKE SWIM CLASSES BEFORE JOINING?
Brian 09:13
So a lot of people, they start off, they're like, I've never swim before in my life. Where do I get started? If you're in high school, and you have access to a swim coach, then join the swim team or join a summer swim league. Join any of that. I did, you know, one and a half summers of swim team whenever I was like 14 or something like that, that's all the training that I had, but that set me up to at least know the basics. And then from there, you know, when I was at the pool, swimming at the Gold's Gym, or whatever, I would talk to the old people that knew like, or look like they knew what they were doing. And I'd asked them to teach me how to swim and tell them why I was training and all that kind of stuff. And they, you know, like doing that kind of stuff and like the mentorship So I did that. And if you can find someone to coach another thing that a lot of people will have had a lot of success with is Total Immersion Swimming. It's a book that's out there. And a lot of guys have found that really useful for training. I personally have not done all the training that's in that book. But that's another thing that I just put out there.
Trent 10:29
No, just don't answer the question. The more time you can spend in the water the better, I could probably save my own life for about 50 meters in calm water when I joined that was the extent of my water comfort. So I always recommend spend a lot of time in the pool even if you're just swimming laps just all that time you're facing the water is going to pay off.
FREESTYLE VS FINNING/COMBAT SIDE STROKE
Peaches 11:19
So in this same swimming vein that we're in right now, do you think guys should be practicing freestyle finning or both?
Trent 11:32
I mean I didn't have a pair of fins before I joined you know what I mean? Like I'm a victim of my circumstance if you have fins and you can you can train to uh, correctly and you can watch the videos that you know that your lead arm trail arm and all the different strokes your combat rescue stroke and all that. Yeah, why not? Why not train with fins? I know personally, though, like, I did a lot of freestyle swimming in the beginning and I think what that helped me develop was real awareness of hydrodynamics and how my body worked in the water. And so without the fins, I didn't have that. I'm pretty good, thinner, you know what I mean? So like, the first time I put fins on, it wasn't a big deal going from all the hundreds of meters that I'd put in just slick freestyle. It was pretty easy transition. But I learned how my body reacts in the water, how to get actual fast and how to relax in the water without any of that stuff. And I think that paid off for me. And that might have just been a psychological thing for me, but I don't see I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with training with fins.
Brian 12:31
Yeah, it's, I'd say if you're going to get fins, like guys start off with the trainer fins which are the ones that are fit like a sock don't need a booty for and then work your way up or alternate between you know, your jet fins if you have the funds to buy the jet fins and the booties and everything. But alternate between those no fins and, you know, kickboard, I like to just vary it up like Trent was saying, spend hours and hours in the pool and learn how to swim and learn how your body flows through the Water and how to keep yourself as streamlined as possible get fast with every single kind of stroke you can. Obviously you're going to have to do the lead arm trail arm you're going to do the combat recovery or the combat side stroke whatever you want to call it's the same stroke but you can learn those later on what you need to know is be comfortable in the water and be able to you know.
Peaches 13:46
I usually tell guys, hey, if you have fins great if not, probably not worth going out and buying any unless you have unlimited funds and you can just throw it around. But to me free style is more difficult than finning anyway. So for me it helped me more just focusing on free stuff.
Brian 14:09
Yeah, actually, I just want to throw in I say the same thing about a ruck, like it's nice to have, you know, the nice super cushy ruck or whatever. And I like Eberlestock. So there's nothing against them. Don't not buy their stuff if you have the funds, but like when I was deployed, or sometimes if I didn't have my ruck right nearby because I had to keep it ready or I had to keep it you know, in order. I just literally have a salt bag with the strap and I just put it on my back and just hold it with a little strap right here. And on top of neck, all you need to do is get used to the weight, you don't have to spend like $500 or whatever. If you don't have the funds, then just find something that's heavy, and then carry it. If it's harder than that's fine. figure out a way to make it you know, so you can carry that load shifted to shoulders or whatever. But Same thing with fins and rucking You don't have to spend a ton of money on everything in order to get prepared.
Trent 15:06
Oh, yeah, it's not an excuse to not join if you don't have all the Gucci stuff.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS RECRUITER
Peaches 15:15
Okay, next question I'm going to shoot it to Trent. When should I contact the Special Operations Recruiter? Well, my answer to that is why haven't you already, but I'll go over to you Trent.
Trent 15:30
My responses as soon as you're done watching this video, and hitting subscribe, and the notification button, or whatever it is on Apple, and Spotify, you should go contact the store to get all the data you need to join if you're interested or to make that transition and start preparing to join. That's my answer.
Brian 15:52
Yeah. And a lot of guys, I think their apprehension is just because they think that once they contact a recruiter that they're going to have a ship date. be sent out immediately you don't have those barriers, and no one's going to pressure you to do that you're in the, you're in control, they're not going to force you to do anything that you don't want to do. And if you say, No, I don't want to ship until whatever date they can't say you have to, or else you're not going to be in the Air Force. There's a bunch of other recruiters, no one should be pushing you around or bullying you like that. You tell them that you're interested. And their job is to give you as much information to make an educated decision as possible, just like what we're doing here is to try and let you make your own educated decision. So don't be apprehensive about it. If one guy rubs you the wrong way, talk to another store recruiter. And we keep on posting links on it on how to get in contact with them and working with a hopefully better process very soon. That will hopefully include an interactive map kind of like the Cone Connect.
Peaches 16:53
On BeaPJ.com. So my thing is you get people that are worried about medications, they've taken it meat, you know, the SOR will be able to tell you immediate disqualifiers right off the bat. And if not, then at least you go to MEPS you meet with the doctors. And then they can talk waivers and what is or is not but find it before you put all this blood sweat and tears into training, which, hey, it's cool to train anyway. Right? But what I don't want you to do is, you know, maybe you are buying a swim coach, maybe you are going out and you bought some insane ruck and fins and everything like that. I don't want you to do that. Until you at least find out that, hey, I'm good to go. And there are SORs that we work with. Additionally, once you get cleared from maps, you get to join a development session with the sower and a developer like so it only benefits you to go see a SOR sooner, get through MEPS, and then press on.
Trent 18:03
Shout out to those guys out in Tampa. Their sessions look super legitimate. Yeah, I'm always hitting them up. I mean, like, this is amazing.
Peaches 18:12
There's TSgt Spencer doesn't mess around. And they're developer out there as a retired CCT chief. And he's well known for being a monster. So he doesn't look at but he is apparently a stud.
Trent 18:26
They're crushing it.
DREAM SHEET OF JOBS
Peaches 18:29
All right, moving on. Brian, I'm going to shoot this one to you. Is there a quote unquote dream sheet of jobs that you can volunteer for if you wash out?
Brian 18:42
Yeah, so that's the whole thing with the new contracts. Obviously, we were talking about you can go watch the other episode about the SWOE contracts and check out what's the deal with that, but once you wash out, obviously no one plans to do that. No one plans to quit or any of that kind of stuff get injured. or somewhat that, depending on your merit and how well they think you did through selection, you will get the opportunity to retrain into possibly like EOD or SERE or something like that, which is a supporting role to the operational side of things. So a lot of guys may get that, but if you don't get that, then you know, it is what it is. And you will get a retraining package into you know, a normal kind of list based on the needs of the Air Force, of course. You know, you fill out your top jobs and see what you kind of get. And then you'll get the chance to retrain, it's kind of gone back and forth. If you want to come back. You have to fulfill about half of your contract, whatever that is for the new job that you have. So that's currently what the rule is. But if you like I said, if you qualify to go into the jobs in the contract, think that you would be a good fit. You just weren't there to get to PJ/CCT/SR, you get another opportunity
Trent 20:04
I know all of our listeners are going to make it. So it doesn't really matter. So you can tell the other people that don't make it like this is how it's going to go down. Once you get into the pipeline, if you're not selected or you quit or whatever, you're going to sit down with the MTLs and some other people, and you're going to go through your options. But there's a lot of factors that go into where you can go after that, like your added up score and a few other things. All the career fields have different requirements. So you don't need to worry about that before. Before you join. Once you join the pipeline, the Ones Ready audience, you can tell the people once they quit that this is what's going to happen. And they'll have the opportunity to cross train into stuff that they're qualified for.
Peaches 20:42
Yep. And one of the other things that I've seen and I'll just hit it real quick is I've seen people talk about going in to the Air Force and doing a normal Air Force shop and then expecting to cross train. Here's why that's a bad idea. One, there's a lot of things can happen to you. You know, in your life in that timeframe from you entering the Air Force to when you decide to cross train, if you ever because I'll tell you what people that plan to do that, most of the time, do not end up cross training because something comes up or they're nervous about it kind of like they were nervous before they joined. So don't do that. Also, we have a limited number of cross training slots that we allow people so that I mean, that is one of the biggest things because, man, that would suck if you're, I mean, you're all in and you're ready to go. You got great scores, and they only release and I'm literally pulling numbers on I say they have really six slots, and there's 12 of you guys that are cross training. Man, you were ready, and you had a great package, but you weren't selected and that just sucks. So that's why I would not hit another job and then go into it or not plan to do that anyway. So moving on to the next one. Trent, can females actually make it through?
CAN FEMALES MAKE IT THROUGH?
Trent 22:03
I don't see why not who asked this question? This is a ridiculous question.
Peaches 22:08
I did not write anybody's I didn't want to call anybody out. But these are just some questions that I ever received. And you know, especially because we've talked about this in the past.
Trent 22:20
Yeah. Well, it's like I told you guys before we start the podcast, my first reaction question was wanting to join, get through the pipeline, and you come back and tell us, you know, but that's just my initial reaction. I'm a terrible person on the inside. Yeah. So the short answer is yes. To the standards are the standards. That is what it is. There's nothing that said we have we did a very long study and still ongoing, it's called the Women In Service Review. And that the findings from that study, say that the job is open for females and according to science and the doctors as an absolute Yes. And that's why it's open.
Brian 22:58
Yeah, the doors are open. I've had a couple females that have started the programs and are currently doing the programs. But we haven't seen anybody that has fully made it through selection at this point. I don't know. Trent, do you know how far anyone who's made it specifically? Last I heard was two days was the last female that was in there.
Trent 23:20
Yeah, I'm not sure. But honestly, the numbers are so low that they're not really even statistics yet. You know, you think about the number of males that join, but don't make it. And you know, it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people until we're at, I don't know, a few hundred. I don't think it's really a valid statistic.
Peaches 23:39
No, but the important thing is that, like, the guys on team that are going to be there in the pipeline and the guys, you know, once at the operational units, they don't, they don't care whether you're a female or male, as long as you've met the standards and you've gone through the same suck that they have and you can operate accordingly.
Brian 24:00
If there are any females out there don't focus on being the first female PJ or CCT or whatever. Just focus on being the best. That's it, just like everyone else is trying to do.
Trent 24:12
In my experience, I haven't run into that. I just want to put it out there. And I know most of the female candidates we have or not, they'd rather just be one of the candidates. And we haven't I don't think we really run into any issues.
DO PJS SEE COMBAT?
Peaches 24:23
Good. That's awesome. All right. Next one's for you, Brian. All right. PJ's expect to see combat.
Brian 24:32
So we get this question. A lot like to PJ's really do weapons training? Do they really do? Whatever answer is yes. To all the above. We do a lot of weapons training. We always carry a gun and kind of where combatants and we're not like, you know, the dust off or whatever. We have guns on the side of our helicopter whenever we go in. And, you know, our job is defend ourselves. Now that being said, our main job is not to go and shoot people. On the face, and we tell people this a lot, like we're not I didn't join to be a PJ, just to go in there and throw grenades, you know, do the Call of Duty thing, but went in to be the person that has to go in there and you know, do medicine perform it knowing that I would have to if I had to shoot people, obviously, you know, that's part of the job and we do our offensive measures first and that's the best defense. But other than that, yes, you're going to go to many combat zones all the time, frequently, at least every other year. So you will see combat at some point, if you're in long enough, if you're maybe your first deployment you get out. And it was to like, I don't know, somewhere in Europe or Africa where there's nothing going on. Maybe you won't.
Trent 25:48
I think Gavin said the Kuwait deployment for him.
Brian 25:52
Yeah, I mean, there are those deployments. But if you get out after that, then yeah, you're not going to see anything. He says long enough. Definitely.
Peaches 25:59
That's the case. For any SEAL team, ODA team, Controllers, SR that's art like it is the right place the right time, the right circumstances. And you never know when that's going to be.
Brian 26:11
Yeah, it's like if you visit Florida are you going to see a hurricane? Yeah, if you stay there long enough, right? So that's what you can expect the same thing from any of the career fields including SEALs, PJ's whatever.
Trent 26:29
Do Combat Controller see combat? I don't know. Never heard of anything.
Peaches 26:34
Never seen it a day in my life. All right, this one I've seen a few times and it's disheartening because I feel for the candidates but I don't have support from my family or my parents and I don't have support for my friends. They're telling me not to go in there. They're worried that is danger. And that I shouldn't be doing this. So, Trent I'll pass this one off to you first, and see what you come up with.
Trent 27:07
So the reason that all of us end up in this community, right is theirs, I think we all have that itch, to do something that is dangerous and scary, and that the need to push ourselves physically and psychologically, and to serve our country, and to take care of our teammates, all those things, right. And that's, those are all things that I think would be difficult to fulfill needs that are difficult to fulfill in any other realm. So when you're your parents or your friends or anybody, they're non-supportive. I would say that that's too bad but the one of the reasons we started this podcast is because there was a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation and just lack of information about what it is that we do. The type of people we are and your parents and your friends and all those people are dealing with that Same lack of information. And I don't want to say ignorance because it sounds bad but the ignorance of what it is, you know the Hollywood version of what we do where you're in constant firefights 100% of the time, and all the people you're going to be serving with are our animals, or they're terrible people. That's just not the case. So if you have that drive and that willingness to serve, don't, don't get caught up in the nonsense, don't feel that negativity, don't reciprocate that negativity, just realize where it's coming from, it's probably coming from a place of concern, and then just move forward with what you want to do, and go fulfill your goals.
Brian 28:33
Yeah, I think that last thing he said is coming from a place of concern is the majority of the things I've had a lot of, you know, parents of guys that are going into AFSW, talking about, you know, what should they prepare for their kids? What should they expect? And it's awesome that the parents are reaching out and we encourage that if you guys have any questions, we're open to ask it to answering them, but my parents were the same way they did had no idea what was going to be like, and the only reference they have is what's in movies. So you know, of course, they don't want you to get hurt, they don't want their kid to go into something where they could potentially get hurt. But if you are a parent or you can tell your parents, you know, it's really the fulfillment of doing the job that we have been able to do that is going to change you for the rest of your life. And if you stop yourself from doing those things that you want to do, then you'll regret it later or potentially, you know, you might not get along with your parents or kind of have some regrets later on just because they held you back. So don't let that be on your shoulders for the rest of your life. Go out there and try the things that you want to do. Because time goes by really fast before you know it, you're not going to be able to do those things.
PRK/LASIK
Peaches 29:49
And regrets the worst. Oh, it's awful. All right, I'm going to cover this question real quick, just because it's a fairly quick answer is am I allowed to have, or I'm allowed to join Air Force Special Warfare, having LASIK and PRK surgery. So what I have heard from a SOR, and that is of you know, June 2020 is that it's a 6- 12 month with six to 12 month wait. And that's assuming that there were no complications in the LASIK or PRK. But you have to check with your sore and you're going to have to go to map so don't take our word for it. Because this changes all the time. I know that the vision requirements changed. I don't even know when that happened, but I just found out about it a couple weeks ago, so go see a SOR check with them before you go getting LASIK and PRK you guys want to pile in on anything that are good to move on?
Brian 30:54
Any medical conditions or questions because we get a lot of these like I broke my leg when I was in high school but I got to play and now I could still do everything. Can I join? And our answers like, yeah, I mean, probably I've heard of people and I've seen students that have the same thing like you're talking about, I think, but there are a lot of different variations of surgery and if anything went wrong, like Peaches said, you know, there's some complications or other things, they put a different kind of metal or whatever, you know, there's a bunch of different variations that we can say, Yep, go ahead. They're going to accept you for sure. Because, you know, we're not the authority on that.
Peaches 31:37
Oh, and then you want to go into a range of all the medications and it's like, hey, if you Okay, so well, since we're talking about if there's medications that you're concerned about check with a SOR, but just know that some of those variables that they based them on are, what was the medication? How long did you take it? Why did you take it and how long have you has it been since you took it? So those generally some of the questions that they're asking.
Trent 32:17
Once again, listen, subscribe, contract a SOR.
GAIN TRAIN OR LOSE WEIGHT
Peaches 32:23
Do I need to get to a certain weight to look more like an operator? Or will this increase my chances of being selected? Brian, you must have added that question. Because I haven't gotten that up before.
Brian 32:35
I get that question a lot. They're like, well, I guess you got it the other day, you know, is Peaches really five foot four? Like, are you serious? Or do I need to get to a certain weight I get that probably once a week. Guys are saying I weigh a 135-140 pounds. And I'm really skinny or something like that. Do I need to get to a certain weight? And my answer is always like, yeah, eat right, do all that stuff nutritionally. Try not to go to like Burger King and McDonald's fast food all the time. But more importantly, can you perform the standard? And can you be a good teammate, all those other attributes that we constantly talk about, you know, we're not looking for a dude to put up on a poster, every time that we hire a candidate, although the hair does have to look good. The second thing is you have to be able to perform. So just make sure that you're able to perform the standards and that is, realistically all you need to be concerned about whether you weigh 200 pounds and perform the standard or not, then that's a thing actually, there is a thing with MEPS. We can't be a certain BMI, but barring that.
Peaches 34:01
Yeah, I think there is a underweight and an overweight that you can't be.
Trent 34:05
There's definitely an underweight or there was back in the day.
Peaches 34:09
So like you plugged earlier see a source he has they have that chart and that BMI chart that can tell you what it is.
Trent 34:18
We don't have a heightened six pack check though when you show up. We're not like, Well, you know, I can only see four of your abs, get out.
Brian 34:33
The joke when I was going through, you know, the pipeline was when you graduate into like a twig, but you don't look like an operator or whatever, until you actually get to your first unit and you actually start working out with the rest of the dudes that are able to, you know, out lift, you know, everything you because they've been lifting for a long time. So, yeah, but it isn’t until later.
Peaches 34:53
But it's different though. So training for the pipeline and in the pipeline. You're training for something very specific with which is why we always say, Hey, cool, if you're going to do weights, great, but make sure that you're doing pull ups, push-ups, sit ups, flutter kicks, you know, on and on and on. And not necessarily concerned about doing weight training because as soon as you get out of the pipeline, and you're on the team, I mean, dude, you're going to be jacking steel all the time.
Brian 35:18
Yeah, first deployment is the first time I got like, actually big with muscle. And I was like, too big.
Trent 35:30
No I mean, running gets harder when you get heavier though. And that was my second deployment. I came home from a second rotation. I'm like I am all that is man. And then I tried to run a six minute mile and almost died. And I was like, oh, now this is a thing.
BEST WAY TO START TRAINING
Peaches 35:41
Yeah, that's why all those big boys are struggling. What is the best way to get started training? I'll put that to you, Trent.
Trent 35:51
Find your weakness. So like one of the things one of the other questions. Well, that's how I look at it is, should I go do something else first, should I train in something else first legacy I studied something first. That's the thing that they talked about. And to me if you should just start training and figure out what you're not good at and focus on that. It's just like I was rolling around in my head earlier, I was watching some UFC fights and I'm like, it occurred to me like, why would you go train Muay Thai. If your weaknesses wrestling, you know, and you don't know your weaknesses, wrestling, until you start legitimately training. So go out there and find out what your weaknesses right and then train your weakness. So, to me, I'd go out there and take a past test and start there and figure out what I'm not good at. So like, you know, if you knock out your push-ups and your setups, but you only get like, you know, five, six pull ups. That's what you need to be focusing on and then keeping that other stuff going and getting yourself in the pool. But that's what should drive your training plan and your training focus. I don't know if I made a lot of sense there. I was watching UFC got amped I was like, Oh, this kind of makes sense. Like why would you do this first like, but you're not going to know that. You know what you suck it until you, you give it a go in a real world situation, don't be like, I'm going to do my pull ups all by, you know, today, the only thing I'm going to do is pull ups you knock out 10. Nah, like you should do it all, the way that the past is performed, and then figure out where your weaknesses are.
Brian 37:15
Yeah. And just to add on that, I mean, the thing that she said about taking the past test, that's exactly where I tell guys to start. And that's how I base the workout programs that I have on the website on beapj.com. If you can pass the PAST, then you go to the higher echelon one if you can't, then you go to the starting step where you have to train to pass the past. And I try to make it as straightforward as possible. Like that is all you need to do. You have these workouts and then you do them based on what you get on your score. And if you're weak at swimming, you're weak at whatever. use those tools like we were talking about the total immersion or get a buddy to help you out, find somebody, Coach if you're in high school, use your coaches that you have at your school if you know you're able to do sports right now, but use those, find your weaknesses just like Trent was saying and make sure that you work on those, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The famous thing used to say when he was, you know, training was his cast were weak so he wears shorts all the time and he makes sure he hit his calves every single session because he wanted to get his calves jacked. So work on your weaknesses, find it don't work on your strengths. It feels good to work on your strengths, but use that like as a reward if you have huge biceps and you can lift 60 pounds with each curl or whatever. Then sure, make that your reward and make it a fun thing after you're done working on your weaknesses. Not the only thing you do at the gym.
Peaches 38:39
Yeah, that's pretty common. People just don't want to work on their weaknesses. He I've been guilty of it as well.
Trent 38:46
We all have like one of these, you know, a phone with all the world's information that's ever been collected in the palm of your hand. There's a lot of different places out there on the internet to go that are good places to go to figure out, you know how your body works and what you need to do to get better at it and find the place that you know resonates with you. And get started.
Peaches 39:14
Also, you could also find an accountability partner or some, hold yourself, find a way to hold yourself accountable. I've seen it done where you announce it on social media to the world, hey, I'm doing X challenge or X event. And it's several months away. And people like if they don't see you working towards it, your friends will probably start calling you out. Or they should or maybe you should want them to call you on. I know that if I did that, I would get called out immediately. And that keeps me honest. It keeps me going for it because I don't want to have to answer the mail on. Oh man I gave up or something like that.
Brian 39:56
That's all he used to do. In the team room is like, Hey, I'm going to do a marathon. And it's going to be whatever. And everyone's you know, once a week or you know, once a month, they're like, how's your marathon training going? And if you're like, Oh, I kind of stopped running or I kind of stopped whatever, then obviously, there's a little bit diminished trust, I guess a little bit. But yeah, keep yourself accountable is super important.
Trent 40:20
And that's how I ended up where I'm at right now. I just tell people that I'm going to do and then super embarrassing if you don't follow through. And if your friends aren't the people that are going to call you out, you need new friends.
Peaches 40:32
Yeah. Okay. So we're done with the questions. Are there any other questions or topics that you guys wanted to address before I close this out? No, I got All right. Cool. We love the questions, all the interactions that we get on Instagram, YouTube comments through our email. If you go to onesready.com you can submit a question to us. You can also email us directly at info@onesready.com And we'll get back to you guys, we try and get back as quick as possible get back to you as quick as possible. Sometimes we get bogged down with our actual jobs and you know, some people are moving and that kind of stuff. But all of these interactions, all of these questions and answers are why we exist. We're trying to give you the most current up to date, and relevant information that is out there. We understand that this is not easy, is a difficult task to get through Air Force Special Warfare and even when you're on the teams, it's still difficult, it doesn't change. So one other thing to consider and this doesn't necessarily go in line with the questions that we have. But you if you're coming into this, these career fields, you need to be a self-starter, meaning you need to be able to be proactive, take initiative, problem solve, you know, some of the questions We do get and again, this this may sound bad, but because we love the questions that we're getting, but sometimes all it would take would be a simple Google search or if you listen to the podcast, like those questions are going to be answered. Now if you have something very specific rock on, and we will continue to answer these questions, we enjoy doing it again, it's why we exist, but just we are looking for problem solvers, self-starters. So if you're not one, start becoming one.
Trent 42:33
Because Aaron's not here, I'm just going to say he's the one that complains about all the questions all the time. You know, Aaron gets very upset about all the questions that you could have just Googled.
Peaches 42:44
As always, we really appreciate your time, spending it with us watching the show. Again, visit our partners Alpha Brew Coffee Company, Strike Force Energy, Eberlestock, and Hoist and will see you next time. Oh, and that promo code is ONESREADY. So unless you guys have anything else we're out. Earn Each Breath.
TLDR: If you’re thinking about joining AFSW contact a SOR today. Train hard, use what you’ve got. Don’t buy into negativity. It’s all worth it.
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