 The Tactical Games is all about carrying heavy odd objects. The Husafell stone weighed 90 pounds. Lessons Learned from The Tactical Games National Championships Part 2I competed in The Tactical Games National Championships Nov 4-6 in Texas and have shared with you my lessons learned from the first day of competition. Lessons from Day 1 are: LESSON 1: ASSUME SOMETHING WILL BE OFF WITH EQUIPMENT AFTER AIR TRAVEL LESSON 2: ALWAYS CONFIRM ZERO WHEN SHOOTING IN A NEW PLACE LESSON 3: TRUST YOUR TRAINING AND ABILITY AND VERIFY THAT EQUIPMENT IS WORKING PROPERLY Disasters are often the result of a cascade of bad decisions or things gone wrong. Usually, It’s not just one thing that leads to a catastrophic failure, but rather a chain of small missteps that amplify over time. I had plenty of small missteps on the first day that grew and amplified on day 2. Day 2 had two aggregates (one physical and one 2-gun stage) and two battles (CrossFit + shooting). I started the day in 6th place, not at all where I thought I "should" be. How many of you have heard me say "Don't should all over yourself?" There's a reason for that. When you "should" on yourself you're creating an expectation that might not match the situation. In my case, my confidence was shaken and I was chalking it up to sub-par fitness. I never even considered something could be wrong with my equipment. I began the day with the speed 2-gun aggregate. The furthest distance of this stage was 15 yards and I had no rifle misses. I felt really good about this stage and it ended up being my one and only stage win of the weekend. Again, the lurking issue of my scope being messed up did not impact my close-range shooting. I completed the other aggregate, the physical one, before my first battle. I had to use my strongest muscle to over come a short arm problem. It's important to remember that creativity can help improvise, adapt and overcome a problem. This was a lesson I learned in the Marine Corps that served me well in this event. My first battle of Saturday was Stage 5, The Dwindler. I was not looking forward to shouldering and carrying the 100-pound sandbag. I knew I could do it, but I just knew how much it was going to suck. This stage was 4 rounds for time, with a 12 min time cap of, of 4 x 25 yard 100# sandbag carry with a step over the parallette and 9 pistol and 9 rifle shots at the end of each sandbag carry. The sandbag carry distance decreased by 25 yards each round. I did not make the time cap. At the end of the stage, I realized I should probably look at my rifle target to see how I shot.  In The Dwindler I had to carry a 100 pound sandbag 20 yards and step over a 12inch paralette each time. This was a blind step and more of a challenge than I anticipated. One of the things about TTG is that you can clearly see your pistol shots as they are mostly close-range (15 yards or less). But the rifle I have never been able to see. My first TTG in Utah in March 2022 I ran a red dot without magnification and could see nothing. My second TTG in Oregon in July 2022 I had a red dot with a 3x magnifier and again, could see nothing. That is why I was eager to use the new rifle, it had a 1 x 4 and I was running it at 4. I could still see nothing and was frustrated. So I figured I should look at my rifle targets and see how things were lining up. Short story: they weren’t.  The Tactical Games are a lesson in precision and accuracy. While my rifle shots were precise, they were not accurate. This is when I knew something wasn’t right. However, a rifle scope issue was not the first conclusion I came to. I blamed my lack of fitness. I thought I must be pulling all those shots to the right because I was tired and not shooting well under stress. LESSON 4: IF IT LOOKS WRONG, RULE OUT EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTION FIRST I mentioned to James that I missed damn near every rifle shot in that stage. He found that strange knowing that I’m a good shooter. He went back to the judges' booth and asked to take a photo of my target. LESSON 5: TAKE PHOTOS OF ALL TARGETS I had several hours before my next stage and most of that time was spent with James trying to convince me to confirm zero. He was focused on ruling out a problem with my scope. I was focused on blaming myself for such terrible shooting. Refer to Lessons 3 & 4 We were able to use the Sons of Liberty Gunworks demo bay to confirm zero. Sure enough, I was at least 3 inches right at 25 yards and those 3 inches right turned into 6 inches right at 100 yards. We adjusted my scope 15 clicks left and went on to the next stage. (Lesson 2 & 3).  By the time I got to The Medley I was ready to walk off into the sunset. Stage 6, The Medley, was the last stage of the day. This was the longest battle of the day broken up into two 12 minute segments. The first segment was fitness and shooting. We had to do lateral burpees over the axle bar and carry the bar 25 yards in a different way for each round. Rond one we Zercher carried the axle bar, round two we front rack carried it and round three we overhead carried it. The axle bar weighed 75 pounds and we shot 10 rounds pistol and 10 rounds rifle at the end of each round. I did not make the time cap. After the fitness and shooting 12 mins was up we immediately transitioned into 12 mins as many reps as possible of 20 yard Husafell stone carry, 8.5 foot wall climb over. This was just a long slog and I completed 5 rounds and 1 carry in the 12 min time cap. At the end of this stage we looked again at my rifle target (Lessons 3 & 5).  I'm finally getting some accurate shots, but most of my shots are still too far right. I was finally getting some shots into the target despite not being able to discern the square at 100 yards. However, we noticed the bulk of them were still to the right. At this point, I felt I had nothing to lose as I was already in 6th place. We might as well move more clicks left and hope for the best (Lesson 4.)  I was so grateful for the hand and foot holds on the 8.5 foot wall climb over. At the end of day 2 my total lessons learned were:
LESSON 1: ASSUME SOMETHING WILL BE OFF WITH EQUIPMENT AFTER AIR TRAVEL LESSON 2: ALWAYS CONFIRM ZERO WHEN SHOOTING IN A NEW PLACE LESSON 3: TRUST YOUR TRAINING AND ABILITY AND VERIFY THAT EQUIPMENT IS WORKING PROPERLY LESSON 4: IF IT LOOKS WRONG, RULE OUT EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTION FIRST LESSON 5: TAKE PHOTOS OF ALL TARGETS You'll read about the remaining 2 lessons learned in my #mentaltoughness Thursday post next week.
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 The men in the 5:30pm class do burpees. You might feel like you're having a sudden cardiac emergency when you do burpees. Now, if you really are we can save your life with our AED! FREE AED TRAINING THIS MONDAY!We all know that exercise makes us healthier. We run, jump, lift, pull, and push heavy things to make us stronger and harder to kill. However, even the strongest and fittest amongst us can be grounded by sudden cardiac emergency.
Just ask off-duty police officer Sergeant Michael Dahl who was enjoying his evening workout at Timberwolf Fitness in Roseville, MN when he noticed a member going into cardiac arrest. He grabbed the gym's AED and saved a life. Mike Fowler of Sharp Edge CrossFit in Evanston, IL was saved by owner Tani Mintz when he fell to the ground and she noticed his breath had become shallow, almost non-existent, and she noticed his face was swollen and blue-ish purple. That’s when she ran and grabbed the AED and followed the instructions. Kyle Lindstrom was at CrossFit City of Lakes when his workout was cut short after suffering from a heart attack. The Coach grabbed the AED and saved his life. At CrossFit Megalodon in Venice, FL, Jack Carroll, a 70-year-old longtime member dropped to the floor, appearing to be in cardiac distress. Quick actions of the Coach and fellow members saved his life with an AED. An automated external defibrillator (AED) uses an electric shock to attempt to restore a healthy rhythm back to a heart. They may be used to treat or prevent arrhythmia when the heart’s rhythm is erratic or too fast or slow. Defibrillators can also be used to bring a stopped heart back into sync. When they're available for use in a sudden cardiac emergency they can increase the survival rate dramatically. They key is to use them as soon as symptoms occur. According to AED USA there is a 7–10% decrease in survival rate for every minute that a patient has to wait for defibrillation. Unfortunately, Soren Jospeh Hartnett did not survive after he suffered a sudden cardiac emergency on a sunny July day Bozeman while training with his Bridger Ski Foundation Nordic ski teammates. Our friends lost their son and out of their grief a wonderful foundation and purpose has emerged. They have dedicated themselves to raising awareness of the importance of AEDs. We recently were awarded a grant from Soren's foundation to purchase an AED for our gym. You may have seen it in the front room. We are offering FREE AED training at the gym this Monday at 6:30pm. Buck Taylor, certified instructor and 6am regular (who just celebrated his 500th class!) has generously donated his time for this training. All of our TSCF Coaches are AED certified and will be attending this free training as a refresher. We invite all of you to join us. It's the fast actions of Coaches and fellow gym members who will save a life. We also invite you to participate in the 2nd annual Ski for Soren Nordic Race event this January. Please support the Ski For Soren event by skiing or donating. It's the actions of others who helped us make TSCF a safer place for you.  Which kind of muscle contractions is Anne demonstrating? Concentric, Eccentric, Isometric |
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