 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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Lessons from The Tactical Games National ChampionshipsI competed in The Tactical Games National Championships Nov 4-6 in Texas. As with all competitions, I had some fantastic successes and some brutal failures. I fervently believe that we learn more from our failures than from our successes and TTG National Championships provided me with many, many learning opportunities. I will explore some of these lessons over the next few weeks in this Mental Toughness Thursday blog. LESSON 1: ASSUME SOMETHING WILL BE OFF WITH EQUIPMENT AFTER AIR TRAVEL The first misstep in Texas happened when I took possession of my rifle case after our flights. It was nearly impossible to open the case because of the incredible vacuum seal created during travel. The top and bottom of the cases were completely concaved. The vacuum was so powerful that it took a LOT of force to break the seal and open the case. We inspected the rifle and nothing appeared damaged. I did not treat the vacuum issue seriously and just assumed the scope was not impacted. See Lesson 1. I had an opportunity to confirm zero at the event venue, the Texas Shooting Academy, on Thursday. I did put some rounds downrange, but I did not actually confirm zero. I was intimidated. Everyone else was prepared for this process and I was clearly not. Lacking targets, staple gun, shooting bags, etc. I just faked my way through this. ROOKIE MOVE!! I noticed all my shots were to the right, but I was shooting at 50 yards and I often pull right. So I just chalked it up to competition nerves. I did not make any adjustments to my scope and just moved on. If I had a do-over I would have asked someone for targets. I would have confirmed zero at 100 yards. I would have made adjustments to my scope. LESSON 2: ALWAYS CONFIRM ZERO WHEN SHOOTING IN A NEW PLACE  Silly Strongman was my least favorite stage and involved chain Zercher and yoke carries. The first indicator that something wasn’t right was after Stage 2, Silly Strongman. I was the last to finish the battle and ended up placing 6th. I didn’t pay attention to my miss penalties because I assumed my placing was because I finished last. I never saw my rifle target so I had no idea where any of my shots landed (at about 100 yards). I ended up with 300 penalty points. I just chalked it up to competition nerves and lack of physical ability. LESSON 3: TRUST YOUR TRAINING AND ABILITY AND VERIFY THAT EQUIPMENT IS WORKING PROPERLY  Silly Strongman yoke carry. Both the yoke and the Zercher chain carries swing wildly if you move too fast or take too large of stride. It took a few laps to find the right balance between speed and quick feet. The first day wasn't all failures however. I completed 4 stages that day and I placed 2nd and 4th in 2 of them. My 2nd place finish was in the Power Sprint at Rattler CrossFit. This was a fitness only stage and it played to my strengths. We had 2 mins to accumulate 24 calories on the ski erg, 2 mins to accumulate 34 calories on the bike erg, and 2 mins to accumulate 40 calories on the rowing erg. I got time-capped at 36 calories on the row erg, and it was good enough for second!  The Power Sprint was my first time using a ski erg. It was HARD! Another success was the 2-gun van stage. I didn’t know it when I finished, but I placed fourth. I was hitting 12-inch steel targets at 200 yards. I heard the steel ring and that made me happy. Again, the only misses on that stage were the small steel targets. Easy to miss at 200? Yes, but not actually for me.  Staying calm before the high-pressure fast shooting of the 2-gun stage. I had 2 minutes to engage 6 rifle targets at 200 yards and 6 handgun targets at close range. Another bright spot was the long run. I knew I would place last in this stage. I just focused on what success looked like for me and tried to have as much fun as possible running through the beautiful oak and juniper woodland of the Texas Hill Country. Five miles of rolling hills in the rain really wasn't that bad. It was hard and I kinda liked it.
In fact, that motto helped me survive the first day and all the things that went wrong on day 2 and 3. I will share those stories and lessons learned with you in my next Mental Toughness Thursday blog.  32 years ago it was a newsworthy when a woman went to war. These days no one thinks twice about women going to war. I'm proud to be an important part of feminist military history. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, our national day of gratitude to those who have served in our country’s military. Veteran’s Day is always bittersweet for me. I appreciate the gratitude of our Nation, and all of my personal friends, family and acquaintances, and yet, I am often sad on Veteran’s Day.
Not long into my enlistment in the US Marines, in the summer of 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Within a few months I found myself, at the tender age of 19, disembarking a transport plane, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Saudi Arabian dessert. I was immediately issued 4 magazines full of 5.56 mm ammunition for the M16 rifle I carried. From the moment I stepped off the plane, until the moment I departed for home, my M16 rifle and my M40 gas mask were always on my body. It was folly to be without them. My military occupational specialty was aircraft firefighting and rescue. I served on a team that, when a plane or helicopter crashed, extinguished the fire and rescued the crew. We were busy in Desert Storm. We had all manner of flight line emergencies. We had A-10s make emergency landings with hung ordinance, AH-1 Cobra helicopters barely make it back because they were so shot up with small arms fire, and we had a spectacular mishap when a Saudi Arabian helicopter taxied into the wing of a C-130. It was a busy time. The saddest duty I pulled during the Persian Gulf War was providing fire support for the mobile medical unit. Our base of operations was the furthest north air field and combat hospital, and nearly every wounded Marine, soldier, airman, and seaman was triaged and treated there. Once they were stable enough for transport, they were sent to a major military hospital in Germany. Our job, was to make sure no fires started on the plane or on the airfield, and that no terrorists drove by while the injured were being loaded onto the plane. My heart broke every time a litter with a wounded serviceman was loaded onto the plane. Most were severely burned, and many had lost limbs. While our war was short, those that fought on the front lines got hammered in their tanks and light armored vehicles by mortars and RPGs. I will never forget these brave wounded men. This is why Veteran’s Day makes me sad, it is an all day reminder of those cold nights and sandstorm raging days when I stood on the airfield, with my hand-line, ready to extinguish fires, or turn the firehose towards an unknown vehicle traveling too fast in our direction. Surviving a war and coming home can be difficult for many. It was for me.  Honor Week Starts TOMORROW!Tomorrow starts our annual Honor Week. Honor Week is always the week leading up to Veteran's Day. It's when we honor and celebrate the service of the veterans of our TSCF community.
One of the most significant challenges a veteran faces is the transition out of the military into civilian life. While we're in the military we are surrounded by people who share an experience. We are united by the mission. We speak a common language. We find humor in the morbid. We survive awful conditions through irreverence. When we get out we often feel adrift. One of the ways that we bond and develop trust in the military is through physical fitness. It's the most basic method to measure up a teammate. Can they carry the load? Can they do the work? Can they hack the hard shit? If they can't we know with certainty that we can't trust them. They will be a non-hacker when it matters most. If they can, they will have our trust. Even if we don't like each other, we will work together to get the hard shit done. This kind of bond is almost non-existent outside of the military. No where else in my life since getting out have I ever had to earn someone's trust by doing hard physical things. Likewise, I struggled to learn how to trust folks because I didn't have a metric that I could use. I didn't have an instant community of people who knew how to do hard things. I floundered and wondered for years how I would ever find a group of folks with whom I could bond through a shared intense experience. ENTER CROSSFIT My first CrossFit class, in March of 2010, kicked my ass in a way it hadn't been kicked since the Marine Corps. I looked around and saw all kind of folks leaning into hard work. I saw men and women finishing a hard workout in a pool of sweat on the floor. Then I saw them get up and ask for more. I finally found my people. This shared intense experience was so powerful to me it's one of the reasons I opened True Spirit CrossFit. While it's a great place for you and your friends and family to get healthy. It's the place where I learned how to trust in people again. It's the place that after being out of the Marine Corps for over 20 years I have finally created a community of veterans that I actually WANT to hang out with. I'm so happy to know all of you. I am so grateful for the Navy, Army and Air Force veterans who make our gym so fun. I'm especially happy to have "my Marines." Thanks for helping my learn how to be a better human. |
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