“So I am extremely excited to introduce you to a whole new view of training and a paradigm shift when it comes to being fit. I know some of you reading this will have heard of Scott Sonnon, but I bet you haven’t read too many interviews with the guy. The reason for this is that he is one of the premier special forces trainers in the world right now. He is in serious demand right now, training counter-terrorism unit, Navy SEALS, police forces, SWAT teams, etc. He spent 6 years traveling all around Russia and masterminded with former USSR Olympic Coaches and trainers of Russian Special Forces. He took this cutting-edge research and improved upon it during those 6 years and has been introducing it to the U.S. These days, everyone wants to pick his brain when it comes to fitness and conditioning. He doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot of time to do interviews, but luckily I nailed a quick Q&A with him. The following is one of the best interviews I’ve had on this site so far.
[Ever heard of terms like “Stored Elastic Energy” or “Sequential “Summation of Forces”? When you learn conditioning from Scott, prepare add about 10-20 new terms to your vocabulary!]

How I Landed The Interview With Scott Sonnon

Back in October of last year, I purchased a fat loss course put together by Adam Steer and Ryan Murdock. I dropped my gym membership setup a private blog for people from this site who also purchased the course. I spent 3 months posting to this private blog daily and worked through this tough program along with everyone else. Out of the 200+ that joined me on the private blog, less than 20 finished the program to completion with me. I learned that Scott Sonnon was the guy behind what Ryan and Adam were teaching and that they learned these brutal (but effective) training techniques from him. All 20 of us who finished the program got great results, but it was a tough and humbling 90 day period. I knew that I wanted to eventually get an interview with Scott. It took some time, but Adam and Ryan finally hooked me up. Thanks guys!

Rusty: Okay Scott, you have some serious credentials. I have about a zillion questions that you could answer, but I will keep this narrowed down to Special Ops Training. So how did you go from martial arts to full blown trainer for the Russian Special Forces and Israeli Counter-Terrorism Units?

Scott: I happened to be in the wrong place at the right time, and I guess I had the perfect combination of character flaws to want to go places others are smart enough to steer clear of. As a multiple-time champion and national coach of SAMBO – Russia’s national wrestling style — I was offered a difficult choice.

I could be the first American to formally intern in Russia at the SAMBO-70 Academy, or I could be dropped into a government “think tank” of trainers made up of ex-USSR Olympic coaches, Russian Special Forces, Military Intelligence and Political Security. I chose the latter…

…and I spent 6 years traveling back and forth to Russia and all around that country. I gained incredible insights into the now defunct Soviet Superhuman Sports Machine. Fortunately, we were able to absorb their research and take it to the next level in our country.

Over the years our work has leaked out of the government side and into the sports community – the NFL, NHL, MLP, UFC, etc… – and eventually out into mainstream awareness through public fitness programs. But I still nurture my contracts in the special operation and federal law enforcement communities, because frankly, I find them easiest to relate to. I guess I’ve never been quite right in the head. I find that by going where I’ve never been within myself, finding out just how deep this apparently bottomless rabbit hole of human potential goes, seeing both life and training as a martial art to be mastered every day, I can only find solace with other like-minded spirits who revel in the same brand of spiritual masochism. For me, it’s an honor to train among them and to share my experiences with them, whether that be with our hard-core heroes here at home or when I’m invited to train allies like the Israeli special forces and the Italian secret service.

Rusty: I went through a course by Adam Steer and Ryan Murdock last year that was tailored around your Circular Strength Training principles. This might be the first routine that actually increased my flexibility and increased range of motion. Can you explain why your techniques are so much better than traditional stretching for flexibility?

Scott: In general, static flexibility training is meant to change the resting length of soft tissue. It stretches tissues long or hard enough to cause a permanent deformation, much like pulling a plastic bag until it can’t spring back to its original length. You certainly could address tight muscles that way, but ultimately it’s a danger to joint integrity, and it isn’t helpful for muscle growth or sports performance.

By contrast, mobility exercises focus on restoring the natural range of motion of the tissues surrounding a joint complex. It’s a little bit like shaking out a muscle when it’s tight. Tension is a frequency, and meeting it with vibrations of the same frequency releases and restores the natural resting length of all muscles involved. It’s more complex than just shaking out a muscle of course, but that can be a starting point.

Both static flexibility training and regular resistance training cause the outer bag to become glued down to other bags, forming attachments or “adhesions.” If you don’t use mobility exercise to restore the resting length of these tissues, the tightly knotted muscles become thick and leathery, and they shorten. Short, tight muscles have less ability to contract, which means you’ll plateau fast in your training, and you’ll stop growing.

Mobility keeps your outer bags fluid and prevents them from being glued down. It also releases the inner bag, so you’re always growing.

Rusty: My guess is a lot of the special forces guys you train, and bodyguards are probably similar to me when they start out. They are traditional gym trained guys who are in great shape, but most likely get rocked by your routine. What do you find are the biggest weak points for guys who haven’t gone through your flow and Circular Strength Training based routines?

Scott: “Get rocked” is a pretty accurate description. The biggest lack I see in guys who come from the “Go Big or Go Home” mentality is that they’re incapable of moving pain- and injury-free through any obstacle with ease and imagination. By contrast, my guys and gals move very much like parkour or cirque performers within just a few weeks of training. It has to do with two geek concepts that I learned from Russian bioengineers: Stored Elastic Energy (the ability to absorb and retranslate force – to change direction, twist, bend, dive, climb, and leap suddenly and from odd angles), and Sequential Summation of Forces (or “expressible power” – the difference between getting hit by a bat and getting cracked by a whip; the bat will hurt and maybe even break a bone, but the whip will sever a limb).

Think of it this way. Most traditional exercises are performed by pressing or pulling front-back, up-down or side to side. But the body isn’t built to express power that way. The body expresses power through angles and diagonals.

You don’t walk by stepping forward with your right leg and right arm at the same time. Try it. You look and feel like a motor moron, don’t you? We walk asymmetrically: left arm forward, right leg forward, alternating with right arm forward, left leg forward. We also throw, swing, strike, etc that way. If you only train in 1 or 2 dimensions, you become less and less able to translate your power into other skills, eventually becoming encased in a coffin of your own dysfunction. And that’s how most of these folks train.

But with a couple weeks of TACFIT under their belt, these “go big or go home” guys suddenly feel like martial art masters. Why? Because that’s how old-school, hard-knocks martial artists have always trained – at least they did until the past couple decades, when “exercise physiology grads” decided to impose their robotic movements upon the lethal power of sophisticated movement in traditional martial arts conditioning.

Rusty: You are training guys to get in top condition to defend their life or the lives of others. What makes your principles so effective when it comes to combat, self defense, etc?

Scott: Because real fitness is self-defense. Real training is combat. There is no other determining factor. Ultimately, when we say “fitness” we mean “fit to perform in the worst crisis, for as long as possible.” I realize that my definitions are controversial, but frankly, I’m not concerned with what other organizations think about us any longer. I once sought their approval and I spoke at their conventions and conferences, but now I just call it as I see it.

What are you fit FOR? You should be fit to fight, and fit to fight for as long as humanly possible. If you’re not, then you’re just a hobbyist.

Now, don’t get me wrong, most martial artists nowadays aren’t fit to fight sleep, much less an attacker. They’ve memorized dance moves with as much expressible power as a 5 year old mimicking The Last Airbender.

If you’re actually FIT… you are tactically fit. And if you’re tactically fit, you’re far better off than the martial artist who has memorized thousands of techniques but couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper death trap.

Conditioning is the ultimate submission hold. Whoever can absorb and retranslate collision, change angles, reorient and ground at odd angles, wins. Not bigger, faster, stronger. We’ve proven that in every arena, from the micro of human combat to air battles with armed and armored jets.

You walk into a room and you see a circus of puffed Jersey boys with Mr. T starter sets bedazzling their wife-beater cleavage. And then you see that one wiry, ripped guy leaning against the exit banister, smiling quietly amongst the noise – and you instantly recognize that the “commando in the corner” is the man you want at your 6 when the shit hits the fan.

Rusty: I have a work space in a downtown area that is getting tougher by the day. If I have an extra 2-3 hours per week to learn good self-defense techniques, how is my time most well spent. Any particular classes that you would recommend? What are your thoughts on Krav Maga?

Scott: You’d be best off working a generalized mobility session first solo, and then with a partner. Helping a person through mobility drills with your hands teaches you where he can be most efficiently manipulated for takedowns, throws and submissions. The movements encoded in TACFIT Commando are defensive tactics. They’re not just a random adjunct to defensive tactics but are actually the support system for them. You can’t do sometimes what you don’t do daily. TACFIT Commando is exactly what you need.

You’d do much better by training to the point that you can’t see, can’t talk and can barely think, and then going one repetition further with good form. That final repetition, where you’d do anything to surrender but you manage to keep form and go one more step, is more valuable than any “black belt.” Take that from someone who has earned several black belts that are buried somewhere in my closet.

Rusty: I know that most of your training is geared toward strength, mobility, and function…but what about a guy who wants to look great on the beach? How does a body trained using your principles look different compared to a typical gym trained body?

Scott: Puffy jiggly bumps do not make a beach body. The girls just laugh at them anyway… or at least they do as soon as some badass steps out of the waves with his skin shrink-wrapped around the gnarled limbs of a commando physique LOL. No, I can’t say that my program will give you the typical gym-trained body. And I’d sell my soul to the Devil before I’d do you the dishonor of giving you the appearance of strength alone. I give you both GO Muscle AND Show Muscle. A body that’ll serve you just as well on mission as it does on shore leave.

Rusty: I am pretty darn interested in TACFIT. I didn’t get back in February when you guys launched it…mainly because I was launching a muscle building course.Can you give me an outline of what this program is all about?

Scott: Sure. We put the Commando program together to maximize continued muscle growth while ensuring optimal fat loss. The program targets the energy systems of tactical response: that means high intensity, three-dimensional movements done for repeated bursts of short duration, with fast recovery. Each “mission” can be completed in less than 30 minutes, and those 30 intense minutes melt fat faster than hours of cardio-style exercise. When you’re on vacation, too busy to get to the gym, or simply want to shake things up a bit while still building muscle, this is the perfect equipment-free solution.

Each individual exercise in the program has been carefully chosen to forge the highest level of specific conditioning while building and reinforcing tactically relevant skill sets. This translates to tireless stamina, extreme range reactive strength, ballistic speed, the agility and coordination of a Free Runner, and active recovery and pre-habilitation. And it’s simply a hell of a lot of fun to do.

Oh, and each exercise in the 3-month plan comes with 3 different levels of movement difficulty, so it’s completely accessible to beginners while still difficult enough at the higher levels to challenge even elite athletes. If you follow all 3 months of the program and then repeated them with each level of movement difficulty (building your neurological sophistication as you increase your “go muscle”), you’ll have 9 full months of challenging training right there at your fingertips.

Rusty: I was looking at your Facebook page and it looks like you travel around to train Police Departments with TACFIT. Is this the same material as what is in the course?

Scott: Yes, police, military, security, fire. Everyone trains with the same program, just not at the same level. Most systems toggle variables like intensity, volume, density, frequency, speed, etc. But what sets TACFIT apart is that it manipulates complexity. When an agency comes to TACFIT, they have a diverse fitness population that needs to train together as a team. That’s one reason why there are several levels to each exercise in the TACFIT program.

The way the program is trained is more important than the specific level of the technique, and the level of the technique is more important than the type of tension produced, and the type of tension produced is more important than the tools. That’s why we can do a TACFIT session with absolutely no equipment: anywhere, anytime.

And many times that could be in the desert, in the jungle, on a mountain, on the tundra, on a ship, at a hotel, or wherever you happen to be.

There are no excuses. Everyone trains, no one quits. Everyone finishes with perfect form, just not at the same level of movement complexity. And that’s why TACFIT commandos are always improving at such a rapid rate. They don’t train poor technique just to finish.

Your nervous system is the only real weapon you’ll ever have. We treat it like gold.

Rusty: I love traditional gym workouts with free weights, etc. Can I successfully alternate TACFIT for a few months along with my favorite gym routine for a few months? Is there something I should do to insure I maintain joint mobility when not doing TACFIT?

Scott: Yes. It’s not the type of tool that’s important, it’s the formula used. If you understand the formula you can alternate in some of your other favorite workouts, if you wish. Understanding how to use “mobility” as a specific warm-up and “compensation” as a specific cool-down holds true whether you’re doing a traditional gym program or TACFIT. And you’ll learn how to incorporate these elements by doing the TACFIT Commando program.

Rusty: Chuck Norris in his prime vs Bruce Lee in his prime….who comes out on top?

Scott: Whoever’s friend shows up first with a gun.

Rusty: I appreciate your time in answering these questions. I know you are extremely busy, but I know the readers here really appreciate hearing directly from the originator of this cutting-edge training program.

Scott: Rusty, it’s my pleasure. Warriors aren’t born, they’re made. They’re forged in small towns and in garage gyms, and they’re hardly ever what people expect. They’re usually the ones who simply bust ass every day while others blab about the latest reality show or game station. They’re out there, and if you’re any indication of what your readers are like, I suspect you’ve got quite a few “commandos in the corner” brother. Be safe.

Each minute on the minute (for 20 rounds) perform:

• 6 Tactical Pop-ups
• 6/6 Springing Tripods
• 6/6 Swinging Planks
• 6 Knee-drop Spinal Rocks

Maximum score 20 points. If you don’t finish all the reps in one minute, start over at the beginning of the next minute. To earn the point, finish them all in less than 60 seconds. Some don’t think it’s possible to finish the Commando level in 60 seconds. Here’s 45 seconds worth:

www.flowcoach.tv,

Scott Sonnon

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They weren’t hostile enemy forces of course, but these well-intentioned people were entirely unaware of the mob they could become, and the threat they created to themselves and to each other through their efforts for a closer glimpse or even a touch of the speaker.

As is always the case when on assignment, the job taught me several new lessons about physical preparedness that I’d like to share with you.

One of the main bodily challenges our security team faced was to create a “gentle wall” between our principle and those who wanted to see her. The cumulative pressure of a crowd requires a specific stance to maintain group integrity. This isn’t a hostile mob, but numbers win. If you don’t hold yourself in a specific lunge, you’ll inadvertently create a breach in the wall, causing people to collapse in on each other. Sometimes that open sluice gate can cause injuries as well. Fortunately, I train every day with these specific positions in TACFIT, and so I’m able to hold even uncomfortable stances with ease.

But sometimes holding position isn’t enough. Even in a friendly crowd, you’ll occasionally encounter that rare individual with a psychotic break, like we had on this assignment. Psychotics off their medication tend to be inhumanly strong because their innate self-protection mechanisms have become unhinged. As protection professionals, we’re still legally and morally required to minimize any damage that these people could do to themselves or to the innocents around them, despite flailing limbs, dead-weight and bursts of insanely strong frenzy.

Restraining hostile individuals without damage requires sensitivity, agility and fast reaction time. Despite decades of defensive tactics training, if it weren’t for my daily TACFIT conditioning I wouldn’t have been able to keep others (and myself) from harm while restraining the subject until our principle, audience and team were safe.

Administrations expect their personnel to observe a “use-of-force continuum”, a graduated spectrum of non-lethal to fully-lethal force options. And yet, despite the  fact that the primary skill set of law enforcement, security and dignitary protection is “soft open-hand control” – non-concussive manipulation of the hostile subject – these agencies and individuals typically allocate the greatest amount of their conditioning time to “high intensity training,” or HIT.

Why is this a problem?

You always perform your fitness training significantly more often than you perform your defensive tactics training. In many cases, it’s a difference of hour(s) per day versus hour(s) per month. But conditioning is conditioning. The central nervous system cannot differentiate between types of resistance. It cannot even differentiate between a physical threat and an emotional/symbolic one. It only knows resistance.

If you’re conditioning yourself for a few hours per month to be able to employ a continuum of force when facing bodily resistance (your defensive tactics training), but you’re conditioning yourself for a couple hours per day to exert either no tension or HIGH tension (your fitness training), which volume of conditioning do you think will win out when you’re suddenly facing resistance from a hostile subject? Of course the high tension toggle switch will win every time. It’s a numbers game.

The same is true when it comes to stress arousal – handling the adrenal dump of sudden, intense, often violent encounters. Daily conditioning in a system that teaches me to maximize my recovery from my maximum heart rate (HRmax) allows me to remain calm and clearheaded in a crisis. Where my heart rate hardly elevated above my resting rate even when restraining a psychotic, others were way beyond their HRmax before they were even within range to try to apply their skills.

And what of those who train with conditioning methods that stress nut-busting high intensity routines designed to push them beyond HRmax – or those that go submax only, or those that don’t teach specific recovery methods at all? It’ll play out exactly like our force continuum example above. That patterned conditioning will rule the day, whether you intend it to or not. They had conditioned themselves to get to HRmax (and beyond) as fast as possible, making them not only useless in a crisis, but a liability to the team, the principle and the crowd.

This raises an obvious question: is no conditioning better than inappropriate conditioning? What about the guys who don’t train fitness at all? Does this mean they’ll respond with proportionate force under stress?

Absolutely not, unfortunately. A couple hours per month (and in some cases only a few hours per quarter) is an insufficient amount of training time to overcome the body’s natural defensive reflex of high tension: the startle reflex, or flinch. If you don’t exercise with a spectrum of tension in your training, when push comes to shove you’ll go rock hard with the highest force response in your arsenal. That’s your body’s natural mechanism for survival. Unfortunately, it presents a legal as well as a survival liability when all you have is a hammer and you need a toolbox.

There are three types of mechanoreception: kinesthetic or movement sense, position or “bone” sense, and force/tension sense. Of the three, this last sense, force/tension – the ability to know the exact degree of resistance you’re facing, and being able to respond with the appropriate level of tension to overcome or neutralize it – is the key to both legal defensibility and operational effectiveness in hostile subject control.

And what about the rest of the time?

Despite the occasional adrenaline-drenched encounter, dignitary protection isn’t usually so dramatic – at least not if you’ve done the proper advance work. We’re often simply standing watch for 8, 12, or even 36 hours straight: on our feet, on cement, on alert.

The physical monotony of long watch can wreak havoc of your awareness, draining blood from your brain and synovial fluid from your joints. Because of this discomfort, team members are often seen fidgeting from foot, knee and lower back pain.

Thanks to TACFIT, my joints are lubricated and primed for long periods of standing by a door or entryway without adverse effect. Despite having had my neck broken and my lower back blown out in martial arts competition, I felt no discomfort even after 5 straight days on assignment. If it weren’t for my daily conditioning, none of this would be possible or preventable.

As professionals, we must train daily how others never train at all: within the full spectrum of resistance that runs through the unique 4 day wave of intensity in TACFIT, as well as in the “sophisticated” tactically-specific skills contained therein.

Training TACFIT-style keeps me and my team safe at all times – or as safe as it’s possible to be when functioning as a human shield.

www.flowcoach.tv,

Scott Sonnon

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The central nervous system cannot differentiate between a true physical threat and an emotional/symbolic one, so regardless of whether someone’s pointing a gun at you, or you’re facing infantile tantrums, belligerent co-workers or reckless drivers, your nervous system reacts with the same alarm systems.

The following method will be of use to both professionals and weekend warriors, no matter what sort of stress arousal you’re dealing with. It’s a little something I learned while working with Russian Spetsnaz snipers.

Many Sambo fighters, like myself, were called to special operations units due to their hand to hand fighting expertise. But the snipers had an unusual skill set to bring to the “think-tank” we were dropped into. Unlike the armies of other nations, the Soviet/Russian sniper backed up a squad with a long range semi-automatic rifle, for multiple shots on single and multiple targets.

The snipers faced long durations of ultra-slow crawling and even longer durations of motionlessness. One of their exams involved remaining in constant motion for one hour, but only covering 1 meter. Few people realize the stress of ultra-slow motion and motionlessness. They believe that if you move slowly or not at all, you couldn’t possibly be stressed. But the body is always moving even when lying motionless, because we are constantly resisting gravity’s pull.

Unlike yoga “corpse pose” (supinated) breathing meditations, the sniper pose (prone) presents stress challenges to the movement of the respiratory mechanisms: the ribs must widen rather than extend, and they must do so without disrupting the spine so as to avoid “noise” interfering with the rifle shot.

Lying on your back and moving your belly in yoga certainly helps you to de-stress, but the reality of managing a tactical lifestyle — or a modern lifestyle for that matter — involves not stress avoidance but stress management.

The sniper’s meditation is performed prone, with your arms overhead, palms flat, and your mouth on the ground. (Rest your mouth on a folded hand towel if you wish.)

You may adjust your elbows down to parallel with your shoulders if you feel sharp pains, or pins and needs from prior conditions of impingement. If you don’t have existing issues that prevent you from holding the pose, then keep your arms overhead. Holding that position will help you to realize just how much shoulder (clavicular level) breathing you do.

There are three depths to breath:

• clavicular -  lifting your shoulders to relieve pressure to the lungs, and as a result “sucking” in air through the back pressure – which is what most people do
• intercostal – expanding your rib cage to create back pressure, rather than lifting your sternum in clavicular level
• diaphragmatic – moving your belly to allow the dome of your diaphragm to compress your guts, which allows air to be “sucked” to the bottom – rarely used – third of your lungs

The snipers meditation forces you to use the bottom third of your lungs, while minimizing the disruptions caused by the middle and upper thirds.

Instead of pressing your belly down into the ground (as you would press it up into the air in yoga’s corpse pose), feel the muscles of your exhale press down into the saddles of your pelvis. You’ll feel pressure into the earth, but it shouldn’t lift your back. Your ribs should widen, but you should prevent your sternum from “lifting” (pressing your back up by pushing into the earth.) With your arms overhead, keep your shoulders from lifting away from your rib cage, as you might if you were gassing out of breath and heaving your shoulders up and down.

Practice these mechanics until you feel as though you could balance a bowl of water on your back without spilling it as you breathe.

Once you have the basic mechanics mastered, it’s time to begin the real challenge: placing your chin instead of your mouth on the towel. If you have pre-existing neck injuries, you may not be able to do this meditation. If so, restrict yourself to the face-down version.

The typical rifle used by Russian snipers, the SVD-Dragunov, brought with it a particular challenge of eye relief when using the POSP 3-9×42 scope. To meet this, snipers practiced specific optical strengthening exercises. Some look rather crazy, and I use themto scare my kids when we’re playing zombie-chase. In this case, you’ll be practicing the “unblinking eye.”

The average blink frequency interval is approximately every 2 to 10 seconds for most people. When reading, the blink rate decreases to as long as 3 to 4 minutes. The sniper meditation works up to 10 minutes, which doesn’t sound superhuman until you realize you won’t have anything distracting you, like a book, television or computer. You will become fully aware just how much your frenetic mind chatters away as you try to keep one-pointed focus on relaxing your face, while simultaneously managing the stress of controlling your breath so as not to disturb your sniper position.

Begin with a goal of 30 seconds. Relax your forehead, jaw, lips and eyelids — in that order — and give yourself one last, long close of the eyelids. With your eyes closed, take one final large inhale. As you open your eyes, exhale long and go for 30 seconds before you blink.

Focus on a distance of at least 30 to 40 feet away from your current position. Keep your eyes open the entire time. The chattering mind can be disciplined much more rapidly and effectively with open-eyed meditations, because when you’re attending an external object, the mind goes into information gathering mode rather than into processing, strategizing or reflection mode.

When you can exhale for 30 seconds and not blink until the end of your exhale, then blink and begin over. Practice 5 inhale-exhale cycles in a row without blinking to reset the nervous system.

Your nervous system commandeers the “blinking center” of the brain when faced with stress. It’s a defensive reflex, which is why people reflexively blink during startle response, unless specifically trained otherwise. The stress of the sniper position with the objective of not disturbing the spine causes the nervous system to trump out the blinking center of the brain. It’s quite an ordeal.

Do just one set per day, and do it in the morning when your eyes are fresh. Don’t do more than that. You have 20 to 30 sebaceous, oil-producing glands located between your eyelashes, which are invisible to the naked eye. Blinking automatically coats the eyelid and eyelashes with lubricant from these glands to prevent them from drying out.

Roll out of your rack and onto the floor to perform your set before your mobility warmup for the day. What we were taught, and what I use to this day, is to focus upon my “mission critical” tasks for that day. With each exhale I visualize the successful completion of each objective, then move on to the next in sequence of importance, timing and scheduling.

The sniper’s meditation has helped me just as much — and perhaps more — than any yogic meditation, because it “checks” me to see how I hold my intent for the day under stress while remaining steady as granite.

www.flowcoach.tv,

Scott Sonnon

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In October of 1995, already a world medalist and national coach of Russian Sambo, after years of petitioning, I became the 1st American to receive invitations to formally intern behind the post-Perestroika “Iron Curtain” of the former USSR. The first invite came as a phone call from SAMBO-70, the 2nd largest academy in the world, to dorm at their facility and learn authentic Russian wrestling. The second invite came as an email from the Russian Scientific Consultant Practical Training Center to study with the Spetsnaz SOU trainers in stress physiology and combat biomechanics.

In a major surprise to my teammates and colleagues, I accepted the latter invitation, unable to accept both. The years I spent training with the Russian coaches, laid the groundwork for understanding how and why I was able to overcome my own limitations, as well as why my father, as great the warrior he was, was unable to reintegrate into family and society after the war. Though both trained in Sambo, the special operations units trained differently than the professional athletes. Not merely the technical ends differed from the mat to the field, but also the manner, the means remained completely different. The tactical operator needed to train in light of the stress of his service, as he didn’t have the luxury of the sport dormitory life.

During those years, I accepted the position as the US Coach of the 1st ever American team to compete at the World Police Sambo Championships (1999, Kaunas, Lithuania). Due to the disparate geography of the people I was training, I began developing training protocols which would address the stress physiology of the officers, rather than their athletic capabilities alone. They needed to remain operationally ready, pain and injury free regardless of their competitive fighting, and they needed to decrease the adverse effects of stress upon them, rather than increase them.

Over the next decade, I continued my research in related disciplines and continued to test and refine my approach. Compiling a team of professionals from all of the relevant fields - federal law enforcement, special operations groups, fire rescue departments, dignitary protection teams, as well as fitness professionals facing the most diversely related populations to continue to reach out to non-active civilians.

We discovered a large interest in our services and approach: outfits that want a system which prepares them physically for the rigors of crisis response, which allows them to become and remain pain and prevent injuries while increasing fitness levels, which decreases their response to stress, helps them recover faster from stressful encounters, and aids them in reducing and eliminating the adverse effects that stress has caused their lives and their families lives.

Only decades later on a TACFIT assignment with my training unit, when I found myself in the same baptismal waters where my father pilgrimaged to recover his soul in the river Jordan in Israel, did I finally feel reunited with him… and feel that my path, struggle and work did accomplish my original mission in my own family.

www.flowcoach.tv,

Scott Sonnon

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The classic kettlebell sport lifts (the snatch and the clean-and-jerk) are all about efficiency and endurance. Conditioning is only ever specific, and so the motor skills developed through sport lifts only have specific enhancements in the tactical arena. That being said, one particular meta-skill developed through kettlebell sport does carry over into the tactical operator’s realm: the grinding discipline of refining one skill to mastery. This briefing presents a program which will build that discipline while at the same time improving your kettlebell sport performance.

Thousands of people have used my One Arm Long Cycle (OALC) kettlebell program to successfully improve their numbers in this complex exercise. I used the same program to complete 100 repetitions of the OALC with 32kgs kettlebells in 10 minutes, with one hand switch. I trained with kettlebells for no less than 6 minutes and no more than 20 minutes every day for 3 months to achieve this goal.

Here’s a video tutorial on the technique I use for the OALC:

Here’s a video tutorial on some of the recovery methods I have used:

Many people enjoy competing in classic kettlebell sport, just as many enjoy competing in powerlifting, bodybuilding, olympic lifting, and in more recent sports like the Crossfit games. Inherently athletic activities like these - and like martial arts, swimming, running, kayaking, and biking - all offer health and fitness benefits. If you enjoy a recreational sport such as kettlebell lifting, why not progress efficiently within it?

I’m giving you this program for free because I want you to experience success at your sport in the fastest and safest way possible. However, if you’re looking for the most effective way to train with kettlebells as a tactical athlete, you should know that the way the Russian Spetsnaz trained was very different than the training done by kettlebell sport world champions.

The thing to remember is that “sports” aren’t the only way, and are not even the optimal way, to train as a tactical athlete. Tactical athletics isn’t meant merely to augment performance on the track or in the gym, but rather to  specifically prepare you for crisis response.

Participation in fencing, rugby, football or any other combat sport will have an indirect and marginal carry-over to your performance in mixed martial arts, just as participation in the sports of powerlifting, bodybuilding and Olympic lifting will have an indirect and marginal carry-over to boxing. Without specific training, these sports will only contribute minimally, and they may even hinder your performance in fighting.

Training must be specific. The one overriding goal of tactical athletics is to help you navigate your vocational demands with ease and imagination, so you’re able to do your job and get home safely.

I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a lot to be learned from sport champions! You will certainly increase your precision and efficiency by participating in ISSF pistol shooting events. However, all of those skills fall to pieces under the friction of imperfect circumstances, and under the fog of combative pressure. You need scenario based training that is specific to your intended zone of conflict in order to have access to your shooting skills under pressure.

So, too, with your strength conditioning. As a tactical athlete, you must perform a variety of tactically-specific movements that increase in sophistication as you progress, movements that emotionally acclimatize you to the physiological stress arousal state, and which allow you to both prime and compensate for the rigors of tactical engagements.

We employ a tightly-packaged, consolidated approach to this, which we will release soon as an additional plug-in to your TACFIT armory. Stay tuned - but remember to keep your eye on the ball and stay focused on your current mission.

This is my Murphy-Proof Progression for classical kettlebell sport.

The progression is quantitatively sequential: this means that as soon as you lock down one score, you can move to the next one on your next training day.

• Keep advancing in the progression until you cannot complete the current step.
• Stay with the incomplete step until you can complete it. (It often takes about 2-3X to progress any one step, though it may be faster if you use proper 4 day intensity waves, mobility warm-ups and compensation cool-downs.).

The world kettlebell champions that I’ve trained and traveled with have suggested that it is possible to train every day, but this suggestion came from the orientation of being a professional kettlebell lifter, rather than from being a fighter. When you’re not a professional kettlebell competitor, and especially when you’re a professional warrior like the guys and gals I teach, we need to tailor it to meet our ability to recovery for operational readiness as a tactical athlete.

Milestone 1: Complete one 10 minute session at base reps per minute with 5 rep hand switches 

• Start your OALC non-stop for 3 minutes with hand switches every 5 reps.
• Find your base reps per minute (RPM); usually around 8RPM when just beginning this sort of training. Pace is important for progression so once you find your RPM stick with it.
• When you can keep the same RPM for 3 minutes. Add one minute for 4 minutes total.
• NOTE: Here’s where things pick up for awhile and you adapt to the technique. It looks like you develop fast, but I believe it’s just your technique catching up to your conditioning as a tactical athlete.
• Keep adding one minute each session as long as you can keep the same RPM until you can complete one 10 minute session.

Milestone 2: Complete one 10 minute session at 12  reps per minute with 5 rep hand switches 

• At 10 minutes, drop down to 6 minutes but add one RPM to your base RPM.
• Repeat the above: add one minute per session until you complete one 10 minute session at the new RPM pace.
• At 10 minutes, drop down to 6 minutes and add another RPM.
• Repeat the above until you’re complete one 10 minute session at 12RPM.

Milestone 3: Complete one 10 minute session at 12  reps per minute with 10 rep hand switches

• Then, drop down to 6 minutes and 8RPMs (or whatever your base pace was), but perform one hand switch every 10 reps rather than one switch every 5 reps.
• Work back up the progression and complete a 10 minute session @ 12RPM with hand-switch every 10 reps.
• NOTE: Remember the 1st two milestones were accomplished by remaining at a level until you complete it successfully and continuing on as soon as you do.

Milestone 4: Complete one 20 minute session at base reps per minute

• Here’s where you move up in total duration. Drop down to 10RPM but add one minute for 11 minutes total at 10 rep hand switches.
• Once you do, then go to 11RPM for 11min. Then, 12 RPM for 11min.
• Drop down to 10RPM and go for 12min. Then, 11RPM for 12min. Then 12RPM for 12min.
• Work up to and complete a 20 minute session at 12RPMs with 10 rep hand switches.

Milestone 5: Complete one 10 minute session at base reps per minute

• Drop back down to 6 minutes and perform no hand switch for one 5 minute session; and then 5 minutes on the other hand - finding your base RPM.
• Add one RPM per session until you are up to 10RPMs for 20 minutes with one hand switch - 10 minutes straight per hand.

Now, it’s not always constant. We did a lot of jumping around. And that was back when we were adding the 32kgs into the mix for over-load training. But it worked me up to 100 reps in 10 minutes of 1-arm LCCJ with the 32kgs with one hand switch. The 32kgs kettlebells will beat you up and you may become slow if not hurt. If you’re taking too long to recover and are feeling dinged up, then drop down to the 24kgs, and within a couple weeks you’ll be back on velocity with no aches and pains.

Maybe it sounds complicated, but it’s really pretty simple, and there’s a lot of flexibility to it. There’s no rule to your progression due to your occupational and recreational stress competing with your training stress and recovery. There’s only tinkering with how you’re feeling that day… but to train as much as possible for only 6-20 minutes.

www.flowcoach.tv

Scott Sonnon

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Yet how many others dare the risks?

Victors are merely those who stepped up; as showing up is half of anything. The other half is following through when catastrophe hits, while others flee.

If you brave the challenge and endure the hardship, victory is certain.

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Scott Sonnon

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TACFIT Fighter Core IV Circuit Video

http://www.TACFIT.tv

Complete 3 rounds; 20sec/side/exercise; 60sec recovery between rounds:

• SUITCASE DEADLIFT (LEFT/RIGHT)
• BARBELL REVERSE LUNGE TWIST (LEFT/RIGHT)
• CLUBBELL OVERHEAD ROLL (LEFT/RIGHT)
• KETTLEBELL PULL SWING (LEFT/RIGHT)
• BARBELL SIDE LUNGE TWIST (LEFT/RIGHT)
• KETTLEBELL WINDMILL (LEFT/RIGHT)

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Worse still, traveling around the world for the past decades I’ve seen in only my lifetime, the perspective of other peoples change toward Americans. Where once we were embraced, we are no longer regarded highly; if not held in disdain. Our brash arrogance - unwilling to accept imposed limitations - has led to great discoveries, innovations and technologies, but it has also had a harsh impact on our relationships abroad, on how the world perceives us. And we can only hold our own behavior accountable.

Look around you. On our team, we have Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, Israeli-Americans, Chinese-, Japanese-, German-, Latin-Americans, and many others… What is this great experiment that brings you voluntarily together as a national team? What is this free will that you have exercised to stand next to him and next to her as “Americans”? What grand dream has brought you here together, not by fate, or luck or accident, to stand next to your teammate on your left and the teammate on your right?

You have that will and dream and right because you are American, because of this great experiment that brings together people from nations across the globe unified by common values of free will, self-determination, initiative and the solidarity of standing together - not in spite of - but because of our diversity. Our plurality makes us stronger, more flexible, more agile, more comprehensive.

Some of you have asked me, what will come for us after the World Games. And I’ve replied: there is no “after.” There’s only here. Now. Today.

Here we are, an American team of United States. Here. You. Because of these virtues that we hold in common trust. But we do so, at a fragile time in our history. We come together in good will games when the world has become cynical, frenetic and pugnacious.

To whom do you look for leadership? To whom do you turn for guidance? We often live bereft of role models at this moment in history. And now, there is no more time to await one or to seek one out. You no longer have the luxury of finding leadership. You are now the role model. You. You are the one to whom others will look for guidance and inspiration, on this day. You.

You have elected - through whatever daring combination of character virtues - to step forward and let this one day, this one fight, this next technique, stand as an example of the American spirit forever chronicled for our global neighbors to witness.

You must remember, athletics have done more for international relations than much of political diplomacy. Yet some of you have remarked, how can one event, how can one fight, how can someone like me have any impact on these very big issues? But it has only ever taken one; one Harriet Tubman, one Helen Keller, one Amelia Earhart; it has taken only one Albert Einstein, one Martin Luther King, one Henry Ford. It took two Wright brothers, but you get my point.

It takes only one brave soul to step forward and behave according to our common virtues to evoke that character from within each other. It takes only one. And you have stepped forward for that task. You. Now. Here.

So, when you step out there onto that mat, you’re not going alone. You take within your heart the American spirit that has changed the course of history over again and again. You step out on that mat not for hate of the opponent in front of you, but for pride of those next to you: your teammate to the left and your teammate to the right, for him and for her. Side by side.

Today your actions, your honor, your heart, will reshape how the world sees us, and how we believe in each other. That is what has made America great. One person. One place. One time.

It’s your time now. You lead now. Your honor. Your heart. You.

Go USA. Team.

www.flowcoach.tv,

Scott Sonnon

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Friday, May 14, 2010

Dear Coach Sonnon,

I wanted to write to thank you for sharing your Tacfit and Tacfit Commando programs with my agency, and for allowing me to attend the Tacfit certification in Bellingham.

As you know, I have a background in military and law enforcement special operations. During my time in the Marine Corps, I spent time in a special reaction force that secured nuclear storage sites, and later was a Platoon Sergeant for a STA Platoon, more commonly called Marine Scout Snipers. My service included deployment overseas with a Special Operation Capable Marine Amphibious Unit (SOC-MAU), and live operations on foreign soil. I was also a primary marksmanship instructor in the Marines, and shot competitively on rifle and pistol teams at the commands I served. In my 23 year law enforcement career, I have been a Master Defensive Tactics Instructor for nearly 20 years. I served 8 years on a regional SWAT team in an urban metropolitan area. I spent 3 years undercover working street level narcotics, and several more years as a detective assigned to a Federal Narcotics Task force. I have founded and commanded Tactical Tracking Teams at 2 different agencies for the past 8 years, and the team I currently command is used state-wide to hunt down fugitives, find missing persons, and engage in operations against foreign drug trafficking organizations which use rural areas in Washington State to manufacture illegal drugs.

As a Chief of Police for over a decade now, I have seen the cost of law enforcement officers not staying in good physical condition. Many agency administrators wince every time they have defensive tactics or other physical training, because they know that there will be multiple injuries, L&I claims, and officers taking sick days in the aftermath of such classes. It’s often mundane, everyday things that cause officers to go out with “work related injuries”; walking, getting out of a car, bending over to pick something up. In my experience and observation, most “work related” injuries aren’t really “work related”. They are “fat related injuries”. They are “sedentary related injuries”. They are “inflexible related injuries”. The job requires them to move their bodies more than they do at home, so it’s likely that when something finally snaps, it will happen on the job, and is then labeled a “work related injury”.

The costs of such injuries are massive, and the damages are spread broadly. The government ends up paying higher rates for health insurance and L&I claims, and those costs are spread to taxpayers. Co-workers are required to work the shifts for the officers who are out injured, losing their own rest time, spending less time with their families and increasing their stress levels. Many employers require the employees to bear a portion of the cost of the L&I insurance, so all employees end up paying a financial cost for the on duty injuries. If the officer held a specialty, such as K9 or Tracker, the department no longer has access to that resource while the officer is out of commission, and those specialties are very expensive to create and maintain. Training programs are blamed for injuries, and are cut back or defunded. The reduction in staffing leaves less officers available to engage in special projects and proactive police work, and the agency ends up having to become more reactive, which benefits only criminals.

Throughout my career, I’ve striven to stay current on the best methods of training my people, to ensure that they had the abilities they needed to accomplish their missions. My search has spanned nearly 3 decades. In the Military, it was fairly easy; we had 3 or 4 hours per day to train fitness, and ample equipment and facilities. As I moved into law enforcement, time became more critical. Agencies do not have an over abundance of training time, and many agencies are suffering staffing and manpower issues in the current economy that are putting a further strain on available training time. Early in my Police Career, I attended F.B.I. fitness instructor courses, and was certified as a fitness instructor by the State. As a Master Defensive Tactics Instructor, I attended courses on advanced concepts in motor learning and development, and fitness program design, and even became a certified personal trainer for a period of time. Within my own agencies, and in my own life, I’ve experimented with a vast myriad of programs and systems. In my early years, I lifted free weights, ran, and used machines such as universal and nautilus. In recent years, I’ve stayed on what was perceived as “the cutting edge”, and experimented with P90x, Crossfit, TRX programs, various military programs, Kettlebells, and other devices and programs. In addition, I still train in the Martial Arts, and even engage in amateur boxing occasionally for charity events, no small feat in my mid 40’s. I have nothing bad to say about any of those programs. They are all good sources of exercise. Most of their practices are sound for attaining their goals. However, something was missing.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was missing. Intuitively, I knew that I hadn’t yet found what I was seeking. When I encountered a new program that seemed to have some of the things I was looking for, I’d give it a test drive. Several of my key instructors would help me, and also test out each program. Many of them were great programs for what they were designed for. The problem was, none of them were designed for us. None of them were put together specifically for the needs and challenges that face law enforcement officers, and especially the special needs of the law enforcement tactical community.

Some of the programs had pieces of what we were looking for, but were put together with other elements that were not desirable. Many of them were designed as crash courses to lose weight, but were not sustainable over the long haul. Some used “body building” techniques to pump up muscles for show, but developed little in the way of usable, functional strength. Some caused large amounts of wear and tear on the joints and connective tissues. Many resulted in over training, which subsequently lead to injuries. Some used movements that were valid, but simply do not resemble anything we do, or are likely to need to do.

What we were seeking was the “holy grail” of law enforcement and tactical training; something that met our challenges and needs, didn’t waste our training time, prepared us properly for the risks we face, but didn’t destroy or injure the officers as they tried to attain that goal.

I first saw a link to the Tacfit Commando program on a facebook page. I clicked on the link, and initially wasn’t sure what to think. The marketing program appeared to be geared towards “wanna be’s”, with references to Navy Seals, secret agents, and commandos. That alone would normally be enough for me to immediately dismiss the program and move on; previous programs using similar advertising tactics have been strong on hype, and weak on substance. The thing that kept me reading was that a few of the testimonials were from real world operators and combatives experts from the U.S. and Israeli Military Special Ops, and Law Enforcement Community. It was when I read past the hype to the content and fine print that my eyebrows went up.

The first sentence that caught my eye as I scanned down was “The ideal tactical training program must also target the energy system of crisis response: that means high intensity, three-dimensional movements done for repeated bursts of short duration, with fast recovery”. This was the first sign to me that there just might be something solid under the hype. That statement alone went up like a flare; clearly, someone knew what they were talking about, and more importantly, someone understood the realities of what we are required to do when things get really “hot”.

The next was “The extreme psychological stress experienced by active tactical responders requires a method that safely reabsorbs the adrenal dump of “fight or flight.” You’re of no help to your teammates if you’re sick or burnt out.” My jaw dropped on this one; the depth of understanding required to make this statement is astounding. This demonstrated that this program wasn’t just going to be about pushups, or busting a sweat. It demonstrated an understanding of our profession and the toll it takes on the human body, at a chemical and cellular level.

I read the rest of the fine print in depth, and I liked what I saw, so I took the plunge and purchased the program. I used my personal funds, since I still considered the program a risk, having been disappointed so many times before. After downloading the program and reviewing the material, I was impressed. I really liked that the program was instantly available, was downloadable, and came in formats that work on any computer, and also in a format specific to IPOD’s, which makes it incredibly portable. The fact that this program uses no equipment means it can be done anywhere. The fact that it’s on my Ipod means I don’t need a timer; I just hit “play” on my Ipod playlist, and follow along. The videos have a robust audio element, so not only is the timer included in the audio, but you also have coaching and specific reminders on proper form and effort throughout the program. The program is scorable, so you can easily keep track of your effort and progress, and the workout can be used as a test.

The real proof needed to be in the “test drive” of the program. At first, I was a bit skeptical of the 4 day wave protocol. On paper, it looks good, but it seemed a bit “light”. It was only after I experienced a couple cycles of it that it became clear just how effective it was. I felt GOOD. Really good. I had some specific moments that stood out. I got up to go down the hall from my office to get some coffee, and my body felt strange. I wasn’t thinking of working out, just grabbing coffee. What was so odd was that my hips were open from the compensation day. My body was more open and flexible than it had been in years, from a workout I’d done the day before. I could move. My range of motion was increased. My body was unlocked, and I wasn’t used to it, but it felt incredible.

Another thing I recognized right away was that I already knew the movements. I’d done them before. Not in the tacfit commando program; in real life. When I did the plank push knee for the first time, it clicked right away. “This is how I get up and move forward quickly with my rifle after firing from the prone position”. I’d been doing that movement since I was 18 years old in the Marines. The same was true for the other techniques.

I was scheduled to teach a defensive tactics class with another instructor after a few weeks of doing Tacfit commando. I spent most of the time as the demonstration dummy, being aggressively thrown, taken down, and put through counter joint techniques and handcuffing for 8 hours a day, for 3 days straight. What stood out was that, at the end of 3 days of this abuse, I felt fine. No sore muscles. No sore joints. No pulls. No tears. Nothing pinched or tweaked. I actually felt good. Normally, I would have been popping ibuprofen like candy, and sore and tight. Not this time.

I went to my Tactical Tracking team training, which includes a conditioning workout. I blasted through the workout like it wasn’t there. I recovered with lightening speed, had tons of energy and stamina, and could have kept going for a long, long time. I was finishing the work at each stage, and standing there, waiting for the rest of my team to get their reps done.

A friend called, who is coaching a 19 year old boxer who is preparing for an upcoming fight, asking if I’d help him prepare, by sparring with him. I haven’t sparred for over 8 months. Without Tacfit, I doubt I would have lasted 2 rounds. With my Tacfit training, I was able to keep going, round after round, and kept going for nearly an hour.

A friend of mine was training for a marathon, and invited me to go for a run. I hadn’t been running in several years, but wanted to try it again, so I agreed. I expected it to be pretty challenging. It wasn’t; it was easy. The aggressive, condensed conditioning of the Tacfit Commando program had prepared me to easily deal with standard cardio demand of running. I ran like the wind, and felt great both during and after the run.

All of that was in the first few weeks of doing the program. As for weight loss, I made a bet with my fiancé that I could lose more percentage of body weight than her in 30 days, me using Tacfit commando, and her using P90x. She was skeptical of the Tacfit Commando program, because of the active rest and recovery days built into the system. Her program took more time every day, had very little rest and recovery, and she was tired and burned out. She conceded defeat after 3 weeks, when I’d lost 12 pounds by doing Tacfit Commando, and following the diet that comes with the program. I felt strong, energetic, well rested, relaxed and flexible. I didn’t lose any muscle. I lost blubber that I’d collected by sitting at my desk.

After a test drive like that, I have made the decision to implement the Tacfit Commando program for my department. I can’t find anything wrong with it.

• It’s time efficient, saving my agency money and resources compared to other programs. A common saying among your coaches is “More isn’t better. Better is Better”. Your program has proven that to be a true statement.
• The Officers are building skills, not just working out. Tacfit practice isn’t just sweating for sweat’s sake. They are learning to move tactically. They are practicing and developing survival skills, firearms skills, ground fighting skills, as they work out.
• It doesn’t require any special equipment or dedicated space.
• Its health based. It isn’t about getting “big” quick, or doing crazy workouts and being sore. It’s about staying balanced, strong and healthy for life.
• It can be done by a team, side by side, in the same time and place, even if the people are at different levels of development. A beginner can work side by side with an elite athlete, training together, each being challenged to an appropriate level.
• The officers stay operationally ready. There is no “burn out”. There is no need for “down time” due to the officer’s bodies being destroyed or injured by some “crazy” workout. The workouts are challenging and demanding, but they aren’t insane; far from it, they’re intelligent.
• We all cognitively know that if we work on flexibility, we will be healthier, and less prone to injury. Your program is the only one that actually builds that concept into the program in an appropriate ratio. Joint and connective tissue flexibility isn’t a preface, or an afterthought. It’s at the heart of the program. It’s one of the massive pieces missing from other programs. For every exercise in your system, there is a joint mobility exercise that precedes it, and a compensatory stretch that comes after it. Over half of the system is focused on building healthy flexibility, movement, and injury prevention. It should be.
• The moderate and high intensity days are based on the best science and techniques known. No time or effort is wasted.
• The high intensity training is specifically targeted to the energy systems used by the emergency response community.
• Your program is the only one I’ve seen that has actual tactics, effort, and focus on the ability to develop recovery ability. And it works! Many suspects and officers can perform one massive burst of effort, but then they are “gassed”. Your training will give officers the ability to “burst”, recover with lightening speed, and “burst” again, and again. This is what wins fights. This is what resolves tactical and use of force situations with a positive outcome for Law Enforcement.
• Tacfit Commando is a step above other general functional fitness programs. Why should we focus our efforts on “general” fitness? We aren’t in a “general” business. We know what the requirements of our job are. We know what movements we need to perform, and the energy systems that will be called upon. Why waste our time pretending we don’t, or developing capabilities we don’t need, and won’t use? Tacfit programs are built for what we need; Tactical Fitness.
• Tacfit develops circular strength. Instead of becoming strong in a narrow, limited, or artificially defined range of motion, Tacfit works to develop complete, usable strength throughout the full range of motion of each key joint. This is incredibly valuable in our unpredictable and violent environment. I don’t always get to pick what angle my opponent will be at when I need to use force or energy. Having circular strength means I’ll have the power I’ll need to deal with challenges that come at me from any angle.

Thank you for your work in service to the tactical community. Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for the outreach you’ve made to my department, and our brothers in the military and fire services. Thank you for the health benefits we’re enjoying from your program.

Please feel free to forward this letter to any public safety personnel considering your excellent programs, and feel free to give them my contact information as a reference for your programs.

I look forward to working with you in the future, and am excited to see what’s coming next!

Respectfully,

Chief Mike Lasnier
Suquamish Police