Colorado
PT Group
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This website serves as a testimonial to the group in Colorado that continues to successfully produce quality NavSpecWar candidates. In addition to the information and documents provided in this site to aid future NavSpecWar candidates, we also want to highlight the organization of this PT group to stand as a model for a possible nationwide program to increase and improve preparation prior to beginning BUD/S or SWCC training. How it Began: January 2004, Captain Michael Argo (SEAL), then the CO for the Navy & Marine Corps Reserve Center at Buckley AFB, established a PT group to help coordinate several of the candidates he was mentoring through their application process. In the beginning, the group consisted of 4 candidates and they met one to two times per week to run, swim and PT together. As word spread about the group, membership increased to between 10 and 15 participants throughout the summer. This was aided significantly by attending local DEP meetings and contacting area recruiters so they could forward all new SEAL and SWCC Challenge DEP'ers to join the group. How it is Today: The Colorado PT group has maintained its status covering a 100+ mile radius and meeting up to 6 times per week. Despite the frequent losses to the group, as DEP'ers regularly ship off to RTC, the group is able to continue with a constant influx of new candidates seeking to improve their physical conditioning. Although Captain Argo (SEAL) has relocated for assignment to Coronado, BMCM Mike Seidler (SEAL) is now available as the local contact for the group's needs. The group is open to anyone interested in achieving top physical performance. This included active duty and reserve Navy personnel, SpecOps candidates from other branches, non-SpecOps DEP'ers with rates that still required top performance (such as rescue swimmers and FMF corpsman) as well as organizations like the Sea Cadets. Most who show up their first time barely know how to swim and could not even complete the SEAL PST, let alone pass it. Experience has shown it is not usually a lack of motivation that has left anyone unprepared thus far, instead it is more likely a lack of understanding and awareness. Therefore, one of the main principles of this group is how much you put in is how much you'll get back. Leadership roles rotate so all have an opportunity to lead drills and count reps, everyone is responsible to each other for motivation and spirit and the "buddy system" is enforced during water exercises and PT spotting. Another principle used with the new members is to crawl, walk then run. In relatively short order, each man is able to learn the basics and head towards proficiency. Those who come once or twice and never again do not slow down this program. There are plenty of guys who will show up, pray to the "Porcelain Gods" after PT and continue to show up for more. To date, every member of the Colorado PT group that has shipped off to RTC, BUD/S or SWCC has successfully passed their Physical Screening Tests. 100% pass rate. We realize it is up to each individual whether or not they will graduate, but this group and others like it can have a significant impact on how well prepared the candidates arrive for training. Although the activities this group
participates in are for the purpose of physical fitness training, it is
truly the mental growth and teambuilding experiences that benefit everyone
the most. That should be evident in the pictures to follow. The future success of this group and the potential of creating more groups like this nationwide can be achieved with the following program: Operation Triple A Objective: To increase the number of men who excel when given the SEAL PST. Furthermore, making them better prepared as they enter RTC, A school and BUD/S Explanation: To be successful, a program like this requires management. Any well managed system includes three essential principles:
In the case of establishing and maintaining a nationwide PT program like there is here in Colorado, these three principles can be modified in the following way:
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