SOFLETE Performance

This week’s episode has the boys reflecting on a truly awesome week. George and Matt recently attended the NSCA Tactical Strength and Conditioning (TSAC) Annual Training event in Norfolk, Virginia. Aside from offering a stellar lineup of highly experienced and educated speakers, the event was also a fantastic opportunity to connect with other human performance specialists from across the tactical...

Brent and Doug catch up over drinks.

Episode 3 - How Take Your Nervous System Into Consideration To wrap up this chapter, George and Matt kick off with a quote from the legendary late Dr Fred Hatfield. In keeping with the no-nonsense, practical approach that ’Dr Squat’ was known for, the guys focus this episode on providing you with actionable steps to improve your performance and boost your health and longevity. To start with, they...

Brent and Doug discuss the Olympics.

Episode 2 - How Understanding the Nervous System is Relevant to the Tactical CommunityIn this episode, George and Matt discuss how being able to make some sense of the nervous system can help enhance performance and resilience, specifically for the tactical professional. In doing so, the guys dive into the role of the autonomic nervous system and consider how the stress response requirements have...

Episode 1 - Introducing the Nervous SystemThis episode comes with a public safety announcement- the human nervous system is a pretty complex piece of hardware; the exact workings of which the scientific community still doesn’t completely understand. Consequently, George and Matt attempt to walk the tightrope balance between providing you with sufficient biological knowledge that you can understand...

Bottom Of The Barrel 20 - Third Time Is The Charm by SOFLETE

We're back with another episode, listening in on a conversation from the SOFLETE Human Performance Team's virtual office. Talk this time is based around another book on George's reading list, 'The Creativity Leap' by Natalie Nixon. In the book, Natalie illustrates the concept of balancing work and play through the construct of 'wonder versus rigor.' She describes...

“Why not”? These two words have been the genesis for many of this week’s guest’s achievements. Long time SOFLETE Athlete Tony Nash first started asking himself, “why not?” when he accepted a place at Westpoint. Since then, the momentum has continued to grow exponentially for this Buffalo, NY native. Tony has now served as an Active Duty Field Artillery Officer for 11 years, whilst simultaneously a...

This week the guys were fortunate enough to reconnect with Dr. Theo Ballard, SOFLETE’s in-house physical therapist. Theo is a civilian Orthopedic and Sport Certified Performance Physiotherapist specializing in both sport and tactical performance, specifically with conventional and SOF military personnel. In this episode, George and Matt get some great insight into a few of the more common injuries...

Doug and Brent revisit some of the tough times in the triumphant return of the Bottom of the Barrel podcast.

George sits down with Derek to discuss his process with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Treatment. Derek provides insight into the minds of special operations solider and the risk that comes with it. Sharing personal stories and how he has is using EMDR to work through his own struggles and improve his mental defenses to create the life he deserves. This podcast has no relatio...

This week, George and Matt chat with 10 year USMC Officer and 4-year SOFlete athlete, Kris Drake. Kris serves as a USMC Cyberspace Officer, however, he has worked equally hard at finding and maintaining a sense of priority- based around safeguarding time with his family and still finding time to indulge his passions of health and fitness, learning, and being outdoors. Listen as the guys draw from...

Lunch and Learn Chapter 4 - NutritionDisclaimerWhilst SOFLETE does work with a Registered Nutritionist, neither George nor Matt hold this qualification, or that of a Dietician. Any discussion or recommendations given in this Chapter should not be construed as medical advice and listeners should always consult a trained clinician before attempting any nutritional intervention. Episode 3 - Improving...

Lunch and Learn Chapter 4 - NutritionDisclaimerWhilst SOFLETE does work with a Registered Nutritionist, neither George nor Matt hold this qualification, or that of a Dietician. Any discussion or recommendations given in this Chapter should not be construed as medical advice and listeners should always consult a trained clinician before attempting any nutritional intervention. Episode 2 - The Relev...

Lunch and Learn Chapter 4 - NutritionDisclaimerWhilst SOFLETE does work with a Registered Nutritionist, neither George nor Matt hold this qualification, or that of a Dietician. Any discussion or recommendations given in this Chapter should not be construed as medical advice and listeners should always consult a trained clinician before attempting any nutritional intervention. Episode 1 - Introduci...

In today’s episode, George and Matt get the opportunity to chat with longtime SOFLETE friend, Noël Brenda. Noël is a 14 year veteran of the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps, where he served as both a Medic SF and Physical Training Instructor. This gave him a fantastic first-hand perspective on the preparation required to build successful tactical professionals, an opportunity he capitalized upon, as...

Episode 3 - How to Enhance YOUR Heart HealthThe ‘Be Your Own Scientist’ concept is a big part of what we do here at SOFLETE. We feel that it’s much better to teach you the methods, than give a rigid prescription. That way, you can figure out exactly what does and doesn’t work, based on the constraints present in your own unique situation. With that being said, the last episode of this chapter is d...

Episode 2 - The Relevance of Heart Health to the Tactical CommunityDespite the media portrayal that the tactical community is made up exclusively of personnel resembling Greek demi-gods (we’ll admit, there are one or two- looking at you Firefighters!), we’re actually a pretty representative cross-section of the civilian population. We have similar proportions of super fit people and similar propor...

Episode 1 - Introducing the Concept of Heart HealthGeorge and Matt kick off this new chapter with a thorough look into exactly what establishing good Heart Health means. George then uses real-world examples from his own experiences competing and coaching, both at the highest level, to illustrate the importance of this concept. George recounts how he learned the necessity of building a solid ‘aerob...

The second part of this episode builds on the foundations laid out in Part A. George and Matt gets into the specifics of how you can weaponize this new knowledge to help better inform your training. Based on this, George shines the spotlight on exactly what his own training looks like, both whilst competing (including in Ultra competitions and the recent Recon Challenge) as well as when he's...

We're back in the Human Performance Team's virtual office, listening in as the guys break down the tale that's as old as time... Can you really train for a marathon and still bang heavyweights?!To put it simply, it depends... listen as George and Matt take a deep dive into the exercise physiology principles that govern concurrent training (the practice of combining endurance and str...

Coach Tony Blauer has been in the martial art, self-defense, defensive tactics, and combative industry for over four decades. He founded Blauer Tactical Systems (BTS) in 1985 and it has grown into one of the world's leading consulting companies specializing in the research and development of performance psychology, personal safety, and close quarter tactics & scenario-based training for l...

Recon Challenge Event Reflection Podcast (Episode 3) In this episode, George breaks down all the action, laughter and tears from inside the 2021 USMC Recon Challenge. You’ll get some insider tips on how to optimize nutrition, hydration and performance psychology that are readily transferable to your endurance training and competitions. Plus hear about the 0315 reveille, the most beautiful sunrise...

Recon Challenge Training Podcast (Episode 2)It’s been 10 days since George and his teammate took an incredible 3rd place at the gruelling, annual Recon Challenge event at Camp Pendleton. In this episode of the SOFLETE Performance Podcast, we catch up with George and find out how he managed to complete the event with such a short amount of preparation. We dive into everything that has happened sinc...