90 Days to Victory – A Checklist for Elite Performance

The New Year is upon us. This is when we make our grand declarations of an improved life. A new job, lose weight, gain muscle, less booze, and God help us maybe even “I want to go to Selection.” Every year, a lot of young guys say the same thing. What most guys mean is that they want to be Green Berets, but nobody really wants to go to Selection. Everyone wants to have a great job, but few are willing to learn new skills or build personal value. Everyone wants to lose weight, but few want to eat less. Everyone wants to build muscle, but few want to lift heavy shit. And everyone wants to be a Green Beret, but few really want to do the work that it takes to perform at an elite level at SFAS.

Selection is a suck-fest. It’s designed to be one of the most challenging performance environments imaginable. Heavy rucks and fast runs, obstacle courses, fitness tests galore, endless land navigation in all weather in both day and night, and of course Team Week. Selection doesn’t really start until Team Week, and you have to thrive in all of the other events just to earn the right to get crushed by The Sandman.

So when guys say, “I want to go to Selection”, what they really mean is that they like idea of being tested. They seek rites of passage. Most of them mean eventually. Some of them mean after one more program. A few mean right now. But here’s the thing, Selection doesn’t care what you say. It only cares what you do. Performance is the only thing that matters.

And few are willing to do the work that high performance demands. Nobody wants to go to bed early. Nobody wants to get up early and train. Nobody likes to eat clean and shun booze. It’s hard work and it seems like life is conspiring against us. So let’s make it simple (simple not easy). You need a checklist. If you’re a young guy staring down the road to SFAS, this is the priority list. Not a hype reel. Not a fantasy checklist. These are the behaviors that quietly separate candidates who endure from candidates who evaporate.

1. Lock Down Discipline Before You Chase Performance

Before training volume, before gear, before “program hopping,” you need control of your daily life. If you can’t regulate sleep, phone use, alcohol, junk food, and consistency then you’re not preparing for Selection—you’re pretending.

Don’t even bother with a prep program until you can do these things for the next 90 days straight:

· Fixed wake-up and go-to-bed time (yes, weekends too)

· Phone out of the bedroom

· Written training log (pen and paper)

· No skipped sessions without a written reason

When you get into the final stages of a proper prep program you are going to be operating at an intensity level that is nearly unimaginable. A 5x5 Man Maker is a ton of work. In the final weeks of Shut Up And Ruck you will be doing three Man Makers a week, plus lifting, and you still have a day job and life to contend with. Even if you’re not doing SUAR, every proper prep program has a massive workload in the final phases. If your recovery regimen isn’t locked in, then you simply won’t make it. You won’t be able to sustain the work output at a level commensurate with elite performance.   

So sleep becomes absolutely critical. Proper sleep is a complete performance hack. But you probably have horrible sleep habits. Your sleep hygiene is as dirty as can be with improper temps, lights everywhere, scratchy sheets, and you probably go to bed and wake up at random. You should be going down and getting up within the same 30-minute window every single day. We have an entire chapter in SUAR that breaks down in excruciating detail all the elements that a proper sleep regimen should have, and the consistent window is perhaps the most critical.

And your phone is part of that and is killing you. I get it. It seems like I live with my phone welded to my hand. I’m answering messages, reading and researching, and running my business seemingly all day long. But the last hour of each day is phone-free. I do read on a Kindle every single night as part of my very regimented sleep routine, but it is on the lowest light setting possible and blue-light mode is activated. It’s also not connected to anything, and I only use it for reading. No browsing, no messaging, no posting. Just reading low cognitive load fiction books. If you’re on your phone as part of your wind-down regimen, then you’re killing your sleep quality. Get off your phone.

Have an analog, old-school, pen and paper training log. I love the convenience of a digital log or an app that helps me track all of the varying training detritus. But the literature is very clear that analog is superior to digital. For me, keeping a journal is second only to proper sleep in keeping my training, business, and personal goals and schedule on track. The sooner you accept that you’re not good enough to remember everything that you need to and start writing it down, the sooner you can start make real progress.

And your inconsistency will be your undoing. Selection doesn’t reward motivation. It rewards men who execute without emotion. It rewards discipline. So if you can’t go thirty days without deviating from a plan, then how do you expect to reap the rewards of a longer prep with detailed training and performance requirements? You won’t be able to conquer Selection fi you can’t conquer yourself.

2. Learn to Be Alone With a Map

Land navigation is a skill. We think it’s a life skill, but its definitely a Selection skill. If you’re waiting until “closer to Selection” to learn it, you’re already behind. We built TFVooDoo around this skill set so avail yourself of the resources.

Start now:

· Buy a real map, a protractor, and a compass.

· Learn declination, how to plot points, and how to shoot and azimuth until you can do it with without thinking.

· Learn to terrain associate.

· Go out alone—no buddies, no chatter, no shortcuts.

Land Nav remains one of the great filters to SFAS success. You can start to learn this valuable skill now by getting your hands on a map, a protractor, and proper a Cammenga 3H compass. We keep seeing guys training with the Cammenga Model 27, which looks identical to the 3H but lacks the tritium inserts. You’ll be lost at night without the tritium. Yes, the 3H is 4X the cost, but its 100X capable. Get a proper compass.

Learn to plot points, shoot azimuths, and read a map. If you don’t know how to do this stuff, then just get a copy of Never Get Lost. It has everything that you need to get started. When you’re closer to Selection and after you’ve exhausted local training opportunities, come on out to a Muster. We’ll get you polished to a fine Selection-ready luster.

3. Build a Physical Baseline You Can Repeat on Bad Days

This is not about elite numbers. It’s about repeatability. If you can’t hit these consistently, you don’t need advanced programming—you need maturity. Baseline expectations:

· 50 Pushups

· 10 Pullups

· Bench Press your bodyweight

· Squat 1.5 times your bodyweight

· Run in Zone 2 for 45 minutes without stopping

Again, these aren’t elite numbers. These are baseline, wake up any day of the week, and be able to do these without duress. I never understood why guys stressed about PT tests. Our operational philosophy was always that a PT test was a day off. Maxxing was always the goal, but if you couldn’t drop a 90% on every event after a week of hard routine in the field, then you needed to get to work.

SFAS isn’t about peaking for assessment, it’s about building durable, reliable, and trustworthy performance day in and day out. The rabbits never last and turtles never get to the end. You want to be faster than the strongest lifter and stronger than the fastest runner. So these benchmarks are what we think you need to be able to do before you start rucking and really training with deep intensity. SUAR is three phases long and the first phase is designed to get you to these numbers so you can start prepping with purpose.

4. Stop Romanticizing Rucking—Start Respecting It

The number one predictor of success at SFAS is rucking performance, up to six times more predictive than the next performance measure. The Army standard is laughable at 15-minute miles with just 35 pounds for 12 miles.

To be successful at SFAS you need to be able to do:

· 12-13 minute miles.

· With 55+ pounds.

· Unknown distance and terrain.

· Severely restricted recovery time.

But that’s the end state of your rucking, not the starting position. The good news is that we know exactly how to build elite rucking performance. The best way to build rucking performance is field based progressive load carriage, usually 2-3 times a week, focused on short intense sessions. This statement is at the core of our ruck programming, and it garners more criticism than almost anything else. This shouldn’t be contentious, but it is. It’s not our opinion, it’s simply what the evidence shows us.

So if your ruck programming is anything but what we have outlined then you need to look elsewhere. You’re wasting time and risking injury. Men don’t fail rucks because they’re weak. They fail because they’re careless.

5. Get Your Administrative Life in Order

Its time to be an adult. No more excuses for missed appointments, lost gear, unknown commitments, and random chaos. The effective range of excuse is zero meters and making excuses at SFAS is nearly as bad a quitting. So stop allowing stupid little administrative tasks sabotage your life and your prep. Early adulthood is where most candidates sabotage themselves:

· Unhandled medical issues.

· Financial instability and bad credit.

· Sloppy social media.

Fix it now. A squared-away man doesn’t become squared away at Selection, he arrives. Being squared away. Some of y’all are Get all of your medical issues addressed and get your paperwork sorted. Waivers are an option, but stop being lazy and just get stuff sorted. Pay your bills and stop living beyond your means. You will never be rich in the Army, but you’re never really poor either. And stop broadcasting your deviant social life all over Instagram. Nothing good ever happens at the bar after midnight (see item #1), and it certainly shouldn’t be recorded forever. Learn OPSEC now and you’ll thanks yourself later.

6. Build Grip Strength and Carry Capacity Early

This is a quiet separator. Grip fatigue exposes weakness fast, especially under stress and load.

Prioritize:

· Farmer carries

· Dead hangs

· Sandbags or awkward objects

· Loaded carries of all types

We wrote a whole detailed article on How to Build Grip Strength and its one of the least referenced articles on the website. Everyone reads the Packing List Manifesto and they ignore the grip.  Everyone knows how critical grip strength is and it seems like it never gets the attention in prep that it deserves. We added extra grip exercises into our SUAR Field Annex just so guys wouldn’t fall behind. You will never see failure like a Candidate dropping an apparatus on another Candidate. Instant drop. Don’t be that guy

7. Learn to Move Well Before You Learn to Suffer

Pain tolerance is not the same as durability. If you ignore mobility, posture, and movement quality now, you’ll pay for it later—usually at the worst time.

Build a solid mobility routine:

· Ankles, hips, thoracic spine.

· Squat, hinge, carry correctly.

· Address pain early instead of hiding it.

· Stand up straight with shoulders back and down.

Broken candidates don’t get selected and a proper prep prioritizes mobility. We have an entire chapter dedicated to mobility in Shut Up And Ruck, but you should be working mobility long before your start Selection prep. It’s such a small investment with such huge returns. It’s about learning movement awareness, acquiring body control, and building durability. Be mobile to be fast and strong.

8. Start Living in After-Action Reviews

Selection favors men who can self-correct without ego and the lack of self-awareness may be the most limiting factor for younger Candidates. Mabe it’s a result of deep online communications, or key developmental years spent behind a mask, but non-verbal communication skills are in short supply. And it’s killing your verbal skills too. Social awkwardness notwithstanding, many younger guys are difficult. Put plainly, many of you guys are dicks and you don’t even know it.

After every session, take notes:

· What went right?

· What went wrong?

· What changes next time?

· What was my specific role in the activity?

Write it down. Review it. Learn from it. I get it, I’m a professional shit-talker. But I know when to flip to switch. I engage with Senior Executives, General Officers, and Ambassadors on the regular. I’m used to code-switching and I have a deep repertoire of rapport building skills. And I’m accountable. Feedback is a gift, so I keep my own notes and I’m constantly asking others for criticism. Men who get selected don’t need constant coaching. They coach themselves.

9. Accept This Truth: No One Is Coming to Save You

This is the mindset shift that matters most. Stop asking:

· “Am I ready?”

· “What program should I run next?”

· “Is this good enough?”

Start asking:

· “What am I avoiding?”

· “What weakness have I been excusing?”

· “What would a serious man do today?”

Selection doesn’t select potential. It selects performance. You don’t need more guides, more cheat sheets, or more research. You need to start executing. I have already written every guide that you need. I have already provided all of the training opportunities/ I have already told you what to expect. It’s time to start doing. Intentionally.

10. Learn to Train Without Needing to Feel Motivated

Stop announcing goals. Just do the work. It’s good to build to community and having some accountability is okay, but you’ve been talking about it too much. Start showing up before you continue to show off.

Motivation is entertainment. Discipline is infrastructure. Let this list be your checklist:

· Train when you’re tired

· Train when you’re bored.

· Train when nobody knows you’re training.

Start documenting the work. If you can’t trust yourself to show up when you’re unmotivated then how can I trust you? Selection doesn’t care how fired up you were, it cares if you showed up again. And again. And again.

If you can’t execute these ten things for 90 straight days, you don’t want Selection. You want the identity. Not the obligation. And Selection has a very efficient way of sorting that out.

Train accordingly.