Small Talk: Drop and Give Me 48

It could have been just another day at practice. The U.S. field hockey team ran,
grunted, and sweated until they were told they could stop. They did push-ups and sit-ups and their coach yelled at them. But this time their coach wasn't head coach Lee Bodimeade. As they ran, they ran together as a team holding a log at chest height. And just when they figured their workout was finished, they were ordered to run into the cold Pacific Ocean fully clothed. If you hadn't caught on already, this wasn't an ordinary training session. This training session was led by a group of U.S. Navy SEALs.

Think about that for a second. The people who took out one of the most elusive terrorists on the planet, Osama bin Laden, trained a group of 20-something female athletes with Olympic aspirations. That's pretty cool.

As the stage for sports competition grows increasingly competitive with athletes constantly breaking records and pushing limits, teams are always looking for ways to create chemistry and take their game to the next level. It seems that these drill sergeants have filled the void…for the time being.

Of course we've all heard of these "boot camp" sessions anyone could participate in at their local gym. But these training sessions with members of the armed forces are different and they're not open to the public. Their purpose is literally to push elite athletes just beyond what they think their limit is. To mentally break them down, only to build them back stronger. And perhaps offer a small glimpse to the civilian world of what it takes to be a Navy SEAL. And let's not lose sight of just how selective the Navy SEALs are. The 18-month program typically starts with a class of about 1,000 candidates and seventy-five percent of those starting candidates drop out. They simply don't finish not because they aren't physically strong enough to finish. They lack the mental toughness to last throughout the whole program.

The U.S. National field hockey team is not the first or only club that has elected to undergo this type of rigorous physical and mental training. The U.S. bobsled team, many skiers and now even college and high school athletes have gone through the training. Recently the University of Hawaii football team has posted footage of their workouts with Marine sergeants. The video shows several members of the football team somewhat haphazardly performing jumping jacks and pushups.

One elite athlete, Larsen Jensen, who took home the bronze in the 400 freestyle at the 2008 Olympics, enlisted in the Navy a few months after winning the medal. He then proceeded to successfully complete the program, and became a Navy SEAL last March.

Going through military training isn't the only way coaches and athletes are looking to push their limits and change the monotony of practice. Just a few weeks ago, Temple men's basketball head coach Fran Dunphy moved his team's practice out of the gym and onto the Schuylkill River with the men's crew team. Because rowing requires teamwork and synchronization, Dunphy figured it was the perfect way to break up their preseason workouts.

The results were positive.

Despite some weak swimmers on the basketball team, the guys got a lot out of the experience. Dunphy even mentioned that he might be interested in doing both fall and spring preseason crew workouts.

While of course the crew workouts aren't exactly comparable to training with Navy SEALs, the fundamental idea behind the un-traditional workouts is the same. To push yourself beyond your mental limits by doing something physical that you are not comfortable with.

We all know that the Navy SEALs are perhaps the most revered, well-respected team of fighters in the world. And though the battle that they're doing is vastly different from the battle done on courts, fields and in pools. But it makes perfect sense to have the best trained by the best. And while we may not be asking our military for water polo pointers, I think we all can feel pretty good about the positive impact they hope to have on our future Olympic medal counts.