For days on end you’ve been walking, carrying a rucksack on your back that is pretty much
the weight of a small human being. You’ve hiked up hills, climbed up cliffs, traversed
rivers, and throughout this certain kind of hell, you’ve hardly slept at all. But you
know what…you’re ok with it. You’ll survive…and that’s because you’ve been
through one of the training regimes we’ll talk about today.
Navy SEALS Ok, so you wanna be a Navy SEAL. You can see
yourself running for miles on end singing, “I don't know but I've been told. A frog
man's money is good as gold.” We won’t spend too much time on the basic
stuff, because we think many of you could get through the beginning of the training.
That’s what they call the “Navy SEAL Physical Screening Test.”
Can you run a mile and a half in less than 9.30 minutes? Sure you can.
Can you do 75 sit ups and 75 push ups…no sweat.
But that’s just the beginning. You’ve proved nothing at all.
Next you have Boot Camp, and if you get through that, you will begin what’s called, “Basic
Underwater Demolition.” Guys in the military just call this BUDS.
It’s phase one of BUDS that seems to be the hardest, and that’s where most people
drop out. In fact, from what we can see, on average only 33 percent of trainees get through
phase one. If you can make it through this phase it’s very likely you’ll become a
SEAL. Phase one is basically weeding out the weakest,
and we should also say that through this seven-week phase some people just get injured. Think
about it…it makes sense…if you’re not physically and mentally tough, there’s really
no point in taking you to the next level. That’s why the first phase is all about
physical and mental conditioning, and it includes something called, “Hell Week”, which doesn’t
sound like a very nice week at all. These are just some of things you’ll have
to do in the first few weeks of phase one training.
A 1,000-yard swim – with your fins on, in less than twenty minutes.
Be able to do at least 70 pushups in less than two minutes.
Be able to do at least 10 pullups in less than two minutes, and you must be capable
of running four miles, fully clothed, in less than 31 minutes.
You’ll be doing stuff like this all the time, and doing other activities that include
beach runs and swimming in the ocean. Then there’s also the BUD/S obstacle course you’ll
have to complete time and again, which might remind you of the countless movies made about
military training schools. Hell Week itself is five days and five nights
of almost constant training and recruits will only be allowed to sleep a few hours during
this entire period. It’s hell for sure, and a lot of guys drop
out during Hell Week. Recruits will be running, swimming in the ocean, building and carrying
boats, crawling through mud, being screamed at the entire time, and they will be constantly
cold and wet. It’s hard to train for, because when we
looked at websites where SEALS talked about Hell Week it seems there are different kinds
of hell. One exercise might simply be carrying a 300-pound (136-kg) log with another guy
to help you. This is how one guy put it, “Too cold, too
much stress, too many pushups, too much running, too much water skills - pretty much BUD/S
will give you TOO MUCH of everything.” He said half of the recruits he was with dropped
out by the end of Hell Week. He said each day was continuous running, crawling, swimming,
carrying around heavy things. They got to eat, but then it was back to the exercises.
He said the nights and days merged. He could barely think. He just did what he was told
to do and the whistle became his master. The food was hot, which was good, because he said
most men spent the entire time shivering because they were so cold and so wet.
After three days of this, he said the remaining men go into “zombie mode”, running down
beaches with a boat above their heads. His exact words were, Hell Week will turn you
into a caveman, but once it’s over, you’ve definitely earned your right to become Navy
SEAL. SAS
Is SAS training hard…Well, if you do a bit of research you’ll find it’s so hard that
men have recently died doing it. It was in fact, too hard. Some guys in the SAS actually
ended up in court after three trainees died during one of the challenges.
What challenge was that, you might ask. Well, it was a fairly simple exercise. Recruits
were just given very heavy backpacks and told to march up and down hills in the blistering
heat without resting too much. How hard could that be, you’re thinking.
Well, one guy died from heatstroke and two other guys died from multiple organ failure.
It was very hard...as hard as you can get. That’s hardly debatable seeing as three
men died. We found a guy that had actually passed “the
hills” stage of training and he said that essentially men spend four weeks in rural
Wales running up hills carrying their weapons and a backpack weighing 70 pounds (31kg).
His exact words were, “My course started with 350 guys and finished with 13.”
That’s a bigger dropout rate than the Navy SEALS, and the man that said this said all
of the guys doing the training were already pretty fit since they’d already passed the
first phase of selection. This is called the Special Forces Brieﬁng Course.
This first phase is not only about fitness, but it’s also about map reading, IQ testing,
military knowledge and first aid. But you will have to show that you can swim 100 meters
fully clothed in under 3 minutes, and you’ll also have to do a 2-mile run in under 18 minutes.
350 guys could do that, and we expect some of you could do it, too. But could you run
up hills for a week? The answer is likely no, since 13 soldiers only made it past that
week in one of the programs. Ok, down to 13 men…Is it now over?... No
is the answer, not even close. The guy we just talked about said his small
team of recruits were then flown to the jungles of Brunei and they spent six weeks living
among ants, mosquitoes, flies, centipedes, snakes, spiders, you name it. He said everything
was trying to eat him in that jungle. The trainers are watching all the time, seeing
how good the men’s survival skills are. Those trainers lay traps for the men, and
some men almost lose their minds in the dense jungle.
When that’s done, they want to break you mentally. This will be your hostage scenario
training and it’s basically torture. It’s full name is “Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract
training.” You’ll be grabbed hold of, roughed up, held in very painful positions,
and you’ll be interrogated. If you can hold on for 36 hours without getting
too distressed or giving any information away, you’ve passed.
Spetsnaz Spetsnaz is basically a term that is used
for all Russian special military units, and the training is special, too.
It’s hard to find the specifics, but every soldier will of course have to go through
a basic orientation course. The training after that, the physical side
anyway, is all about endurance and strength Spetsnazovtsi are expected to be stronger
and fitter than other Russian soldiers, and if they can’t prove that, they’re out.
They are expected to rappel from buildings and cliffs, jump out of aircraft, and like
the SAS, they’ll do special mountain training, but they’ll do it during the freezing winter
months. They’ll be dropped off in some mountainous terrain, given a survival pack, and then expected
to get out within two weeks. Another big aspect of this training is basically
having a fight. Spetsnazovtsi are well known to be good at
one-on-one combat, and a big part of the training will involve learning how to strike, how to
wrestle, and how to snap a man’s bones when he’s down on the floor. Training for a Spetsnaz
unit is a bit like training for an MMA fight. The actual martial art they will use is called
Sambo, which was developed during the period of the Soviet Union. It’s kind of a mix
of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, boxing, but it also allows head butts, groin strikes,
and elbow strikes. Is it a good martial art? Well, why not ask
Khabib Nurmagomedov that question. If you don’t know that name, he’s one of the
best MMA fighters that ever walked the Earth. He started out in his fighting career doing
Sambo. Sometimes the fight won’t be fair, though,
because another part of the training is learning how to fight someone who is holding a knife
or a metal bar. The recruits are asked to disable that guy and take away his weapon
while not getting hit. Could it get any worse? Well, if you believe
the British tabloid media – something which you should do at your own risk – some recruits
were asked to fight huge, mean, maddened dogs during their training.
They won’t even get to that point if they can’t run 100 meters in less than 13 seconds,
which is actually very hard for most people. They’ll also have to show that they can
run 1.9 miles (3km) in less than 12 minutes, which is also pretty damn hard.
Then there are the stories of recruits being held at the shoulders and legs by two other
men. A cinder block is placed on the man’s chest, and that block is covered with gasoline
and set on fire. Another man subsequently breaks the block in two with a huge sledgehammer.
If you don’t believe that, search for the photos. Don’t ask us why they do this, though.
Does the harshness of the training make them better soldiers? Well, that’s not for us
to say. The British tabloids say the SAS doesn’t think much of the spetsnaz units, but the
British tabloids would say that. One guy writing about spetsnaz soldiers wrote
on a forum, “If American soldiers had to pass that training,they would most likely
quit before finishing. The Spetsnaz is the closest you can get to a superior humanoid
battle droid.” You can discuss that topic later in the comments,
but first let’s have a look at Sayeret Matkal. Sayeret Matkal
This is part of Israel’s special forces units, one of the Reconnaissance units along
with Shayetet 13 and Unit 5101. The former is much like the British SAS, and
is actually based on the SAS when it comes not just to how it operates but also how its
recruits train. Obviously Sayeret Matkal guys are not dying
on hills in Wales, so what do they have to endure during their training?
Well, when this unit started it was actually quite a secret operation and sounded like
something from a Hollywood movie. That’s because only the best soldiers would be picked
to join and they had to keep it secret. They’d get a tap on the shoulder one day and be told
they’d be taking part in a serious covert operation.
These days it’s not the same, and now any soldier can volunteer to take part in the
training programs that happen twice a year. Like the other units we have talked about
today, many people don’t make it through that training.
The selection camp is called “Gibbush” and soldiers are put through hell for days
on end and like the SEALS Hell Week, they won’t get much sleep. It’s so bad that
doctors and psychologists need to monitor the trainees all the time.
Ok, so once they get through that they will have 20 months of training. This will include
lots of reconnaissance training, so that means these guys will be dropping into dense jungles
and swimming through murky swamps. It’s all about learning how to handle yourself
behind enemy lines. It’s about the art of not being seen.
Of course they will have arms training and parachuting courses, but they will also learn
martial arts and go on very, very long hikes. One of those is 75 miles (120km), with a heavy
backpack on and with weapons. One of the particularly dangerous things they
have to do is part of their orienteering exercises. Soldiers are taken to some jungle or desert
or mountainous region in a foreign country and are expected to survive, get out of there,
and arrive at a specific location. This is the kind of exercise that a lot of
special forces do around the world. The one big difference with Sayeret Matkal is that
soldiers get dropped off by themselves. They are of course monitored from a distance, but
they have no one to help them if they need a helping hand. They have no one to talk during
those dark nights in the jungle. That must be utterly terrifying.
Sometimes the land won’t be jungle, but the guys will be left in swamps or rivers
for hours, even days, in locations all over the world. Sometimes just one recruit will
be sent out alone and told to evade capture for as long as possible. The guys coming after
him are the people that have already been through the training.
Now we think you should watch this video, “What Are The MOST ELITE Special Forces
in the World?” or this video “What Makes Black Ops The World’s Most Dangerous Soldiers?”