Brilliance in the Basics

Special Operations...What is it that separates the men from the boys. It's the brilliance in the basics. Certainly, there are tons of schools that teach extremely high-level skills, but if we break it down to one simple principle, it's being brilliant in the basics. What are the basics?Shooting, moving, communicating and I'd even venture to say a fourth basic that is more of an intangible quality is to not freak out when the shit his the proverbial ventilator. Shooting, moving, communicating and maintaining composure in all situations. Those are the basics. These are things all engaging forces are taught. From fighter jets to tanks to the lowly grunt, if you can do those four things, you're most likely doing your job. So what is it that separates the operator types and the regular ground pounders?It's the ability to be brilliant in these simple actions. We could call the ability to be brilliant in these situations the ability to be consistent in them. As basic as they seem, when others are shooting at you, you might forget to communicate, you might feel like your cover is a relatively safe place and you won't move, or you'll feel the enemies fire is too accurate so you don't fire, or you spazz out. We've seen all of these instances happen. It's not that it happens a lot, but it happens.Let's drop the facade that everyone at all times in a combat environment is 100% proficient. We win because the enemy is exponentially less proficient than we are and for as bad as we get it sometimes, we're still at an acceptable threshold.Now. Take a look at any actual special operations warrior, what do they do 99% (nobody is perfect) of the time. Shoot, move, communicate, maintain composure. It has become second nature to them to do all of these things. They are great because they are brilliant in the basics.If you want to be at that level you don't need fancy schools. You don't need fancy gear. You need to practice shooting well, moving well, communicating well, and maintaining your composure in all situations....also grow cool facial hair...just kidding...but not really.