Reposted Nov 22, 2021 My wife forwarded me some links to videos for a meeting she was having with her national organization and one I thought was definitely worth highlighting in particular more than merely posting to FB/Twitter. It was the Texas U 2014 Commencement address done by Admiral William H. McRaven, 36 Years as a Navy Seal, that has had close to 7 Million views on Youtube. In his presentation, he shares 10 tidbits how we the graduating class of 2014 can change the world highlighting his experience as a Navy Seal and the training they have to go thru to become the top warriors in the World.

Their training lasts 6 months, including long tortuous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims, obstacle courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.

The training is intended to eliminate the weak of mind and body, but also to find those that can lead thru hardship and challenges.

Here are the 10 tips he shared;

Make your bed every morning (the little things matter) 

Reinforcing the point that the little things matter, which every successful coach in the world emphasizes with their teams.  Perfect example, John Wooden at the beginning of every season would walk players thru how to tie their shoes, pull up their socks, wear their shorts, jerseys.  All little things but like the Navy Seals, felt it was important so that the players could do the big things right.

Find someone to help you paddle

Every morning crews of 7 are required to paddle their boats, requiring equal effort, everyone must paddle for the boat to make it to its destination. You can’t do it alone, takes friends, colleagues, goodwill of strangers. One of mine and most coaches pet peeves is selfish players, probably the most infamous “rant” about how a player was not contributing a member of the team is former San Francisco 49’rs head coach Mike Singleterry’s “Can’t Do it” rant post game why he asked Vernon Davis to leave the game. A year removed, Vernon and the 49’rs made it to the Superbowl under new Coach Jim Harbaugh and this is what Vernon shared about the lesson that he learned “Come on, you have all the tools in the world,”

Measure a person by the size of their heart (not their flippers)

He shares the analogy of the munchkin boat crew the smallest members of the aspiring seals, none over 5’ 5” but outpaddled, outran and outswam all the other boat crews even though they had the smallest flippers that all the much larger men would make fun of.  It showed the importance of the willingness to succeed.

Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward

Several times a week the instructors would do uniform inspection and would find something wrong, when failed students had to run fully clothed into the surf zone, then roll in the sand which was dubbed sugar cookie.  Many students did not understand the purpose that you were never going to have a perfect uniform and they did not make it thru training.

Don’t be afraid of the circuses

Every day during training challenged with multiple physical events, every one had standards, if you failed to meet those standards, you were invited to the circus training of additional 2 hours of physical training. No one wanted to be on the circus list, but ironically those that were on the list more often than not, developed resiliency, became stronger.

Sometimes you have to slide down the obstacles head first

He shares an analogy how a student decided to do down the slide for life (200’ rope between a 3 tiered and one tiered tower) on the obstacle course head first instead of upside down, dangerous move and instead of several minutes broke the longtime record that held before doing so.

Don’t back down from the sharks

Students have to do a series of long swims which includes an area of shark invested waters and encourage the students to summon up all your strength and punch them in the snout.

You must be your very best in the darkest moments

Another demanding task of seal training is a 2 mile underwater attack mission using nothing but a depth gauge and compass, during the swim there is some light but as approach the ship it blocks all ambient light and to be successful have to go to the centre keel that is pitch dark. This is the time where you must be calm, composed.

Start singing when you are up to your neck in mud

The 9^th week of Seal Training is called Hell Week – 6 days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and one special day at the mud flats, swampy patch where the mud engulfs you, nothing visible but their heads and instructors said could leave if 5 students quit even though had 8 hours left to go. Then one voice raised in song, sung with great enthusiasm, then one became two, two became three, and the singing persisted. The singing raised the hope of all the students, the power of one person, King, Washington, Mandela has the ability to change the world by giving people hope.

 Don’t EVER, EVER ring the bell

All you have to do to quit is ring the bell, never have to wake up at 5, no more cold swims, obstacle course, Physical Training or endure the hardships of training. In order to get thru the demands of the Seal Training, it pushes every student to their absolute limits, physically, mentally and the vast majority that enter each training class do end up ringing that bell.  In Williams class, it started with approximately 150 students and just in the first few weeks 2/3 of the students rang the bell where only 42 remained and completed the 6 months training to become the warriors they aspired to become. The Navy Seals training program is the most challenging of any program in the world in terms of physical and mental preparation. Of the 10 tips that William shared how the students of U of T in 2014 how they could change the world, the one that jumped out at me the most was #3, measure a person by the size of their heart (not their flippers) as a coach of many years, I always look for players that have character, heart, and commitment first and foremost regardless of their stature or current skill set. Using the NHL as an example as we head into the 2018-19 season, each day I read the paper there has been highlight of various Vancouver Canucks prospects and emphasis on how all are bigger, faster, stronger than they were a year ago.  The same holds true I suspect in every major paper in cities across Canada and the USA as teams go thru their respective training camps where many of the prospects are saying they are sore but they are only a few weeks long, followed by a series of exhibition games and daily practices vs. 6 months of Seal Training. Rarely have I seen any references in all of the prospects in terms of the character, spirit, determination to not only get thru their rigors of training camps, ex games and to date no journalist has commented or the size of their heart.

A perfect example is Brendan Gallagher, all 5’7” of him who every year and each level he moved up coaches I know from all the evaluations and scouting have done would say “he is too small” But like the “munchkin crew” of the Navy Seals training class, he has proved all the naysayers wrong as he is entering his 7^th season for the Habs, one of the alternate captains on a long term 5.5M cap hit deal as they continue to go thru their rebuild (don’t even get me started about my thoughts on the Max Pacioretty trade) Who would have thought a 5’7” forward would go the front of the net with reckless abandon as Brendan does game in a game out? Apparently, the majority of the coaches, scouts, GM’s in the league had their doubts as Brendan was no selected until the 5^th round, 147^th overall. RARELY does any player drafted that late every get to see action in the NHL, majority become journeymen AHL or other semi-pro players never to be heard of. All of those that overlooked the likes of Brendan in the NHL, Bantam drafts or Minor Hockey Rep Tryouts could learn a little something from the Navy Seals … as I have said every year during evaluations, it is not the size of the player, it is the size of their heart that matters. That is something we as coaches can’t teach, they either have it or they don’t as Brendan and many other smaller stature players have proved to all the naysayers. Below is the video of the Admirals full Commencement Speech.