Craig Weller on the Resilient Performance Podcast

Craig spent six years in Naval Special Operations as a Special Warfare Combat Crewman (SWCC) and close to two years on the High-Threat Protection team for the U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad in Iraq. He’s the founder and co-founder of two different fitness businesses with three facilities in operation in Colorado and South Dakota. Craig trained special operations personnel for foreign governments on three different continents, has been published in the Journal of Strategic Studies, and is now studying human performance and how it relates to motor and perceptual learning.  Currently, Craig oversees the physical preparation programming for Precision Nutrition, an online platform that employs behavioral modification strategies to maximize body composition for health and performance.

Topics Covered:

1. Craig’s military special operations experiences
2. How Craig endured the selection process for a maritime unit without any previous swimming experience
3. The differences between preparing for selection and actual missions
4. Stress inoculation, toughness, and describe the interplay between the two
5. The continuum between skill acquisition and psychological preparation (or what is traditionally regarded as mental toughness)?
6. Is “mental toughness” really a thing?
7. Why is physical fitness in itself important from a resiliency and adaptation standpoint?
8. The phases of motor learning and how they fit into Craig’s stress inoculation construct
9. The interplay between challenge and success in developing the ability to perform under pressure
10. When and how failure can be a good thing
11. A really cool story about a sniper student who was bitten by a rattlesnake

Links of Interest:

• Craig's Precision Nutrition Bio
• Craig’s Twitter
• Craig’s article on performing under pressure and stress inoculation