Why SOF Selection Has a 75% Dropout Rate

The obvious one that you’ll be thinking is ‘because it’s brutal’!

Correct.

But let me tell you, some of the fittest men and women on the planet wouldn’t, and don’t make it through.

So I wanted to share some reasons why and what you can learn for your teams and organisation.

We were tasked with preparing a group of 189 recruits for an SOF selection and I got told one thing which will stick with me forever.

“Josh, we want these recruits to drop out for reasons relating to mental weakness, not physical weakness”

Most of the recruits that entered the selection pipeline were fit enough to endure 21 days straight of brutality. But what they couldn’t do was enough to prove to the cadre these things…

👉 They had the individual adaptability and resilience to cope with the accumulative stress of 21 days of pressure
👉 They could not consistently operate as an effective team player
👉 They could not consistently control their emotions, make coherent and effective decisions under extreme pressure
👉 They could not manage/embrace the relentless discomfort which is enforced upon them during selection
👉 They were mentally poorly prepared for what was to come. Either through lack of planning, awareness or engagement in mental performance skills
👉 They had not exposed themselves to increasingly stressful situations in their own training.

The common denominator here is the lack of preparation/ability to engage in mental performance skills such as stress management, resilience, self awareness, leadership, team work and communication skills.

This is a lot like the huge % of individuals in the business world who don’t invest in their own/teams mental performance skills.

In the SOF world, the consequences in selection are that you become part of the 75% statistic. In the business world you become expendable, cost the business £’s through loss of productivity, poor culture and working environment which leads to absenteeism and staff turnover.

So invest in you and your team's mental performance skills and don’t be part of the 75%.