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Walk into the Preservation of the Force and Family (POTFF) gym at Patch Barracks on any given weekday and the atmosphere is loud: weights clanging, stationary bikes whiring, and service members grunting as they hone themselves physically. These men and women never know when they will have to call upon their bodies to perform heroic feats. While physical strength is paramount to the force, it is only a piece of the puzzle. Often overlooked, mental strength plays as large of a role as physical fitness. It’s for this reason that across the base another type of honing occurs. This is where Lance Chamberlain, Ph.D., has the singular focus of helping service members reach peak mental strength.
Chamberlain, a cognitive performance specialist with U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, is of average size and build, but his impact is colossal within the Special Operations Forces community. He got his start doing clinical psychology, but his path to cognitive performance has been slow and deliberate. As a child, Chamberlain played golf as a hobby. He enjoyed the sport and was rather good. He even went on to earn a scholarship to play golf for Wayne State University in Detroit.
“I played golf as an undergraduate in college,” he said. “Although I had a scholarship, I was pretty sure I wasn't gonna make a living at it.”
It wasn’t his ability to drive the ball down the fairway that was his limiting factor. He knew that there was a component of the game that he hadn’t completely mastered. Not being able to compete at the highest level struck a personal nerve with Chamberlain.
Chamberlain searched for the ingredient that was missing from his game and what would help him achieve that higher level of success he knew he was capable of. He knew that despite his mastery of his body and the clubs, his greatest challenge to fully develop as a golfer is the mental aspect. His love for golf was the seed that would be the genesis for his long term career with the Department of Defense.
“Golf started my interest in performance psychology because physically, I was able to do almost anything anybody else could,” he stated. “I've got the capability, and yet, it doesn't always show up mentally.”
Even though passion for golf was the catalyst for going down this journey of cognitive performance, the next piece of the puzzle didn’t come until later. During his doctoral studies at the University of Houston, Chamberlain started working with veterans. Making a difference in service members' lives is what really captured his interest.
While working in Houston, Chamberlain connected with a veteran who was in conflict with the rehabilitation staff and was on the verge of dropping out of his recovery program. Chamberlain was able to relate to the veteran and see things through his eyes and help him turn the corner in his treatment. That was where Chamberlain’s path became inextricably intertwined with soldiers. He enjoyed the community and found a kinship.
“I have incredible respect for the commitment and the service in this community, and how long they've been doing it on my behalf,” he said.
Following college, Chamberlain got a job at the U.S. Army post in Vicenza, Italy, working with service members of the 173rd Infantry Combat Brigade Team (Airborne). This was the stage when his professional career would take the next turn. He was approached by 173rd leadership, asking him how they could improve their safety record.
“The brigade commander asked ‘How come our guys are getting injured way more than our peers in the 82nd during airborne operations?’” he said.
With that question, the foundation was laid.
“We built a performance training program around Airborne operations and jumps, everything from use of performance imagery script, to deliberate practice,” said Chamberlain.
It was an intentional pursuit to increase soldier safety.
“It started at the basic Airborne refresher course and included going out to the field to work with people on really creating the imagery and the muscle memory when exiting the aircraft. It was developed to reduce anxiety and stress, in addition to increasing attention and awareness,” he said.
Due to the systems that Chamberlain implemented, soldiers felt more confident in their ability to perform under pressure, execute jumps more proficiently, and reduce injuries.
Cognitive performance is more than just safety, he says. It is helping individuals be more productive throughout the day. Chamberlain stresses that cognition is a piece of the whole performance spectrum.
“Cognitive domain is one of the five pillars of the POTFF. We need a lot of the other domains to support us and support our operators for us to move the needle,“ he said.
Cognitive performance falls under the larger cognitive umbrella. The POTFF office includes specialists to help troops with physical, psychological, cognitive, social/family, and spiritual health. The program he developed for SOCEUR is meant to help complement the treatment service members receive from physical therapy and other domains.
“We both are different from and complementary to physical therapy,” said Chamberlain. “That is where we come in to support physical therapy.”
Physical health and welfare is a priority for Chamberlain, but he stresses the importance of life balance. After helping reduce the number of injuries during Airborne jumps, he began to build a program to help SOF troops balance their lives.
“I can come to them and say, ‘Wait a minute, I know this way to make your day-to-day life a little bit easier, I know how to bring down your stress just a little bit.’” he continued. “I know something that might make tomorrow, in terms of your performance, a little better.”
Chamberlain also says many individuals don’t realize that quality sleep is the bedrock of performance. Getting enough sleep drastically increases mental alertness and ability to perform our best.
“Most folks have got to get their sleep if they're going to see the true performance benefits in terms of cognitive performance and mental energy,” he said. “We have performance modules that we've built that focus on sleep, memory, attention, mindfulness, and cognitive resource management.”
If there was one piece of advice that Chamberlain would give to everyone, it is to get sufficient sleep and then plan their most important things during the time of the day when they are most alert.
“For most people, 10 am is the window of peak cognitive performance.” he said. “The hours between 9 to 11, we call primetime – in that window, put your most difficult strategic problems, and your most difficult tasks to solve. Put your most difficult work tasks in that window because it's cognitively where you're most primed and ready to perform.”
Chamberlain’s professional journey has taken him down a trail that he never envisioned. From his days of playing golf to working with service members his path of helping others with cognitive performance has been a slow and steady march.
He says keeping a routine is the secret to success.
“You must structure your workflow, as well as your environment, and you must protect it!”
Performance is a destination and deliberation is the key to reaching it.
| Date Taken: | 09.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.26.2024 05:14 |
| Story ID: | 480710 |
| Location: | STUTTGART, DE |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Beyond the Gym: How Mental Strength Drives Elite Performance in Special Operations Forces, by SSG Nathan Baker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
