
Channel Your Inner Miller Smash
October 21, 2015
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Clare Miller, our very own BMFer, showed true grit and strength throughout the gruelling six-week BBC show Special Forces – Ultimate Hell Week and went on to win it. Want to channel your inner Miller Smash? Here's how:
Clare has attributed her success to her BMF instructor, Al Clark, who she praises as being absolutely fundamental to her training and preparation for the show. With five years’ experience as a Royal Military Police Physical Training Instructor and a further six years as a BMF instructor, Al has built his expertise by analysing individuals and seeing what makes them tick, then working off that to reach their goal, regardless of the obstacle. This, along with his three training principles – the mind is principle, there are no shortcuts, and learn to ‘fail better’ – made him the ideal training coach for Clare.
We caught up with Al this week to find out what his training regime for Clare looked like and, having seen what he put her through, we're not really surprised she made it to the end of the show. He truly held no prisoners!
What were your first thoughts when Clare asked you to help her train for her part in Special Forces – Ultimate Hell Week?
They say "talent spots talent" and when she approached me I quietly knew she had made the right choice! ;) Clare was a pleasure to work with. She is keen to learn, humble and dedicated. Clare's strengths and weakness were as much physical as mental, and I adopted a solid mental approach for her to drill. We only had seven weeks to prepare her physically so I focused more on the mental side as it was quicker to achieve than building muscle and just as important. I needed her mind to speak my voice when things got tough and lonely, which it did.
When I train people for serious events, I break them down and build them up – both physically and mentally in equal proportion. My expertise are the planning and delivery of the training camp and I work a lot around accountability – being responsible for your own actions and results. I give 100% and I expect 100%, and with equal dedication from both parties the objective can be reached. I knew I’d get 100% every day from Clare.
Physically, Clare's short, and slender. She's a natural runner and very fit, but her natural talent is her athleticism, not being a grizzly soldier. The only physical weakness I considered was that she might be physically weak in comparison to some of the other competitors. Media wise, I knew that Clare's gender would be a big factor and would focus on her ability to perform against and alongside the men in the competition.
Mentally, Clare's nice, not nasty. I had turn her into someone who could think like a cold analyst rather than using natural emotion. Despite being competitive, Clare isn’t driven by other people - it makes her feel guilty - instead, her drive is a competitiveness against herself. This was perfect, as I knew the further she got in the stages the more she would rely her herself and not others. I set her up against herself mentally. I would lie to her; "come on you did 63 press ups last time", when actually she'd done 45. This would make her work harder against herself.
Can you tell us a little about how you trained Clare mentally?
Clare runs OCR and is used to winning. Success is something she is used to. She has it all - the incredible job, the tall handsome boyfriend, the athletic talent: I had to remove all of that. I had to make her understand that none of that mattered, and to realise that there was a real possibility she could fail. I gave her tasks that she would fail at – and this taught her that failure would happen, but she would learn to fail better than the other competitors. “Fail Better” became our motto and she quickly learned I wasn't taking any prisoners. I kept the training tapered so it was slightly less hard than the show as I still needed her to be able to raise her game and retain the mental resilience to keep pushing it, without risking injury. The "train hard, fight easy" strategy is great, but wasn't relevant here.
And how did you train Clare physically?
She was already fit, but not strong. I had to correct that, and fast. Our weekly training programme covered a wide variety which ensured we were working on the key areas. She include my ‘big four’ plan at least 4 times a week in the gym:
The theory behind this routine is that it was simple, but effective. It doesn't burn fat or have much initial cosmetic impact, but that was the least of our worries - it was Ultimate Hell Week, not TOWIE. I took out a few elements of my usual training routine to avoid overloading her back and risking injury, knowing she’d be up and down backpacks with a large backpack and I couldn’t risk any back problems as a result of training.
Clare also was given a progressive pull-up program - she completely kicked my ass from the get go!
Fortunately Clare loves exercise but this was a problem. I had to talk her out of OCR races as she needed the rest. This was tricky as there was prize money on the line and a lot of pressure on her to show up, but we had to prioritise and I had to use every bit of the short time we had as efficiently as possible.
Did you include any military-style activity in your training?
I arranged scenarios to show her military basics, and to demonstrate the way those in the Forces walk and talk. I would do things like make Clare lie in bushes at 5am whilst I poured cold water over her and make her memorise 50 pictures of military equipment/formations and then tell me what she had seen an hour later. Then she would have to do sprints in a gas mask and full kit. It wasn't pleasant. Then we had interrogation-type exercises with false cover stories and escape and evasion type runs.
Kidnap Scenario: One of our final scenarios was me driving her to a random point on a map, blindfolded, then dumping her out with an a-z map, 20kg Bergan and various points to reach within a certain time. She was awesome, she covered the 16mile distance so quickly that I thought she'd taken a cab! She even evaded my tracker team who were tailing her!
1-2 x super hard BMF classes: These would be nasty, to the point where my members wanted to know why I was picking on her. I would mix it between making her hurt physically then put her on the spot (the members would be in on it) by telling her to teach the class something (i.e. first aid) quickly whilst I shouted to distract her. All the BMF classes would involve her carrying something like a tyre or backpack to get her used to doing monotonous carrying.
1 x early morning 2 hour beaster: 5am start with a gas mask, 20kg bergan, and carry dragging me – it wasn't pleasant for her.
2 x short tough HIIT sessions (gym/home based). HIIT training is short, sharp and simple to plan. So for instance:
She was brilliant from the start of training through to the end of the show and I'm incredibly proud of her. The question is, will she take a place in series two?"