“High speed, low drag”
“See one, do one, teach one”
“Hurry the **** up troop”
“Double time”
I don’t remember nothing about slow… 
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Special Forces.
Performing a critical task correctly, completely and precisely (i.e., taking the amount of time required to do all those things) would always, overall, produce better results in a shorter amount of time than hurrying to perform the same task, concentrating on speed alone.
Old West gunslingers (the ones who won) agreed that it was not the fastest gun who won battles; it was the most accurate shooter.
In other words, the overall fastest way to complete a task or challenge is to perform it as efficiently as possible. And efficiency happens optimally when all actions involved are performed smoothly.
In short, it’s not a matter of just slowing down to learn a procedure, and then speeding up; it is actually faster overall to perform and practice any procedure slowly and smoothly, even from the first time you do it.
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Neither do I. Hurry up and wait was more the order of the day in the army.
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“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast” has been attributed to Carlos Hathcock, a decorated Marine sniper during the Vietnam War, with unprecedented 93 confirmed kills.
He was famous for regularly sneaking far behind enemy lines and being deadly effective from unimagineable distances after having crawled on his belly for hours in his ghillie suit, and staying dead still amid stifling heat, humidity and insects.
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Just before I joined the military my neighbour (who was ex Army) said to me “Whatever you do son, don’t tell them you can play the piano”. I said why not? He smiled and said “because they’ll make you fucking carry it”
Best piece of life advice I’ve ever received.
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Slow and smooth is definitely the way to go for a sniper like Carlos. My favorite Hathcock story was when he nailed the NVA sniper right through his sight while he was taking aim at Carlos. True story. Yes slow and steady wins the race.
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Absolutely, Pam. I have read everything I could find on Hathcock. Also, all the Bob Lee Swagger novels that were not so loosely based on him.
The seemingly counter-intuitive “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” has carried me through many things in life so far. It works for me.
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I had a buddy who was a Navy SEAL. He said In modern combat situations such as SEALS face, they rely upon movement to create the confusion they require in order to succeed.
However, if they begin moving too quickly, they open themselves to flanking movements which can cut them off from their objective.
Therefore, going slower than maximum is actually faster than going all-out for the objective. They control the impulse to hurry by making all their movements smooth, which, although it is slower, gets them to their objective much more surely and quickly.
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Sorry, you brought it up.
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The thing that I always wonder about after finishing the course in around 3-4 weeks is how much I might have skipped over and not absorbed properly.
I did attempt to go through it again but got sidetracked and probably will so perhaps your slowly slowly approach may be much better
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I was just a reservist, so I never really talk about my own Army service online, but the way this was taught to us (at Psyops AIT, which is in Army SOCOM, though not super-elite like the Green Berets) was “Only go as fast as you want to die.”
What can I say, I ran out of money for college, and my ASVAB and DLAB scores got me in to a very interesting MOS. Definitely an unusual path for a college punk/club kid to take. I regret nothing 
This is so true for the vast majority of the Army. Like, ubiquitous in everything you do. It sucks. The quote I had above was specific to a night land nav and infiltration course; the most common time a soldier spends during the day is running from one line to another
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I’ve spent five months finishing the course. I intentionally went through each lesson slowly. Sometimes, I backed up a lesson or two before continuing to the next one.
My aim in taking B2B was to learn bass fingerstyle plucking techniques, and it did not disappoint. I paid particular attention to lessons that had alternating finger plucking and string jumping.
Also, having to work through diverse tune examples in each lesson was a great, fun bonus I did not expect. Going in, I was way familiar with many songs, and completely unfamiliar with some. It was great practice for getting out of the old comfort zone. But I could only get it done by taking it slow.
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What’s the colour of the boat house at Hereford?
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Ask the SAS?
(what movie was that?)
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You could spend 5 years in grade 1 making sure that you absorbed everything but you’re going to learn a lot more if you spend those 5 years getting to grade 5.
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Ronin.
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Ahh right!
I wonder if that’s actually real. I mean, it seems like a really bad idea to have a googleable call-and-response 
“What is the nickname of the enlisted club at Bragg?”
“The Stab-‘n’-Jab.”
“Ok guys this one’s a legit operator!”
I wonder if it’s still called that (or even still exists). Everyone knew it, including the enlisted only there for training, like me. It was off limits the entire time I was there. Would have made a bad way to authenticate someone as a SOF operator
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I only remember because it was the only movie i watched semi-sober in the 90s.
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