Q School Notes

Goals of a Q School

GO DO: Once a Q School has been provided, there should be explicit targeting of VQs (virgin Qs) to incorporate what they learned as quickly as possible before knowledge and confidence are lost

Teach F3 Fundamentals

Mission

The mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership.

Core principles

    1. Open to all men
    2. Free
    3. Always outdoors, rain or shine
    4. Peer lead
    5. Ends in Circle of Trust

Credo

We leave no man behind but don’t leave them where we found them

Teach different styles of leading

4 count cadence is the most complicated for some to call

      • The process of announcing an exercise
        • The next exercise is __________________
        • Starting position, move (or you are in it)
        • In cadence, exercise

Down count (you call down, the PAX counts on the up)

OYO (on your own) 

Teaching incorporation of each F

1st F

Make the workout challenging; this encourages shared suffering

Q Tip: Organizing routines that require a lot of OYO or AMRAP (as many reps as possible) allows men to perform at their own levels while still getting challenged

    • DORA is a good example of this
    • Having a portion of the PAX do something as the “timer” while the other PAX do AMRAP of an exercise or routine

2nd F

Giving the men an opportunity to encourage each other during the workout
Another type of fellowship is the mumblechatter that happens during the workout

3rd F

Watching out for the six (when moseying, make sure there are no stragglers being left behind)

    • Feel free to ask a man at the beginning of the workout to own staying with the six during moseys
    • Respect for the six (this is probably 2nd and 3rd Fs)
      • Go back to PUT6 (pick up the 6) and finish the exercises with them
      • Planking while the 6 finishes up

The Q owns the Words at CoT, whether that be a prayer or some other type of vulnerability or words of wisdom

Allow the PAX to practice learnings during the Q

The above are your notes to ensure you know what to incorporate; the below, the actual practice of the teachings, is critical for PAX who have never Qed to provide them opportunity to practice during the Q School what you taught them and encourage them to perform their VQ

Ask the PAX either before the workout or during the warm-o-rama who has never Qed before and give those folks opportunity to practice along the way

The main things to give them practice on are

    • Calling cadence (of each kind)
    • The process of announcing each exercise
    • Once you have shared the Mission, Principles, and Credo, ask the PAX to quote these along the way
      • A good time for this is between exercises (while in some form of plank, of course) to “do something while doing nothing”

Other leadership qualities to be shown before, during, and after the workout

As a Q, the leader should encourage others to join him for his workout, calling or texting his peers the day or two before the workout
The Q should show up early, welcoming each man and thanking them for coming
It is just about always a good idea to give the Disclaimer, even if there are no FNGs

The Disclaimer is something to the affect of:

“I am not a professional; I don’t know your ailments, so please modify as necessary; we want to see everyone at the next workout, so please monitor your own limits’

The Q should have a count of the PAX at a workout and should monitor that the count is the same along the way to ensure no one got left behind

A good time for this is during SSHs; count each man as you call the cadence

Call this out to the men, to make sure they know you are doing it purposefully

When a man enters the workout, it should be known who the leader is

The leader should show a command by being centered in the circle

A leader should not ask the PAX to do something they cannot do themselves

If you cannot do it, do not Q it

Emphasize good form to ensure the men know what it looks like and to keep the men safe

Start on time and finish on time

This shows respect for the PAX and builds trust through setting expectations and then meeting them

Backblast

Although it is nice to detail all the doings of a workout in the backblast, that is not its primary purpose

The backblast should mainly do two things:

    1. Encourage each PAX that was there by calling out their efforts during the workout
      • An attention to detail is required here, as this will require the Q to watch each man during the workout
    2. Call out the PAX who were not at the workout to encourage them that they were missed, making them feel known

CSAUP Definition

CSAUP-Completely Stupid and Utterly Pointless- F3 Puget Sound Definition

Definition from F3Nation Lexicon– “Difficult, dirty and dangerous events that build Trust between Team Members”

Goal: TO STRESS test the PAX to strengthen Trust. “Shared pain builds Trust”- Dredd

Difficult-

  • The event must push both the physical and mental limits of the PAX. The mere consideration of participating in said event should give even the most seasoned and fit member of the PAX significant pause. The risk of failure is high.
  • The event must require that the PAX works as a TEAM to overcome great adversity. The various elements must be near impossible as a solo endeavor.
  • The event must require great expenditure of time, both in terms of training, preparation and the event itself. The event time shall either by contiguous or in tightly spaced days such that participation requires significant personal sacrifice.

Dirty-

  • The event must require a significant degree of discomfort: be that in terms of actual dirt, sweat, tears, cold, heat, physical pain, etc. or thru great mental or emotional toil. 
  • To a mere outsider the event must seem absurd or certainly stretch the boundaries of what is considered feasible, wise or achievable.

Dangerous-

  • The event while not being unsafe should certainly challenge the PAX to push the limits of their capability. There shall be elements that cause trepidation and anxiety which forces a HIM to dig deep to overcome.

Number of PAX-

The goal should be to have as many PAX participate as possible, however at a minimum an event MUST include at least 2 PAX members (how can you have a team event with 1 PAX?) and the event should be broadly open to all PAX.

Examples:

  • Tough Mudder/Toughest Mudder, Worlds Toughest Mudder.
  • Spartan Super, Spartan Beast, Spartan Ultra
  • GORUCK Tough/Heavy/Custom (No Light) Stars Course 50 mile
  • Extreme Week (at least 7 workouts contiguous with no gaps)

Examples of Events to do NOT qualify:

  • Exclusively Running events (5k, 10K, 13.1, 26.2, etc) UNLESS the involve a relay portion, extended time, distance  and the entire team is exclusively F3 PAX (For example Hood to Coast, Ragnar) as running is primarily an individual event even if run as a group.
  • GORUCK Light/Spartan Sprint/Mudder 5k- as a entry level event it does not meet the Difficult or Dangerous component, however these are suggested as great training events for completing future CSAUP events.

CSAUP Training-

  • While true CSAUP events will be relatively rare within the Region we would encourage the PAX to design, implement and Q training events with the eventual goal to prepare the PAX to successfully complete a CSAUP.
  • These could include Ruck training, extended or linked together AO’s (Sinister Saturday, Tour de Kirkland, etc.) or other training events primarily designed to expose PAX to the CSAUP concepts and prepare them for the larger challenge.

Ultimately we encourage the PAX to design, market and implement CSAUP events to stress test each other, demonstrating the PAX is made up of HIM capable of true Shared Leadership. 

F3 Featured in the Redmond Reporter

F3 brings local men together for fitness, fellowship and faith

Reporter Kailan Manadic participates in a morning workout with the local men’s fitness group and is nicknamed after a well-known crime dog.

———

Most of us who aren’t athletes or fitness devotees wouldn’t generally consider waking up before the sunrise to work out at 5:30 a.m. as a fun idea. Try doing it multiple days a week, outside in the rain, shine, sleet or snow.

I was recently invited to participate in an F3 workout session where I met 24 local men at Grasslawn Park in Redmond. Journalism calls for late nights more often than early mornings, so I was fortunate enough to participate in the Labor Day workout, which met at 7 a.m., leaving me enough time to crawl out of bed.

….

Download the full article from the Redmond Reporter …. F3 Redmond Reporter

Down to Four

Defiance was five strong this morning. Lunger, DDT and Flipper met at 0530 to ruck through the park. Frenchy and Garfield met us at 0700 to start the workout. Flipper needed to leave so there were four for the workout.

Warmups
The Thang
50 yardish run for Partner 1
Meanwhile Partner 2 starts on 50 burpees
Partners trade until the 50 is completed.
Then it’s 100 overhead hand claps, 150 pushups, 200 situps and 250 squats. Oh, that last one burns.

Then it’s four stations: flutters, Capitals, sandbag curls and sandbag sumo dead squats. 10 reps, 3 rounds. Bear crawl, crab walk or broad jump between stations.

Workout complete

WoW:
The fellowship of this group is vital and keeps us motivated and encourages us to be here each workout.

Breakfast at Cole’s. The French toast special looked excellent.

EOM

F3 Family Weekend 2018

F3 Family Weekend

Objective:

To gather F3 Families together to build community: allowing our spouses and children to feel the direct impact of F3 from the men in their lives.

Event Q: Worthington

Location: Richland, WA

Dates: June 22nd-24th

Proposed Schedule of Events:

Friday June 22nd-

5-7pm- Open Arrivals
• Check into Hotels
• Set up camp

7-10pm- Casual Evening Gathering as people arrive at Worthington’s house

Saturday June 23rd-

7:00-8:00 am F3 Workout/Bootcamp at Badger Mountain Park

8:15-9:00 Coffeeteria at Roasters-Richland, WA

9:00-10:00 Break to get ready, gather up families

10:00-2:00- Women’s Afternoon off- My wife will arrange an afternoon including farmers market, tours of the riverfront, Lunch: basic relaxing WITHOUT kids

10:00-12:00 F3 Dads are on kid duty. Games and play at Howard Amon Park

12:00-4:00 Pool Party and BBQ Lunch at my house

2:00- Wives arrive back and join the fun

4:00-6:00 Family down time, feed kids dinner, etc.

6:00-When Parents Return- Kids Zone/Babysitting at Worthington’s house (I will have my High School daughter and as many of her friends as needed to watch kids at our house. Movies, games, fun, etc. My mother-in-law will be there to be the “adult” in case there is any emergency or issues)

6:00- 10:00PM Adults Night out/Parents Date Night-. I was thinking we could charter a Wine Tour Bus and take tour of several wineries, do wine tasting, dinner, etc. I have several friends that own wineries so we could get private tours and arrange a dinner.

10PM Pickup kids and head to Hotel/Camping, etc..

Sunday:

7:00-8:00 am- F3 Dads workout at Howard Amon Park

9:00-10:00 Women’s hike Badger Mt Park

9:00-10:00 Dads gather up kids, check out of hotel, etc…

10am-whenver people need to depart- casual pool party/BBQ at Worthington’s

Accommodations:

• If there is an interest I can reserve a block of rooms and get a group rate at one of our local hotels. I need to do this soon as there is a large event in town this weekend so Hotels are filling up.
• I want to make sure budget is not a reason for anyone not to come, so I would welcome any families that want to camp they would be welcome to camp in my yard. The only caveat is my wife would be concerned if they have small children since we have a pool. We do have one guest room and a basement if a family with littles want that. I also made sure almost all the events are fee with exception of the wine tour/dinner.

Travel:

Richland is ~200 miles from Kirkland due East on I-90 until you cross the Columbia River at Vantage, then due south for 1 hour. Without stops it takes 3 hours, with small kids and bathroom breaks plan on 3.5-4 hours.

Elroy’s tire experiment v2

3/31 Gas Works Park

The Lucky 13: Falcon, Dylan, Talent, Rockies, Applebee’s, Dunder, Mifflin, Meet-up, Journey, Elroy (Q), Dink, Bangkok, Headhunter (FNG)

The Thang: 2nd and improved iteration of Elroy’s tire experiment: Mix of Swedish tire run, tire burpees, tire wall sits, tire power squat presses, pike plank rallies, tire overhead sprints, bear crawls up the hill, balls to wall, 7MoM.

Announcements:
– Ruck event next week
– Worthington’s family outing, June 22 weekend
– Kojak is leading others in building out spiritual 3rd F, watch this space… or jump in to help form it!

WoW:
Thank you PAX today and F3 for this opportunity to lead. Q a workout if you haven’t — it’s a great gift!
– Elroy