The Coast Guard is facing a shortage of entry-level rescue swimmers. The service has 29 percent fewer apprentice rescue swimmers than required and it graduated only 15 percent of those who attended the school last year.1 Stretching thin a workforce that operates under some of the most demanding conditions is a recipe for unnecessary injury or even loss of life. This shortage is caused by low graduation rates from rescue swimmer school—an intense and grueling six-month process similar to other military special-operations training. While the rigorous non-negotiable performance standards at the school should be maintained, increasing the candidates’ resilience to the stressors of training could help increase the school’s graduation rates. Introducing mindfulness training to the rescue swimmer training pipeline may help achieve these goals.
Graduating from rescue swimmer school requires a resilient mind that can rebound from adversity, grow in response to challenges, and endure hardship.2 Over the past ten years, 22 percent of candidates attending the rescue swimmer school removed themselves from training without failing any performance requirement—they simply quit.3 Quitting is the leading reason candidates fail to graduate.
My longest day in swimmer school occurred during a run in the scorching North Carolina summer heat. I became so dehydrated that I cramped horribly, from my hip all the way down to my toe. While running on knots of muscle, I had no idea how I would complete a single sprint or squat, but that did not matter. I could still shuffle along, and that was all I had to do at that moment. Fortunately, at the end of the run it was time for lunch. My personal mindfulness practice provided me with a powerful tool that allowed me to bring my attention back to the present moment and focus on what needed to happen right then (putting one foot in front of the other) instead of what might happen in the future (squats).
This type of mindfulness has a very specific definition: “the nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment.”4 The ability to apply mindfulness can be learned and developed through daily practice, just like any other skill. Applying mindfulness helps bring an individual’s mind back to the present, in spite of what may have just happened or what might occur.5 At any point in time, candidates are not doing anything particularly difficult—one push-up, one pull-up, one foot in front of the other on a run, one fin stroke in the pool, one more second without breathing. Alone, none of these actions are difficult. It is the thought of continuing for seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months that threatens to break candidates. Mindfulness training can help candidates work with these difficult thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
The power of mindfulness lies in its ability to make one aware of impulses and create the space to respond to these patterns with skill. According to many studies, those who practice mindfulness show enhanced attentional abilities, and growing evidence suggests that meditation also improves emotional regulation.6
Both the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps have begun experimenting with mindfulness training with promising results, finding increases in attention and ability to recover from stress.7 Accordingly, several mindfulness training programs have been designed for the military. Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) was developed by Dr. Elizabeth Stanley, a former Army officer with extensive mindfulness experience and training in a clinical version of training known as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Unfortunately, MMFT is no longer available because it was created, owned, and run by a company no longer in existence.
Fortunately, other promising mindfulness training programs designed for high-stress, healthy populations exist. Mindful Performance Enhancement, Awareness, and Knowledge (mPEAK) was developed by the University of California San Diego’s Center for Mindfulness also based on MBSR, which often is considered the gold standard of mindfulness interventions. Analysis of the application of MBSR to clinical and nonclinical populations suggests that the intervention increases individuals’ ability to cope with stress and disability.8 In nonclinical populations, MBSR has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, and ruminative thinking while increasing self-compassion and empathy. However, further research is needed to determine the specific effects of MBSR on healthy populations.9
The current mPEAK program was designed in conjunction with the U.S. national BMX cycling team and consists of two days of intensive training conducted in person, followed by six weeks of online practice sessions. The in-person training is four 180-minute modules focused on different mindfulness topics designed to increase resilience and performance. The first module introduces the concept of experiencing and focusing attention on the body; the second focuses on exploring and recognizing the tendency of the mind to wander; the third focuses on embracing rather than avoiding hardship, pain, and negative feelings to avoid secondary suffering; and the fourth addresses self-compassion, helping performers self-regulate unhelpful perfectionist tendencies. After these modules, mPEAK trainers continue to work with students through 90-minute weekly check-ins via a virtual classroom.10
Work I conducted over the past four months with a mentee at my air station suggests the possible effectiveness of mPEAK for rescue swimmer candidates. I introduced diaphragmatic breathing to my mentee, a practice taught in both MBSR and mPEAK. He integrated the technique into his pool training, one of the most challenging areas for many rescue swimmer candidates. He said he found deliberately breathing in this manner prior to submerging made completing underwater laps noticeably easier; he felt less tension in his shoulders and chest prior to starting each lap.
Comfort and confidence in the water is crucial for successfully completing rescue swimmer school and serving as a water rescue professional. While anecdotal, this translation of theory to practice points to a possible benefit of mPEAK for rescue swimmer candidates.
To pilot mPEAK, researchers should screen potential subjects for psychiatric problems, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and epilepsy risk factors. These individuals should either be excluded from the study or monitored by trained professionals with the subjects’ informed consent. While less pertinent for young, healthy members of the Coast Guard, these screenings are an ethical imperative prior to conducting any mindfulness training. In addition, it will be important to emphasize that mindfulness training is an additional training modality rather than a replacement for physical preparation.
Mindfulness training has been shown empirically to reduce stress and enhance attentional abilities and emotional regulation.11 The Coast Guard needs more rescue swimmers, and not enough candidates are graduating from school to fill this gap. Implementing mPEAK in the rescue swimmer training pipeline could produce more candidates prepared to live the rescue swimmer motto, “So others may live.”
1. U.S. Coast Guard Workforce Readiness Council, “Aviation Survival Technician Integrated Project Team Program Review and Recommendations” (2017).
2. K. J. Reivich, M. E. P. Seligman, and S. McBride, “Master Resilience Training in the U.S. Army,” American Psychologist 66, no. 1 (2011): 25–34.
3. U.S. Coast Guard Workforce Readiness Council, “Aviation Survival Technician Integrated Project Team Program Review and Recommendations” (2017).
4. B. K. Hölzel et al., “How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action from a Conceptual and Neural Perspective,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 6, no. 6 (2011): 537–59.
5. S. L. Smalley and D. Winston, Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness, (Boston: Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2011).
6. Hölzel et al., “How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work?”
7. A. P. Jha et al., “Minds ‘At Attention’: Mindfulness Training Curbs Attentional Lapses in Military Cohorts,” PloS one 10(2), (2015).
8. P. Grossman et al., “ Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Benefits: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 57 no. 1 (2004): 35–43.
9. A. Chiesa and A. Serretti, “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 15, no. 5 (2009): 593–600.
10. L. Haase et al., “A Pilot Study Investigating Changes in Neural Processing after Mindfulness Training in Elite Athletes,” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9 (2015): 229.
11. Y. Y. Tang et al., “The Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 16 (2015),: 213.