So, You Want to be the Best Ranger?
BRC season is upon us. For anyone not in the 18th Airborne Corps or major divisions, BRC can feel mysterious at best and overwhelming at worst. You start and execute your trainup in a vacuum, only to show up in April and find everyone else is ‘in the know.’ They know the events; they know the schedule. They have been training for the RPAT while you’ve been training for the ACFT.
The truth is smaller programs are disadvantaged not just in resources but mostly in knowledge. Below I’ll outline what Best Ranger Competition is, what you should spend your training focusing on, and provide other resources that for the newcomer may remain too well hidden.
What is BRC?
Best Ranger Competition (BRC) is a three-day event in Fort Moore, GA. It is hosted annually by the Airborne Ranger and Training Batallion (ARTB) and is only open to those who’ve earned their Ranger Tab. It is embedded within “Infantry Week,” and part of a larger collection of competitions which include Best Sapper, Best Mortar, International Sniper Competition, and the Lecurta Cup (a hand-to-hand combat competition).
Over three days, BRC tests competitors’ physical preparation, shooting skills, and military skills. Competitors join in Buddy Pairs with each Division being allocated a certain amount of teams which adds up to ~50. The competition has been going on for over 40 years, but in the past 2 years, under the command of COL Hammonds and CSM Chavez, we saw a very efficient and well-run version of the competition. That version, which I would hope to see with very few changes, generally follows:
Day 1: Opening WOD, Run-swim-run, Malvesti, ACFT // Skills such as Urban Assault course, One Rope Bridge // Range Density // 20+ mile ruck // Night Stakes
Day 2: Skills Day at AJ McClung Stadium in downtown Columbus, GA // Land Nav
Day 3: Prussick/ O-course // Range Density // Water Sports // Final Buddy Run
Each event is scored individually and weighted. Thus, some events are worth more than others. For example, the Ruck is usually worth the most points, with an event like One Rope Bridge worth less. Shooting and Fitness events account for a large proportion of the points. Only the ARTB Commander, CSM, and S3 know the event weights, so it’s a closely guarded secret that varies yearly.
At the end of each day, these points are totaled and teams are cut based on position. Day one starts with 50-54 teams, Day Two 28, and Day Three only 16. Within the BRC community, there are levels of prestige, but perhaps what sets teams most apart is to be a “Day Three finisher,” or Top 16. After that, it’s a fight for the top 10, Top 5, Top 3, and of course, Winner.
Key Dates: BRC is a relatively closed community. If you’ve happened across this post and haven’t done or haven’t organized a BRC team before, I highly recommend reaching out to ARTB and requesting a timeline of dates. Around November, ARTB Publishes a welcome packet with most key information, but they sometimes copy-paste pages that leave bad info or leave key information too late. For example, the welcome packet has had “Call For Fire” as an event for the last two years, which it hasn’t been. They also won’t publish the official teams list, which can cause some units to wonder how many teams they’ve been allocated.
a) November/ December: ARTB Publishes the initial invite packet
b) January 1: Most serious teams start full-time trainup
c) January – March: Window for travel to Camp Rodgers to utilize ARTB Facilities (ie. Malvesti, CWSA)
d) March: Packet submission deadline (includes Ranger Physicals for all competitors)
e) April 6th: Report date to ARTB for Competitors Week (orientation week to events)
f) April 7-10: Competitors week
g) April 11-13: Competition
What makes a good trainup? If you’re reading this, chances are you aren’t from one of the major divisions. You might not have anyone with BRC experience in your unit, and you might not even have a coach. The idea of training for BRC can either be overwhelming or siloed. You might spend four months training in a bubble only to have no idea how you will do. My predecessor at 10TH MTN DIV did 4 months of 20-30 minute, high-intensity, full-body workouts every day as his training for BRC. While he was fortunate to make it to day two, it’s no surprise the other two teams from his division barely finished the ruck.
First, let’s look at what makes a Best Ranger Winner. While in the past the competition has leaned toward one element, as time goes on, the points scheme gets more well-rounded. BRC is essentially composed of six ‘pillars:’
a) Endurance: Specifically aerobic endurance, this is your ability to put on 60 miles in three days, most of it weight, and not crash. Think long-distance running, 10+ miles at a time.
b) Strength: Especially core strength, but also raw strength. Your ability to move weight over distance is directly related to strength, and for most of BRC, you will be carrying weight.
c) Shooting: Shooting constitutes ~40% of the points at BRC. It’s possible to shoot poorly and make day 3, but it’s impossible to shoot poorly and be in the top 5. In 2024, 173rd’s team jumped from ~35th to 14th between days 1 and 2, and it was almost entirely due to shooting.
d) Speed: In terms of running, this is most closely related to your 2-mile time. It’s less important than so many other factors because you rarely run less than 5 miles anyway, but at times, speed can come in handy.
e) Skills: Skills constitute a much smaller portion of points than you’d expect, but they still need to be practiced (especially TCCC and Land Nav). A good mantra: you won’t win BRC in skills, but you might lose it.
f) Competitive Mentality: It’s important to say what I don’t mean here. What I don’t mean is ‘that dog,’ or ‘that killer mentality.’ Yes, that is important, but what’s more important is your competitive experience. BRC is a bit like your local Turkey Trot. It’s mostly full of people who’ve never done the competition before, which means they don’t know how to pace themselves. You might get a D1 Runner home for the holidays, but for the most part, you have no idea who you’re lining up against. Competitors with experience in high-level sports know how to block out inexperienced competitors and stick to their plan. Additionally, they know how to lose. At BRC, even if you are the best team, you won’t win every event. You have to learn how to move on from failure quickly. Someone who ran Cross Country in college might have run 100x the races you’ve run in your life. They know how to compete, when to hold back when to make moves, and how to move on. (This is why I like College runners in BRC: they bring 3/6 pillars to the table without training).
So how do you apply these pillars to building a training plan?
1. Recognize your potential: The level you come into is going to dictate heavily how you finish. I wish it were the case that anyone could finish BRC, but the reality is, some people bring in 3/6 pillars and some people bring in 1. It reminds me of that speech Billy Beane gets from the recruiters in Moneyball: “Most of the youngsters we have an interest in have one or two tools, and we’re hoping to develop an extra one.” Over three months, you can realistically hope to develop one of these pillars. The more resource-intensive, the more difficult, which is why most people err toward endurance. Shooting, which is very resource intensive but as (if not more) important than endurance, is at the bottom of people’s priorities because it would require you to shoot every day (or so you think). The rest of the pillars, you are just trying to catch up on (ie. Skills). My point isn’t to diminish your hope in placing well, but just to implore you to be realistic about your strengths, weaknesses, and the level you come in at. If I was coaching a 38-minute / 5-mile runner, I would never expect you to get to 30 minutes in four months. It’s important to recognize where you are and where you can get in such a short amount of time. This also carries into my next point, which is not to train like the winning teams if you aren’t a top 5 contender.
2. Attack your weaknesses: What really matters for doing your best at BRC is points. Although events are weighted differently, it helps to think about your overall position as an average of your placings in each event. For the most part, teams will finish as an average of their overall placings (there are outliers, but these are usually for teams who shoot extremely well). If you are sub 1:50/ 12-mile rucker, a sub-30 / 5 mile runner, and you deadlift 400lbs, endurance, and speed are probably not your weak points. Do you need to run? Yes. Do you need to focus all your energy on running? No. You’re probably already hovering around Top-16 markers in fitness. But if you do all those things and have never shot a pistol, you’re going to find yourself plummeting during the ranges and ending Day 1 in the mid-twenties rather than Top-16. So rather than stacking 100-mile weeks, it would be more worth your time to focus on shooting so your average placement is closer to 16. To my earlier point about winners, someone who is competing for first is going to have different weaknesses than someone who’s competing for 16th. They’re probably already in Top-5 fitness, Top-5 shooting, and Top-5 skills, so they’re looking to attack marginal weaknesses. Maybe they focus on swimming or shooting specifically machine guns. Maybe they spend lots of time on the obstacle course. A Top-5 contender is probably Top-5 in 4-5 pillars and is just trying to round out those weaknesses. That’s why you shouldn’t train like them; your weaknesses are probably different from theirs and likely more significant, so focus on getting yourself more points, not how they get more points.
3. Plan Around Resources: When I planned the 10th Mountain Trainup in 2023, I outlined every hour of what we’d do for 6 months. What I quickly found was the limiting factor is resources. Start with your resource-intensive training, and work down. Ranges, travel, or borrowing equipment from other units is very resource-intensive. At Fort Drum, a range was an all-day affair. Running, cycling, and lifting weights, however, can be fit in anywhere. Also, it’s easier to maximize points on high-resource events. For example, if shooting is the most resource-intensive for every unit (which it is), you can bet that the bottom 36 teams are going to struggle to get range time. That means if range time is easy for you, it would be more valuable for you to spend time beating them at the range than beating them on the roads. (A note here: one resource most don’t have is access to ARTB training facilities. ARTB does open its facilities to competitors from January-Early March, which is a great time to practice Malvesti, CWSA, Land Nav, and other resource-specific events. I highly encourage anyone to go; lodging is a non-factor if you ask to stay on Rodgers, and it’s the kind of thing that puts you above every other team that doesn’t go).
4. Compete Often: 1-2 day competitions against your B team are one way (often called mini-comps), but it’s easier to strategize against competitors you train with every day. When you line up at BRC, you won’t know how 4ID 1ID or 10th Mountain trained. The best way to replicate this is to go to local competitions. Go shoot competition shooting matches on the weekends. Go run your local Shamrock 5k. Go do a local trail race. Do races or events that require you to create a game plan, assess other’s performance, and make decisions quickly about how to change your strategy based on output. This will prepare you for the competitive pillar of BRC.