The SAS selection process is famous for breaking people. Simon Mann went through it as a young British Army officer, long before the events that later made him notorious. In this clip from his 2019 London Real interview, Brian Rose asks him what it really takes to get in.
Mann’s answer is less about physical strength than about what happens inside your head when no one is telling you how you’re doing.
▶ Watch the full episode: Simon Mann – Inside The Mind Of A Mercenary
“If you want to get in, you will”
When Mann asked a friend who had served in the SAS for tips and mentoring, the friend gave him one line: if you want to get in, you will. Mann says that sounds glib, but it turns out to be true. Selection is designed so that any romantic idea of why you wanted to join, that it’s glamorous or that it will be good for you, disappears.
No praise, no criticism
Brian compares it to the “Hell Week” of US Navy SEAL training. Mann says there are elements designed simply to grind you down, but the core of selection, test week, is something different: you are on your own.
Candidates march across the Brecon Beacons in Wales from checkpoint to checkpoint, against a time they aren’t told. And unlike in the regular army, nobody says “well done” and nobody shouts at you either. Mann calls it a “psychological vacuum”: no encouragement, no criticism, just a grid reference for the next checkpoint. As the week goes on, the rucksack feels heavier, you get more tired, and the weather usually gets worse, until you ask yourself why you wanted this. That, he says, is the point where lots of people fail.
From determination to judgement
Passing test week isn’t the end. Next comes “continuation”, and you don’t get your badge until the end of it. The jungle phase tests something different: not determination, but whether you can work as part of a small team and get things done.
As an officer, Mann was also being assessed on whether he could command. Unlike the hill marches, which were judged on time and distance, this part was subjective, and he says the worst thing you can do is start second-guessing what the assessors are looking for.
“Hellish jungle”
His jungle training was in Belize, which he describes as hellish. In what he calls good jungle, the canopy blocks the light and you can move fairly quickly. In Belize, much of the forest was secondary growth after clearing for cattle, so the ground is choked with vegetation. Some days, he says, you might cover only a few hundred metres in hours of cutting. And the feral cattle meant parasites, waiting for a passing British soldier.
What to take from it
Mann’s description of test week applies far beyond the military. Most of us are used to constant feedback. The real test of motivation is whether you keep going when nobody is watching, praising or criticising, and when you don’t even know where the finish line is.
Who is Simon Mann?
Simon Mann is a former British Army officer who served in the Scots Guards and the SAS, and later worked as a private military contractor. In 2004 he was arrested over a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea and was imprisoned in Zimbabwe and then Equatorial Guinea, before receiving a presidential pardon in 2009. He wrote about his experiences in his memoir Cry Havoc.
In his full 2019 London Real episode, he talks with Brian Rose about his military career, the coup attempt and prison. You can also watch his other London Real interview: Simon Mann – The Mercenary.
See everything Simon Mann has done with London Real on his guest page: Simon Mann on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Simon Mann – How He Became An SAS Soldier: Inside Selection
0:00 Brian Rose: Was it difficult to get into the SAS?
0:03 Simon Mann: It is difficult, yes.
0:05 Brian Rose: What does it require?
0:06 Simon Mann: I think the best way of putting it is the way it was put to me, when I asked my friend who had been in it, “How do I get in? What’s the story? Can you give me some tips and a bit of mentoring?” He looked at me and said, “If you want to get in, you will.” That sounds glib, but it actually equates to something really important. The selection is such that any idea that you wanted to get in because you thought it was romantic or sexy, or it was going to do you good, disappears in the course of selection, because it is hard.
0:56 Brian Rose: We’ve seen BUD/S, Navy SEAL training, the Hell Week scenarios, on television. Is there a British equivalent for the SAS?
1:04 Simon Mann: I haven’t actually watched that. There is a bit of what I call sickening: they put you through things just to sicken you. But the actual selection itself, test week, you’re on your own. So it’s all up here. Do you really want to keep going or not?
1:28 Brian Rose: So what do they do to you?
1:31 Simon Mann: Obviously you’re not entirely on your own. You’re moving across the Welsh mountains, the Brecon Beacons, from checkpoint to checkpoint, and your speed has got to be up to a certain speed, and you don’t actually know what that speed is. So you’ve really got to keep going. And unlike in the army, nobody is saying well done and nobody is saying badly done. That’s very hard when you come from the army, where you’re being looked after, you’re being shouted at, “Get a move on, man,” “Well done, man.” There’s nothing like that. You’re suddenly in this psychological vacuum of no encouragement and no criticism. Just: OK, where are you now? Your next place is here. Show me on the map.
2:36 Simon Mann: That’s extremely disorientating. And as you go through the week, your rucksack is getting heavier and heavier, you’re getting more and more tired, the weather is probably worse, and by the end of it you’re thinking, why did I want to do this? That’s the point at which lots of people fail.
2:55 Brian Rose: Did you watch people quit? What was the hardest part of all the training?
3:00 Simon Mann: It then goes into another phase, called continuation. You’re still not badged; you don’t get your badge until the end. The jungle phase is hard, because they’re not looking at you in terms of your determination; you’ve shown that in test week. They’re looking at you in terms of your ability to get on with a small group, work together as a team and achieve things in the jungle. You’re training, but you’re under close observation. And as an officer, you’re being looked at differently from the men, in the sense that you’ve got to not only fit in, but also be able to command.
3:55 Simon Mann: So then you’re getting into subjectivity. When you’re doing the hills in Wales, it’s all on the time and the distance: can you basically hack it? Then in the jungle, and there’s a thing called officers’ week, it’s subjective, and you start second-guessing yourself: what are they looking for? And that’s not a good idea.
4:28 Brian Rose: Which jungle were you in?
4:30 Simon Mann: Belize. And that is not a nice jungle. There’s nice jungle and not-nice jungle, very definitely. Belize is hellish jungle. You can be chopping for a whole day and maybe make a couple of hundred metres. It’s hard, and it’s all secondary jungle, because the main civilisation was cattle-based. They grazed cattle through the jungle and cleared a lot of it, which means the light comes down; there isn’t a canopy. In good jungle there’s very little ground cover, the canopy’s all up there, and you can walk quite quickly. Not in Belize. And it also means you’ve got feral cattle around, which means parasites: beef worms in the jungle, just waiting for a British soldier.
