NORTH FLORIDA TACTICAL ATHLETES

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ABOUT NFTA

ABOUT

North Florida Tactical Athletes (NFTA) is the northern branch expansion of SFTA located in the Jacksonville Florida area established January 2021. Instructor Thrift was one of SFTA’s first instructors for 6 years (2013-2019) prior to moving and still remains active duty; therefore, like any military job, has had to move around every few years. Since moving he has been located in the Jacksonville area and is spearheading the NFTA branch as the lead instructor/coordinator. NFTA like SFTA offers both training on land and water with the opportunity to expand your level of comfort, preparing you for any military’s elite Special Operations Selection Courses. NFTA is designed and programmed to prepare special operations candidates, however NFTA is available to anyone looking for a future in the military, fire departments, or police departments etc. Whatever your career goals are, NFTA can help you achieve them. If you would like to attend NFTA or get more information regarding the NFTA branch please contact us through one of the listed contacts below.

WHAT IS A TATHLETE?

The term "Tathlete" signifies one of our Tactical Athlete members. Tathletes are individuals that have joined the NFTA Team. They learn how to train, move, operate and communicate as a team; thereby increasing the returns one can get as an individual. Tathletes learn about sister services and each ones capabilities. Members come to NFTA to join the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard's elite units.

BIO

INSTRUCTOR THRIFT

Instructor Thrift is a United States Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician aka (USCG Helicopter Rescue Swimmer) and certified as a Basic Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). The rescue mission and intense training in addition to the zeal for helping others has made Thrift an integral part of the SFTA/NFTA instructor staff. Instructor Thrift currently serves in the Jacksonville area as an Active Duty member sphere heading the expansion of NFTA. Along with having a knack for motivating and striving for the best out of candidates, he has attended other schools such as Advanced Helicopter Rescue Swimmer School (AHRS), OFT (Operational Fitness Training), and LAMS (leadership course). AHRS consist of saving survivors from heavy surf in excess of 20+ft waves and learning how to safely execute cliff rescue operations. He has attended Operational Fitness training which is a course designed to teach Rescue Swimmers how to increase longevity, strength, and endurance in a heavy physically demanding field. Rescue swimmers strongest suit is water confidence being as they could be sent out in any weather condition in any body of water. All rescue swimmers spend a lot of time learning and educating themselves on different workouts, nutrition, proper form, and tactical athlete longevity to train for A-school (Elizabeth City NC), and continue increasing that base of knowledge throughout their career. Rescue swimmers stand out from other jobs by being able to rescue multiple survivors in any weather condition whether that is hurricanes or extreme sea conditions with no team to help on scene besides their helicopter crew. A Rescue swimmers primary job is actually being an AST. AST’s when not going out on search and rescue cases maintain all the aviation survival gear that could potentially be used if the plane crashed or to prevent a plane crash. They also maintain all the gear that the USCG may drop from a plane to survivors such as life rafts, de watering pumps or the parachute that drops the gear. Along with maintaining that gear they specialize in Aviation Survival and teach multiple classes throughout the year to other Coast Guardsmen on how to survive in a helicopter/plane crash in the water or on land. Rescue swimmers are categorized in the elite spec ops community, but due to not being combat oriented are not considered special operations. - “So Others May Live”