Whether it's room to room, room to hallway, floor to floor, building to building, or what have you, tabbing (or traveling) efficiently and safely from controlled areas to uncontrolled areas is critical to the success of your element.

How you move to each successive waypoint will decide how effectively you maintain initiative, momentum, tactical advantage and violence of action.

The first step toward success is knowing your AO (Area of Operation) in as much detail as possible within the mission planning time afforded to you. Identify and address any foreseeable challenges through detailed planning. Often we plan how we will assault each room, but we do very little planning on how we will transition seemlessly to the next uncleared area. Each member must pay attention to the entire plan. You must not only understand your role, but the roles of each other teammate. You might have to take on a different role in the middle of the action phase. You must be ready. Cover as many "actions on" or "what ifs" as you can within the planning phase. Only move on when you are satisfied that you are ready.

For example, you are clearing a room. You are stacked up on side 1 and there is another door on side 3 that you do not have access to. Will you assault this room now or split your team? Will you wedge the door and come back to it? Will you be dynamic or stealth for the entry? What will you do if you enter and you find the side 3 door is open? What if a tango wanders in on your team when stacked? What if a tango enters the side 3 door after you have initiated the entry? If you don't know the answers to all of these questions, are you really ready to take that room?

Of course you can't wait forever. You must act and act with speed, aggression and surprise appropriate to the situation, but it's obvious that your team is safer by degree when the answers to as many of these questions as possible are known.

When planning for these transitional tabs (movements) consider what your momentum is likely to be, what you want it to be, how you are going to make that happen, etc. Will you be in fluid formations, strict element positions or a combination of both? Where will changes likely be needed? What is the maximum safe speed between points A and B? Are you sacrificing too much safety for speed or vice versa? Are there time constraints on completing mission objectives? Would it be beneficial to mark tango locations and bypass a certain number of the enemy in order to more swiftly meet your objectives or a key objective?

In areas where you have a complex entry planned, do you have a good rally point? Is it safest to stop there, or is there a better approach? Have you planned your 360 degree defense for each of these areas?

How will we avoid getting bogged down dealing with civilians? Where are we likely to encounter higher numbers of civilians? Who will secure them or escort them to safety? How flexible will our team need to be while we are escorting the hostages?

This post is not meant to provide answers to these situations, merely to get your mind right about other aspects of a good plan. If you take this information and learn from it, you will last longer on missions and get more enjoyment out of your SAS experience.

Enjoy.