Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL’s Way of Life by Thom Shea

Author:Thom Shea [Shea, Thom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940262376
Publisher: Clovercroft Publishing
Published: 2014-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

ADAMANTINE LESSON SEVEN

Connection

I learned several nuances about how performance dwindles when connection is lost while I was a student in SEAL BUD/S training in 1994. SEAL instructors hammer home the basic lessons such as the swim buddy rule. This rule is paramount while going through training. It simply states, “While conducting hazardous training evolutions, students will be in swimmer pairs, and no pair will be separated by a distance greater than six feet.” I am sure safety reasons come into play for this while in training. Yet the rule, and the fallout from not obeying the rule, ingrains in each student the need and desire to be intimately linked to his buddy. That impression lasts a lifetime.

I also observed, as a student, that during timed runs or conditioning runs, when a student was separated from the group, when he felt he could no longer stay up with the group, his performance faltered considerably. Often students would literally quit when they perceived they no longer could hang with their peers, or were no longer connected physically with the group.

Later, as an instructor while in third phase, on long runs or long backpack runs, I would notice the separation and slowing of the students in the back, so I would circle back and literally pick up the stragglers. Re-joining the class served me well, and I noticed the students in the back would revive and put out once again. I learned physical connection helps with Internal Dialogue and, ultimately, physical performance.

Later, I used this knowledge while adventure racing. The rule was simple. If anyone fell behind the pace, we would literally tether the slow person to the faster ones and stay connected in order to go faster. The subversive mental strain and ensuing shitty Internal Dialogue of being physically disconnected from the group is a death sentence. I observed other teams in adventure racing not following this cardinal rule, and they would always quit or get injured, but most certainly, they would complain and feel separate.

I share this so you can put into practice this important point of connection within the framework of Internal Dialogue. During difficult times, times when mental and physical exhaustion sets in, you MUST connect with those around you. This might seem counterintuitive in every sense of the word, but when you feel pain, you will want to withdraw. When you feel like you are no longer connected, you will want to simply stay that way. I don’t know why the mind and body do that to our efforts. Maybe millions of years of programming makes us believe when the weak fall back, they are no longer worthy, and no longer needed, I suppose.

But, in reality, this is nonsense. Simply use what I have taught you thus far. You will have to summon your own Internal Dialogue and reshape your immediate condition with words. Those around you will also assist, trust me.

“I need to stay up with my Team. They need me.” This simple phrase is more important than a PhD in anything.

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