The story of the shield

This story was developed to guide the athletes to learn the ideal mental stance, to approach their challenges in a way that will lead them to their “racing” channel.

Before introducing this story, athletes must be comfortable with working with their little devil and must be clear that it really is just an alarm system designed to keep us safe within our comfort zone.

With their shield, Champions in life are able to fight off the tricks that their little devil uses to tempt them into choosing the easy way, to stay safe within their comfort zone and as such it gives them a chance to find their “racing” channel.

The story is first told during a group meeting. Each part of the story is followed with a set of questions designed to help the athletes make connections between the story and their own experiences.

The story

Let’s start by imagining that you are a Knight and that you’re about to go on the battlefield to fight off a formidable army of invaders. You and your fellow warriors are outnumbered 10 to 1 and the invaders are double your size. They’re scary!

• How would you feel, standing in the field, one pool length away from the terrifying opponents? (the more details (field colors, smells, sounds, temperature, etc…) you add to the scene above, the easier it will be for you to imagine how you would feel in that situation.)
• How alert do you think you would be? Could you say you’d be wide-awake? On your toes?
• Have you ever felt like that before a race?

Every single one of the Knights is on high alert, with all their senses heightened, because of the fear they feel. They are scared for their own lives, for the people they protect, and really, just afraid they won’t beat their opponent. They can all feel a part of them wished they could just run away from the battlefield.

• After giving it some thought, share with someone or on a piece of paper, the things that you often are scared of before your race. “Afraid of not making my best time” is probably the most popular thing, coaches would say, swimmers are afraid of.

In that moment, just before the horn, signaling the start of the battle, sounds loud and clear, the Knights all have a choice to make. You see, Knights, upon becoming Knights, swore an oath to protect, with their lives, their values, traditions, their people and land. Now on the frontline, it is time to show if they really meant it when they swore and were knighted. Will they stay and fight, even if it means certain death, or will they run away as cowards?  And those who stay, will they fight with all they got, or get killed quickly without much of a fight, without making a difference?

• As you step on the starting block, moments before your race, you also have the same choice to make. Will you give your all to the fight, even if it’s so risky that most likely you won’t do your best time or standard, or will you find a way to avoid your race in some way. Will you let your fear overtake you? And if you choose to dive in, will you give it your best shot without reservation or will you try, in other words, putting in just enough effort to hide that you’ve given up? Take some time to look back at all the races you’ve ever done and pin point some where you chose to remain and fight at your best, some where you avoided the race and some where you swam instead of racing. Keep in mind that there never was a Champion who never chose to avoid a challenge or experienced failing on his/her own terms.

Our Knights, being honorable beings, all remained facing the opponent. They have found meaning and have a reason to fight, and as such brace themselves and wield their shield in front of them, ready for the horn.

The Knights know that once the horn sounds, anything could happen. They have no idea of how the opponent will fight or the weapons they have, all they know is there will be no quarters, the winner of this battle wins it all.

During these short intense moments, our Knights acknowledge that their opponent too are willing to risk their lives in this battle and this fills them with a deep respect for them. Our Knights are not underestimating the opponent, they respect them for their courage.

• Have you ever experienced a race where there was a swimmer in your heat that you really were hoping to be able to beat, but that you were not sure if you could? Most likely this has happened to you more than once as it is quite normal to want to measure ourselves up with someone else. See if you can find in one of these races, one where you felt your opponent as a good challenger as opposed to an enemy. You may even have felt inclined to thank your opponent or shake his/her hand after the race.

As the horn sounds, the warriors on both sides run at each other to get the fight going. Our Knights have realized and accepted, that if they’re going to survive, their only chance is to fight at the best of their abilities. Knowing that they definitely can do that much, they run towards the opponents fully assured. Maybe they can’t beat them, but they sure will give them the fight of their lives.

• Look back at your race collection and see if you can find races where, at some point in your race, you realized that you might not be able to do what you had set out to do when diving in, but that nonetheless you did everything in your power to come as close to it as possible. When you find one, remember that feeling and let it sit with you.
• Still looking at your race collection, find races where, even though you didn’t know what the outcome of the race would be, even though it was super stressful, you felt confident when stepping on the block. What were you confident about at those times?

By using the four components of their shield simultaneously, Knights are able to keep their little devil under control, giving them time to locate their “fighting” channel and tune into it. On their fighting channel, Knights can move faster, with more accuracy and are able to almost see ahead of time what move their opponent is about to make and have plenty of time to adjust their own moves. Every one of their moves flows in perfect harmony with the following move just like when you are on your racing channel. Without their shield, finding their way to their “fighting” channel, would be a matter of luck.

The shield Knights use to fend off their little devil’s attempt at tricking them into choosing the easy way has four components: with full alertness, with fear, with respect and with absolute assurance.

For athletes about to start their event, wielding this shield means:

1. That they are wide-awake, as they know this moment is crucial and never will repeat itself, it’s now or never.
2. That the fear they feel about the outcome being uncertain, helps them remain on full alert as opposed to overtake them.
3. That they respect and value the honor of their opponents in having the courage to stand in front of them.
4. That they go into battle fully assured in their ability to give it their best shot as opposed to going at it half-heartedly.

As you might have noticed by now, the questions in the exercise, were geared into helping you realize that you have already used each of the four components of the shield in past experiences, even if you knew nothing of the shield!

Wielding your shield with skill means that you apply all four components at the same time. Now that you have a feeling for each of these components, you can work at developing your ability to combine the components of your shield.

Using our shield with skill to fight off the tricks of our little devil when our challenges take us out of our comfort zone, means that we use the fear we feel, (We feel fear because we don’t know where this battle will take us or what will happen), to keep us on our toes, alert and aware of the constantly changing circumstances. Furthermore, it means that we recognize how truly formidable our opponent really is. Filled with respect, we won’t underestimate it and go back to our normal lives prematurely. And finally, although we don’t know what the outcome of the battle will be, and what it will take from us to overcome it, the only thing we can do is to keep battling fully assured in our ability to fight.

Part 2

When time permits, or at a later time, I use short movie clips and group discussions, to help the athletes get a deeper grasp on the subtleties of this skill.

There are many movie scenes which depict characters who employ the Knight’s shield to face unimaginable challenges. By watching them it is possible to get a sense, a feel for the shield of the Knights.

Recently, the movie 1917 offered several examples of a soldier using his invisible shield to go through life or death challenges that are hard to imagine, let alone go through!

In the first scene, the soldier is called upon having to cross a river, however, at the best crossing point, a sniper awaits. Will he let his fear overtake him and abandon his mission or use it to be on high alert? Will he continue planning his next move and go forward even if he may die in the next second? Or just hide safely out of reach of the sniper?

In the second scene, as he crosses the ruin of a city held by his opponents, he gets detected and starts running as he gets shot at from everywhere. Without considering the odds against him, he keeps running avoiding one bullet at a time, one opponent at a time. Until finally jumping in the water takes him away from immediate danger.

In both scenes, the soldier was using his shield to remain sane and have a fighting chance. Had he not used his shield, his little devil would have, in one way or another, convinced him that considering his situation, he was absolved from completing his mission (which was to deliver a message that would save thousands of soldiers’ lives). Feeling absolved, he would have lowered his guards and as such, become an easy target for the opponent.

The soldier, in both scenes, is on his “get the mission done” channel.

As with all the stories in the Universe of the Champions in Life, what will bring the athletes to adjust their behavior and use their shield, is in how the coach will capture opportunities to skillfully guide the athletes into validating the story with their own experiences.