Have you ever had someone step up to the plate and Mentor (Coach) you?
It has been said that “when a student is ready…. a mentor will appear”.
That sounds pretty mystical. Maybe it is. We watch and fantasize of Luke Skywalker and Yoda showing him the way of the Jedi.
Is that really far from the truth? Well, yeah; maybe the light saber part. But honestly – are there mentors out there showing the way?
Let me tell you a story (This same story was told on an audio with Coach Divine in Unbeatable Mind last year – but I will go into detail).
This year is 1982. David Lee Roth was still in Van Halen. President Reagan was just sworn in as President and MTV just popped up on cable with an actual music video. Cool stuff.
I enter Cliff’s Gym in Tallahassee, Florida all 145 scrawny pounds, prone to asthma, not an athlete.
I pay my $10 for the month. The gym is loaded with bodybuilders – guys in parachute pants and flexing in front of mirrors.
I thought – holy crap…. I am gonna get big!
But I also want to go to the SEAL training. What do I do?
My bro handed me a copy of Arnold Schwarzeneggers “Education of a BodyBuilder” and said “this is what you need to get jacked”.
So we tore up T shirts and wrapped them around our heads and commenced to doing preacher curls and pec deck machine.
Serious. I had no mentor. I had no YouTube videos or SEALFIT or whatever.
I had Arnold’s book and a vision to get to California and a Burning Desire to do something with my pathetic life”.
I was like any other young man my age. Most of them wanted to go to SoCal and be in the movies or go and surf waves. I wanted to be a SEAL. So I pumped weights like a madman – mostly machines.
Find out Mental Edge info Navy SEALs already Know
I went to BUDS and I thought I was in shape and ready for anything…. or so I thought.
I got to BUDS and they broke out the water hose and commenced to beating our ass.
I thought to myself… dang… this is way harder than I thought. Hey, that guys quitting over there. WTF!?!
Somehow I survived. Aint sure how…Woaaaahh. I felt like a rat that had scrambled on to the train tracks at Grand Central Station — dodging one speeding bullet after another. Woaaahhhh.
Those instructors intimidated the Hell out of me.
They all looked like Hollywood models, buffed and tanned and Cocky as Deion Sanders.
They brought down fire and brimstone on our class.
We did log PT and run up and down the sand berms for hours.
I honestly thought I was going to die at several points…. but somehow I survived.
Three and a half months later I get kicked out of BUDS for failing a math test. Well over half way through.
I went to the fleet (US Navy) and swabbed the deck and chipped paint.
I felt sorry for myself but deep down vowed to return to BUDS and stand on the podium. I never lost faith.
This is where the story gets really interesting ….
I got extremely lucky. I mean lucky as I had not given up. I was bloodied but no bowed. I was down on one knee but I swore to the heavens above that “Never Again” and I will overcome.
Sometimes when you don’t quit – You get a lucky break just because your still in the game.
I was working on the USS Cleveland which has SEALs deployed. I knew this and avoided them at every time I could. I dared not stand in their presence as I was not worthy. I stared at the ground whenever they were near. Serious.
One day I was out on the fan tail of the ship and running and training my ass off. Covered in sweat. A guy calls out “You must be training for BUDS if you doing a workout like that”. My eyes lit up from that compliment and I shook hands with my future mentor… his name was ….. lets just call him “Mr. X”. He felt sorry for me as I was a low life and had failed out of BUDS.
Why he took me in — I will never know. Maybe because we were both from the deep South. But either way – he told me — Do this… Don’t do that… and this is the way you do this.
I was already a work in progress and stoking my own fire with my own affirmations. But now my FIRE was a roaring blaze. Mr X added several 6 foot long cedar pine poles to the fire and it became a blazing BonFire. I had someone to help me and encourage me and hold me accountable. I listened to him as he was a real life Team Guy and had been there – done that.
I continued to build myself up and started to work out harder and harder.
It was a crazy blurred sweat fest deep down in the guts of the ship.
Guess what I did? What kind of workouts? Guess??
1 hour simple but hard bodyweight workouts.
At the end of that I would do dead hang pull ups, dips and ran up and down the ship ladders and on the fan tail.
If our ship was in port I would find a beach and run in soft sand.
If I was feeling “froggy” I would jump on my bike and go for a long ride.
I had a “new” improved training plan. I had a real mentor – a Coach.
My whole life changed before me as I went from down and out – to standing tall like a true warrior.
Mr. X – my new mentor – made me show him what workouts I had done for the day and he held my feet to the fire.
Guess what happened next time around? I went through BUDS a little easier. Not easy… just a tad easier.
Wish I would have known that before going to BUDS the first time.
My point in all of this (other than telling you my story) – is that I really like to write articles that has a workout that is going to help someone get to Special Forces – or just better themselves as an athlete.
I like to coach in the gym and help others achieve their dreams.
My life was completely changed on the USS Cleveland by one person – my mentor and a coach who held me accountable.
Are you in need of a coach to help you stay accountable?
We have 2 spots open for SGPT Mind Body Coaching – grab one before they go.
Train Hard!
Brad McLeod
SEALgrinderPT