Jon Rankin: Training to Become An Olympian
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #2)
Posted December 19th, 2007 at 1:00 PM by Jon Rankin
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Jon Rankin
Welcome to the official blog of rising U.S. track & field star
Jon Rankin; the inaugural member of TheFinalSprint.com’s
Elite Athlete Blog Series. Make sure to check back every other Wednesday for Jon’s latest entry.
Hi everyone. I hope this entry finds all of you happy and healthy this holiday season. I am writing this entry while I sit on my bed feeling terribly sore. Yesterday, December 17th, twenty of us athletes from the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA experienced something that will forever change our perspectives on mental toughness and limitations: we spent the day going through the BUD/S Navy Seal training course
The day started off with all of us getting up at 4:30 AM. We departed at 5:10 AM for the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, CA. We couldn’t arrive late because to keep the instructors waiting would have made an already-hard day that much harder. They would already be yelling at us and putting us through the worst day, psychologically, of our lives. So we left really early to avoid being late and start off on the wrong foot.
While we sat in the classroom at the NSW-Training Center, we were all apprehensive because we were anticipating the instructors who would come in the room soon to tell us how tough of a day we were going to have. Right around 6:00 AM an instructor and a lieutenant walked into the room and proceeded to tell us that our day was going to be hard, that we wouldn’t like anything that we would be doing for the next 9-10 hours, and that they would be pushing us to the edge of what we perceived were our limits physically and psychologically. After this introduction we were given fatigues, or military clothing, that we would be wearing for the rest of the day. We were sent off to change before starting our course.
As we changed into our fatigues we all had smiles and laughed about what we believed would be an amazing experience. Those smiles were quickly wiped off our faces once we strolled back into the classroom. As soon as we returned to the classroom, dressed and ready, the yelling began. They told us to form two lines outside of the room. That sounds simple enough, but when you have not one, not two, but 8-10 instructors yelling all types of commands, the simplest task quickly becomes complicated. After we finally assembled two lines we were told to jog out to the first of what would be many training assignments: the “o” course. This is basically an obstacle course that requires a lot of upper body strength and mobility. We would be climbing ropes and walls, running across logs, and climbing under barbed wire tunnels. To say the least, we fell down often, got yelled at a lot, and made many mistakes. The apparatus’ seemed easy enough, but it got harder as we got further into the course because we were so physically tired from everything we had already done prior to reaching each point in the course.
Following the “o” course we were told to jump into the ocean water, get wet from head to toe and roll down a sand dune before returning to our line. This is where things became interesting. After we got wet and sandy for the first time (which occurred around 7:30 AM) we remained this way for the rest of the day until about 2:45 PM. Every so often we would be told to jump back into the ocean and line back up before starting another task. The goal was to make us as uncomfortable as possible while having us perform tasks that would be physically and psychologically challenging.
The interesting thing about this experience was that – even though we all hated the idea of having to jump in and out of the cold ocean water – we never thought about being cold. It never occurred to us because we were never given a chance to focus on how cold we were. We were always being distracted by the yelling of one our instructors or a task that we wanted to get right the first time because we didn’t want to get yelled at again and be punished. (Our punishment was always push-ups).
The rest of the day, other than two short breaks for meals, consisted of performing various tasks using water rafts and paddles, a telephone-pole-like log and the ocean. The hours following the “o” course were by far the hardest moments I’ve ever experienced. I use to think that the NCAA Division-I Cross Country meet was the toughest physical and psychological challenge I had ever experienced. That experience doesn’t compare to constantly having to deal with my fear of the ocean and drowning, with the pain of lifting, holding and walking with a log half the size and weight of a telephone pole for over 90 minutes and finally lying down in the frigid cold ocean as waves passed over my face leaving me underwater and without air for minutes at a time for another 30 minutes. By the end of the day we, Olympians, future Olympians and Olympic hopefuls, were all shaking uncontrollably from the cold and the fatigue. We were so worn out psychologically that all of our fight to resist fear was practically gone. We … Were … Broken.
I’ve never been to that place before. Prior to yesterday, I truly believed that I had pushed myself as hard as I possibly could many times in my life. Now I know that isn’t the case. I can honestly say, after experiencing the Navy Seal course, that until yesterday I had never pushed myself to the edge and beyond. To say it plainly, I can barely move today! I’m in so much pain that the only words that seem to come out of my mouth whenever I talk to someone are, “I’m too tired to talk right now.”
Before I went to sleep last night I reflected on the following bible verses from the First Epistle to the Corinthians:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Cor 9:24-27, NIV).
I reflected on this verse because it related so much to the experience of the training at the NSW-Training Center. We broke down our bodies and our minds to gain more control over our actions and thoughts. There are many times in life when we become idle and hesitate, acting like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, not only in competition, but also in life. And this happens because the fear, uncertainty and doubt that we allow to linger in our minds inhibit our ability to act. For one long day, twenty Olympic hopefuls for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team experienced the losing of that inhibition because our minds and bodies were so beaten that we had only two things left to consider: to act or quit. When it gets to that point, you’re truly free to go as far as you are capable because fear no longer has a place to reside in your mind.
How does this experience translate into training to become an Olympian? This experience focused on two things:
- Teaching us about the psychological strengths and weaknesses we have as individuals, and
- Helping us to gain a better appreciation for what it means to be part of a team.
Through this experience we were given the opportunity to discover our breaking points. By being able to recognize those limits, we will now have time to find ways to overcome them to set newer, higher limits. It’s good to know what our breaking points are because if we’ve never really gotten to that place before, we won’t ever know how far we can really push ourselves. It’s also important to know our limits so that we can come as close to our potential as we are truly capable of coming – both as athletes and as people.
Even as a person who competes in a sport of individuals, I’m still part of a team. I may not physically rely on someone else’s performance to aid my own, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m still trying to become part of a team: Team U.S.A. It’s as a member of this team that I would be contributing to the performance of one country. I came to appreciate this fact as the twenty of us athletes from the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA spent twelve hours screaming, sweating, lifting, rowing, and hurting together for a common cause. This was the case and experience at the BUD/S Naval Special Warfare Training Center and this will also be the case in Beijing, China in August of 2008.
Olympians represent something greater than themselves. They represent all of the individuals on their countries’ respective teams as well as the individuals who collectively make up their nation. From this experience I recognize that becoming an Olympian is not an experience to be had individually. It is one that will be shared by many.
Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!
- Jon
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The Final Sprint
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December 19th, 2007 at 1:05 pm[…] Original post by thefinalsprint.com […]
December 19th, 2007 at 1:16 pmLove the post, Jon! You hit on a few great points here and it was very well written!
Bryan
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:37 pm