“We who found it were just
men. Not gods. Not giants.
Just men. The secret of steel has
always carried with it a mystery. You
must learn its riddle. Steel. It you can trust.”
So I
was sitting in my living room, licking my wounds from yet another 2nd
place finish and feeling sorry for myself, when sure as shinola, Chuck Norris
came on the TV.
He was doing an interview or something or other…. And he spoke to me. He literally looked away from the interviewer, looked out of the TV and into my soul because that is what Chuck Norris does. He said to me, “I've always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you've got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles on route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish.”
He was doing an interview or something or other…. And he spoke to me. He literally looked away from the interviewer, looked out of the TV and into my soul because that is what Chuck Norris does. He said to me, “I've always found that anything worth achieving will always have obstacles in the way and you've got to have that drive and determination to overcome those obstacles on route to whatever it is that you want to accomplish.”
Well alright then. Thanks Chuck. Now shut it. (Yeah… that’s right, I told Norris to kick rocks. What about it?)
Shortly
after this happened (and I mean literally within minutes), my son, whom is
homeschooled, was reading about Christopher Columbus. He says to me, “Hey Dad, you are a lot like
Christopher Columbus!” Intrigued and
amused at the same time but still not over feeling sorry for myself, I
responded, “Really? How so son?”
He
says, “It says here that he said, ‘By prevailing over all obstacles and
distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or
destination.’ You are always telling us
to never quit, never give up, so I figure he must have been a lot like you.”
(blink…blink)
Children say the darndest things…
Paintball is a sport that has shown me every
spectrum of emotional and physical capability.
I have seen men openly weep from the joy of winning or I have seen players
vomit from the sorrow of losing. I
watched some idiot guy duct tape his knee to keep his patella in place so that
he could play the next point. I watched
a friend pick his gun up after he dislocated his shoulder diving into the snake
and win a point. And I have seen players
complain about being hurt at the pinnacle of an event only to be perfectly fine
afterwards. What separates these men? They are all paintball players. But which wants to win more? Who has that warrior soul?
Birmingham Prime entered the 2015 Dallas PSP in
Division 1, our maiden voyage at this new level of competition as did PR1ME 2,
who entered Division 3 after a season in D4. It was interesting to me as none of us seemed
to really notice it. “It” being that we
were now playing up a division. It was
another tournament and another opportunity to play Prime paintball.
Kill, kill, kill,
kill and…..kill.
All things being equal, the D1 team took home the
silver after an incredibly disappointing yet hard fought match against a very
adept and solid Seattle Uprising team.
It came down to who would make the mistakes. It was us.
The D3 team took home the bronze (3rd place) after struggling
a little in prelims. Once they were
given that second life, the fought on like the champions they are only to fall
short at a crucial moment.
So how do you come back from that? How do you refocus and reset the teams
fighting spirit to the level it was prior to the event?
Here is how I have come to terms with Prime’s 4th
2nd place finish at a PSP in the last two years. Prime is a sword. A Japanese Katana to be more specific. To make a katana, it took the swordsmith many
weeks to complete and it is said that a piece of his soul was imbued with it
during the manufacture (our coaches and experience would be that soul). There are actually 3 types of metal that go
into this process but I won’t bore you with the fine details of Japanese sword
making (however, the point of the 3 metals should not be lost as the
ingredients i.e. the players on the team, are very important). Rather I will share with you what most
consider the fine point of the process; folding the steel. The swordsmith will heat the steel, hammer it
out and then fold it again. He then
repeats this process, over and over again ultimately folding the steel as many
as 20 times. This is what gives the
steel its strength. It is bent and
hammered and burned again and again… and each time it is beat, hammered, folded
and heated… it becomes stronger and stronger.
Between each heating and folding and beating, the soon to be blade is
smothered with ash, clay and water. This
actually creates the outer layer of the blade and pulls out impurities until it
becomes as tough as it can be. Getting
the analogy yet?
That is Prime.
Those losses only strengthen us, unite us, and take our impurities out so
we come back stronger and better until we are razor sharp.
Who wants it? You? Then go hard until you get it
Learn from your losses. Learn from your heartbreaks. Learn from each other. Be that team you know you can be. Forge yourselves into the weapon you wish to
become. YOU have to do that. No one will
do it for you. YOU have to decide what
it is you want out of this paintball thing… if it isn’t worth the hardships and
the sacrifice… take that silver and go be a spoon.
Be water my friends…
Michael Bianca
Team PR1ME
PS Thanks to Gary Baum of PaintballPhotography.com
for the amazing photographs!
