Way of the Warrior Kid 3: Where there's a Will... (A Novel)

by Jocko Willink

  “Yes, Uncle Jake, I learned those things too. All of them.” And I meant it. I am lucky to be healthy, lucky to be able to run and swim and do jiu-jitsu and have my business. I am very lucky. And I need to always remember that.

  chapter 18

  Today was pretty awesome! I woke up and did a great workout with Uncle Jake. We did all upper-body exercises: pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, dips, and a bunch of others. But we didn’t do any burpees or squats or any leg exercises. I wasn’t quite sure why.

  “No leg exercises today?” I asked Uncle Jake.

  “Not today. You are resting your legs today because tomorrow you are going to need them. Tomorrow you are going to try to run the mile in under six minutes. I want you to be ready,” Uncle Jake explained.

  “Got it! I will be!”

  After we had worked out, Kenny and Nathan came over so we could get to work. They both knew I had gone to Danny’s house, and they wanted to see if I had figured out why Danny didn’t want to work with us—or hang around with us after jiu-jitsu.

  “So what is his deal?” Kenny asked.

  “Yeah, did you figure out why he doesn’t want to help us?” Nathan added as we walked to the Kurth’s house a few blocks away, towing our wagon of tools and supplies. When Nathan asked, I stopped walking.

  “I did figure it out, guys,” I said in a serious voice. “It’s a good reason. You see Danny’s older brother, Anthony, the one that he hangs around with all the time, has something called a developmental disability. So even though he is older than Danny, his mind isn’t as advanced. He can’t quite do things for himself. And it is hard for him to make friends and do some of the things that other kids do. So Danny spends a lot of time with him in the summer playing with him and being a good brother and friend. Trust me, Danny would love to do everything with us—but he also loves his brother and wants to take care of him.”

  “Woah,” said Nathan, “that has got to be hard.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Kenny said.

  “Yeah, and boy, do I feel mean. The whole time I was thinking that Danny was weird just because he didn’t want to hang around with us.”

  “Me too,” Kenny said.

  “Yep. Me too,” Nathan echoed.

  “Well, at least now we know and we can be nicer.

  My Uncle Jake pointed out that this is why you shouldn’t judge people: you never know what they are going through.”

  “True,” said Nathan as he nodded his head, probably recognizing that I had also judged him last summer for his bad attitude and sloppy clothes.

  We all stood quietly for a moment before I said, “Well, let’s get to work! These lawns aren’t going to mow themselves!” We smiled, started walking, and soon got to work.

  When we were done that afternoon, we headed off to jiu-jitsu class.

  Before class started, Coach Adam told us to line up like we normally do.

  As soon as we were lined up, Coach Adam, who was facing us said, “I have an announcement to make. Marc, come on out.” I walked out of the line and faced Coach Adam.

  “Turn around,” he said, as he put his hand on my shoulder and turned me toward the class.

  “As you all know, I have been waiting to select a team captain. And I have made my decision. Marc, I select you as the Victory Team Captain!”

  “YES!” I thought to myself, “I AM THE TEAM CAPTAIN!”

  I couldn’t hold back the smile as I looked at the rest of the class. They all looked happy for me. Nathan and Kenny had huge smiles on their faces.

  Then I looked at Danny. He didn’t look happy—he was smiling at me, but at the same time I could tell that something was bothering him. Of course, he wanted to be captain too, and he was definitely as good or better at jiu-jitsu than me. But I had been at the school much longer, so I think that is why Coach Adam picked me. I felt bad, but it didn’t seem there was anything I could do. Then I got an idea.

  I turned around and faced Coach Adam.

  “Coach,” I said, “Thanks so much for picking me. But I think I might need some help being captain. Do you think there could be two captains of the team?”

  “Of course, there can be. That’s called co-captains.”

  “Awesome. And I think Danny would be the best. He is really good at jiu-jitsu and his attitude is great.”

  “I agree. Okay. Turn around,” Coach said, and I turned back to face the class again.

  “I have one more announcement,” Coach Adam told the class. “Our team captain has pointed out that being team captain is a lot of work and responsibility—and that he might need some help doing the job. Therefore, he has requested that I appoint a co-captain to help him out. Danny, come on up here.”

  I watched Danny’s face light up with happiness. He was smiling from ear to ear!

  “Danny, you are now co-captain of the team with Marc,” Coach said as Danny and I shook hands and then faced the class.

  “Thanks, Coach,” Danny said, and then he looked at me and said, “and thank you, Marc.”

  “You deserve it,” I told Danny.

  Then Coach looked at us both and asked, “Well?”

  “Well what?” I asked.

  “Well, how about you get your class warmed up so they can learn some moves and train!”

  “Got it!” I said.

  I looked at Danny and he just nodded.

  “Okay! Time to warm up!” I said to the class in a loud voice. “Let’s start jogging in a circle!”

  The class began to jog around in a circle, and then we went through all our normal warm-up drills.

  When we had finished our whole warm-up, I looked at Coach Adam and said, “All warmed-up, Coach!”

  “Thanks, Marc,” Coach said. Then he walked out on the mat and told us all to gather in closer so he could teach us the first move of the day—a review of the triple-threat: kimura, sit-up sweep, and guillotine. After teaching and reviewing the moves, he said, “Alright, quick water break.”

  When the rest of the class went off the mat to get some water, he told Danny and me to run some sparring. He showed us how to work the countdown clock and we programmed four-minute rounds. When everyone else was back on the mat, Danny said, “Okay, everyone, we are going to do five four-minute rounds! Grab a partner!”

  Everyone grabbed a partner; once everyone was paired up, Danny pressed START on the clock and everyone started to train.

  I looked at Danny and without saying a word, we smiled, shook hands, and started to grapple.

  It was a great day.

  chapter 19

  Today I fell short of my goal.

  For two days, Uncle Jake had me preparing to break the six-minute mile. One day we didn’t work out any legs, and the next day he let me rest completely, and I just did some stretching. So today I was supposed to make it happen. I was supposed to run a mile in under six minutes. And I almost did. Almost.

  I woke up at the normal time, and Uncle Jake and I did a quick warm-up. We did few easy jumping jacks and burpees just to get our muscles warm, and then we stretched out.

  “You ready?” Uncle Jake asked me. “Yes, I am,” I told him confidently.

  “Alright then,” he said. “Let’s go!”

  We walked down to the driveway and lined up for the start.

  “Okay,” he said, “today is the day. Standby…”

  I took off running, and was running at a good solid pace. My breathing was steady and my stride was long. I was going just about as fast as Uncle Jake.

  I made good time to the corner and started up the hill to the turnaround point. It almost seemed easy! Once I got to the fence, I slapped it and turned around. As soon as I did, Uncle Jake picked up his pace a little bit and pulled ahead. But I wasn’t worried. I was running fast and didn’t need to beat Uncle Jake to beat a six-minute mile.

  On the way down the hill, I lengthened my stride and backed off my pace a little bit, so I could save some for the final sprint.

  As Uncle Jake pulled even further ahead of me,
I still thought I was running fast enough.

  BUT I WASN’T.

  I sprinted the last fifty yards and came across the finish line. I looked at Uncle Jake.

  “Six thirteen,” he said in a cold voice. “You didn’t push yourself.”

  “I ran hard,” I told him.

  “Not that hard,” he said directly. “Look at you right now. Standing. Talking. If you had really run hard, you would be exhausted. You would be sprawled out on the ground, trying to catch your breath.”

  I stood there silently. I didn’t know what to say. I had let Uncle Jake down. And I had let myself down too.

  We stood there for a few minutes. I was just looking at the ground, because I didn’t even want to look at Uncle Jake. I had failed. I felt horrible

  “I failed a run once too,” Uncle Jake finally said, breaking the silence. I looked at him, surprised to hear him say that.

  “You did?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he answered, “I sure did. It was going through BUD/S, the basic SEAL training. I was in second phase, almost halfway done with the training. We ran all the time in BUD/S. It was a mile to the chow hall where we ate and a mile back—so just running to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we were running six miles a day. On top of that, we ran everywhere we went, and, of course, we ran all kinds of regular “conditioning runs”, which were the big group runs we did as a class to get us in shape. But once a week, we would do a four-mile timed run. Four miles isn’t even that long—and the times we had to get to pass the runs weren’t even that fast.

  “But we were usually worn out for the runs, and they were in soft sand wearing combat boots.”

  Have you ever run in soft sand?”

  “No I haven’t, Uncle Jake,” I told him.

  “Well, it’s pretty tough, but it isn’t that big a deal,” Uncle Jake continued. “Up until that point, I had passed all my runs.”

  So, one morning, when we lined up for the run, I decided that day I would ‘pace myself’. Do you know what that means?”

  “Hold back? Not run your hardest?” I replied.

  “Exactly,” Uncle Jake said. “Hold back a little bit—take it easy. After all, I figured, I hadn’t had any trouble with the runs up until this point, and I figured I could save my energy for some of the other things we had to do like long swims and the obstacle course. So we all lined up for the run, and the instructor gave us the ‘Standby…BUST ‘EM’. And off we all ran. And don’t get me wrong, I ran hard. But I held back. And when I crossed the finish line, the instructor simply said, ‘Fail. Hit the surf and get wet and sandy.’ That was the punishment for failing—you had to go jump in the ocean and then roll around in the sand so you looked like a sugar cookie.”

  But that wasn’t the bad part. The bad part came later that afternoon when I, along with the rest of the people who had failed, had to go sign a chit stating that we failed.”

  “What’s a chit?” I asked.

  “It’s a form for your record that says you failed. And when I went through BUD/S, if you failed two runs, you could be kicked out. I was petrified. I could NOT fail another run. And I didn’t. The next timed run—I RAN. I ran as hard as I could. I didn’t hold anything back. And that is what I did from then on. When it was go time—I went as hard as I could. I would finish the runs and collapse on the ground. And I never failed a run again. That’s what you need to do next time. Don’t hold anything back. ‘Always do your best.’ Isn’t that what your Warrior Kid code says?”

  I felt really bad. Uncle Jake was right. I could have run much harder, but I didn’t. I looked up at him, “Yes, Uncle Jake. That is exactly what it says. And that is exactly what I will do. I promise.”

  “Good,” said Uncle Jake, “That’s what a Warrior Kid needs to do. And I’m not saying you need to do that all day every day. You shouldn’t do that, and, in fact, you can’t do that. Your body won’t allow it. You have seen that happen—you can over train and get too tired. Your performance will go down. But on game day—when it is time to give it your all, then GIVE IT YOUR ALL. Go as HARD AS YOU CAN. Don’t hold anything back. Do you understand what that means?”

  “Yes, I do, Uncle Jake, yes, I do.”

  And I did. I was already looking forward to the next run, where I would get the chance to do just that.

  Chapter 20

  After training jiu-jitsu this whole summer, everything finally paid off!

  The tournament went great. Nathan, Kenny, Danny, and I all entered the competition along with a few other kids from our academy, including Nora and Zisa, our two best girls. There were a lot of kids there from other jiu-jitsu schools and some of them were REALLY GOOD. My mom and dad had to work, but my Uncle Jake came to watch me, and Danny’s parents came to watch him, and they brought Anthony with them. Anthony remembered me!

  “Hello, friend!” he said when he saw me. “Hello, Anthony,” I replied.

  “Are you going to win?” he asked.

  “I am going to try,” I told him.

  “Danny is going to win!” he said with a big smile on his face.

  “I am sure he will do great,” I said.

  In jiu-jitsu, you compete against people that are about the same weight as you. Nathan, Kenny, Danny and I were all in different weight classes. Kenny was the heaviest, then Danny, then me, and finally Nathan, who was the lightest.

  As the team captains, Coach Adam had Danny and me warm the kids up before the competition. We told everyone to do their best and be good sports whether they won or lost.

  Nathan went first and had a really tough match, but he was able to win by scoring points for taking his opponent down and getting the mount position.

  I won my first match using an armlock, and Danny also made his first opponent tap out, but he used a choke. Kenny also beat his first opponent by points. Nora and Zisa completely dominated their first matches and won by making their opponents tap out.

  This tournament was a ‘Single Elimination’ tournament, which meant if you lost a single match, you were out, but if you won, you would go against another person that also won. That usually meant that each match would get harder than the last match, and that was definitely true today. Although everyone won their next matches, it was obvious that the competition was getting tougher and tougher.

  In the third round, Nathan lost when he got caught in a choke. Kenny barely won his match on points. Zisa and Nora won their matches and Danny and I also won ours, meaning all of us except Nathan made it to the semifinals.

  Every time that Danny or I won a match, his brother Anthony was so happy. “I knew you were going to win! I knew you were going to win!” he would shout. It put a big smile on my face to see him that excited.

  In my semifinal match, I was going against a really good kid from another school. I think he had been training longer than I had been, and he was also very strong. He got the takedown on me, and once we hit the mat, he was working really hard to pass my guard. But the harder he worked, the more tired he got. I had been running so much with Uncle Jake in addition to training jiu-jitsu that I was barely out of breath. In the last minute of the match, I felt his energy fade away, and that is when I swept him. Once I was on top, I almost immediately passed his guard, which gave me enough points to beat him.

  “That’s why we train hard,” Uncle Jake told me after the match. He was right. I never would have won that match if I had not been in good shape from all the training and running I had done.

  Anthony was also excited that I won, giving me a hug and saying, “You are going to be the champion!”

  Danny’s semifinal match was also against a really good opponent, but Danny was able to score more points for the win. He was really psyched, but not as happy as Anthony, who was jumping up and down with joy.

  Zisa lost her match in the semifinals, but Nora won hers. Kenny had a tough match in the semifinals and lost after getting caught in a kimura shoulder lock. He ended up with a fourth-place finish.

  So in the end from our team, i
t was Nora, Danny, and me all fighting in the finals for first-place gold medals.

  Nora went first against a really tall girl that was also really good. But she wasn’t as good as Nora.

  Nora trained so hard and was so focused, she seemed to make everyone else look like beginners. Every move that she made seemed a couple steps ahead of her opponent. Even in the finals, against the girl that had beaten all the other girls, Nora simply connected move after move after move until she had her opponent in a triangle choke and made the girl tap out. Nora had won gold.