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

by Jocko Willink

  I was next up. My opponent looked relaxed, and because I had watched one of his earlier matches, I could tell he was skilled too.

  As soon as we locked up, I could tell it was going to be a tough match. He was grabbing my gi and pushing and pulling me again and again, trying to make me lose my balance. At one point, he stuck his leg out to trip me, but I regained my balance, grabbed his leg, and took him down to the mat, where I landed inside his guard. His guard was really good—but it wasn’t quite as good as Danny’s guard.

  He went for a choke and I defended it. He went for an armlock and I defended it.

  Then he went for a kimura and I defended it, but as I did, he transitioned right into an omoplata—the same move that Danny had once done to me—and the same move Danny had shown me how to apply and how to defend.

  “You know what to do!” shouted Danny from the sidelines.

  He was right; I did know what to do. I grabbed my thigh near my knee to reinforce the arm he was attacking. Then I sat back for a moment and with my other hand, popped his foot over my head, and almost instantly was past his guard and across the side—with a total of four points to zero.

  Once across the side, I worked hard to move to the mount, but my opponent was working hard too. In the last thirty seconds, he was able to replace his guard on me, but it was too late. Time ran out for him, and I won the match. I shook his hand and helped him up off the mat.

  The referee brought us to the middle of the mat and raised my hand. It felt good to win. I walked over to the rest of my teammates who were all cheering and gave them high-fives.

  When I got to Danny, I said, “Thanks.”

  “I didn’t do anything—that was all you,” he replied.

  “Not true. I never would have gotten out of that omaplata if it wasn’t for you.”

  Danny just smiled and said, “We are a team.”

  He was right, and just as he said that, Anthony came up with a big smile on his face and gave me a hug. “You’re the champion!” he said. “You’re the champion!”

  The last match was Danny against a really good fighter named Tim. I had seen Tim in other jiu-jitsu tournaments, and he was one of the best around. He was totally serious about training and competing. He warmed up wearing headphones and a big robe that covered his gi to keep his muscles warm. He was like a professional and when he and Danny got on the mat, it showed.

  He quickly took Danny down to the mat with a judo trip and immediately passed his guard. Once Tim passed Danny’s guard, it looked like Danny could barely move. But he kept fighting.

  “You’ve got to work from there, Danny,” Coach Adam yelled from the sidelines.

  After a real struggle, Danny managed to replace his guard, but it didn’t last long. Tim applied some pressure, got past Danny’s guard again, and then went to the mount. The score was now nine to zero for Tim.

  It didn’t look at all good for Danny. But he didn’t give up. He kept fighting and eventually was able to elbow escape from the mount and get Tim back into his guard.

  Once Tim was back inside Danny’s guard, I saw it. Danny reached loosely into Tim’s gi collar and grabbed it. As Tim put his head down to apply his weight and pass Danny’s guard, Danny reached his other hand over Tim’s head, grabbed his own sleeve and locked in the loop choke.

  “You’ve got it!” I shouted.

  It took a moment for Tim to realize what was happening. His body suddenly tensed up and he started to struggle. But it was too late. He bucked back and forth a few times, but after a few more seconds, he was done and had to tap.

  “YES!” I yelled as everyone on our team jumped up in the air.

  It was an incredible victory. And just like I was able to use what Danny had taught me to defend the omoplata, Danny was able to use the loop choke I had taught him to win. It felt amazing just as if I had just won another championship.

  chapter 21

  As soon as Danny won, Anthony jumped up and yelled, “He’s the champion, he’s the champion!” He had a huge smile on his face. Danny and Tim got up, and the referee called them to the center of the mat where he raised Danny’s hand. Danny walked off the mat, gave high fives to all of us on the team, and then got a giant hug from Anthony. It was awesome to see how thrilled Anthony was and I was glad to be friends with Anthony and Danny.

  Soon an announcement came over the speaker calling us all to one side of the gymnasium to receive our awards and stand on the podium for pictures.

  The podium had four platforms to stand on, the tallest one was for first place, the next tallest was for second, then third, and the shortest one was for fourth place. The winners of each weight class were called up to the podium to receive their medals. Kenny got fourth place, Zisa got third, and Nora, Danny, and I all got our first place gold medals.

  It was awesome to stand on the podium and have the first place gold medal hung around my neck. I looked at Uncle Jake, and I could see he was happy I won. I stepped down from the podium and walked over to him. “Thanks, Uncle Jake.”

  “Don’t thank me,” he replied. “I didn’t earn that medal. You did.”

  “Yes, but I couldn’t have done it without you. I wouldn’t even know what jiu-jitsu is if it weren’t for you. So thank you.”

  “I’m glad you like jiu-jitsu. And I’m glad you work hard at it,” he said.

  I grabbed the medal around my neck and looked at it. GOLD. It was still sinking in that I had won first place. It felt AWESOME.

  Then I walked over to Danny and gave him a high five. “Nice work out there!” I told him.

  “You too,” he replied. “Thanks for teaching me that loop choke. If I hadn’t had that, there’s no way I would have beaten that kid. He was GOOD!”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That was AWESOME. And there is no way I would have won if you hadn’t shown me that omoplata escape! It worked like magic!”

  Right then, Danny’s mom, dad, and brother came over.

  “Great job out there, boys,” his dad said.

  “Excellent work!” his mom added, giving Danny a hug.

  “I knew you would be the champion!” said Anthony. “I knew it!”

  Danny looked at Anthony and asked, “Do you know who the real champion is?”

  “You are,” Anthony replied.

  “Nope,” replied Danny, “you are.” And with that, Danny took his medal off and put it around Anthony’s neck.

  “YES!” Anthony shouted as his eyes lit up, “yes! I am the champion!”

  He looked at me and repeated, “I am the champion!”

  I could see that medal made Anthony happier than anything else in the world. Without another thought, I said, “You’re not just the champion, Anthony. You’re the double champion!” as I took the medal from around my neck and put it around Anthony’s.

  “Really?” he asked.

  “Yes! You are the double champion!”

  “Double champion!” he said quietly as he looked at both medals around his neck. “Double champion,” he said a little louder, and finally, at a yell, “DOUBLE CHAMPION! I AM THE DOUBLE CHAMPION!”

  His smile was huge and he hugged all of us—Danny, his parents, and me. It was awesome. It felt like I had won again.

  Danny smiled at me.

  Mrs. Rhinehart also looked happy and gave me a hug and whispered, “Thank you,” in my ear.

  I looked over and saw Uncle Jake looking at me. He nodded his head.

  We all said goodbye, and I walked over to Uncle Jake.

  “That was a good thing to do right there, Marc.”

  I nodded my head in agreement.

  “Should we head to the Olde Malt Shoppe and get you a double bacon cheeseburger? I think you deserve it.”

  “YES!” I exclaimed. We got in the car and buckled our seatbelts.

  “You did good work today, Marc. Really good,” Uncle Jake said after we started driving.

  “Thanks, Uncle Jake.”

  “Let’s debrief.”

  “Debrief?” I asked.
“What’s that?”

  “In the SEAL Teams, after a mission, the platoon gets together to talk about what went right and what went wrong. What we could do better. What we learned. So, what did you learn today?”

  “I learned a lot. I learned being in good shape can make the difference between winning and losing. I was able to wear my opponent down, and once he got tired, I was able to win. And after seeing Danny give his medal to his brother, I learned that there are more important things than winning and losing.”

  “Yes. Those are great lessons. And I was very impressed by both you and Danny. I know you both worked hard for those medals, and I know they meant a lot to you. For you to give that medal away—to someone that it would mean even more to—that is what a Warrior Kid does. It is called sacrifice. That was a small sacrifice, but you made Danny’s brother very happy. And I hope that made you happy too.”

  “It did, Uncle Jake. It did,” I said.

  “But there is one more thing—one we already talked about, but it should be very clear right now.”

  “My ego?” I asked.

  “That’s right,” Uncle Jake said. “What about it?”

  “I need to control it?”

  “Yes. You do. And you did. Instead of being jealous of Danny and not being his friend and avoiding training with him, you put your ego in check.”

  “You trained with him. You got tapped out by him. Became friends with him. And those things made you better. If you hadn’t put your ego in check, if you hadn’t trained with him, if you hadn’t put your ego aside and learned what you could from him, you never would have won today. You understand that, right?”

  “Yes, I do, Uncle Jake,” I replied.

  “But it doesn’t stop there. That is the way life is for a warrior. If you let your ego get in the way, you won’t reach your potential. You won’t be as good as you can be. Remember that,” Uncle Jake said in a very serious tone.

  “I will, Uncle Jake. I will.”

  We sat silently as we drove the rest of the way to the Olde Malt Shoppe. Once there, I ordered my favorite meal: a double bacon cheeseburger and a mint chocolate chip milkshake. Uncle Jake got the same thing. We joked and laughed about how good it tasted. And it did taste good.

  But what was even better was knowing I had put my ego aside and become friends with Danny. I had learned from him, I had fought well in the competition and won, and, most importantly, I had made someone else’s life a little bit better by giving Anthony my medal.

  It was a good debrief.

  chapter 22

  “Get up,” Uncle Jake whispered in a quiet voice.

  I looked at my clock and realized my alarm hadn’t even gone off yet.

  “But it’s only—”

  “No buts. Get up,” Uncle Jake said firmly.

  I started going through my mind trying to think why Uncle Jake would be mad at me. Had I done something wrong? But I couldn’t think of anything. I sat up in bed, feeling sore from the jiu-jitsu tournament.

  “Did I do something wrong?” I asked Uncle Jake.

  “Negative,” he said, “but you have something to do right.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Just get up, get your workout clothes on, and meet me down in the garage.”

  “Okay,” I said. I quickly got up, got my clothes and sneakers on, and headed down to the garage.

  When I walked in, Uncle Jake was looking at me. “Today is the day,” he said.

  “What day?” I asked him.

  “The day you break a six-minute mile,” he replied.

  I started to tell Uncle Jake that I was still tired from the jiu-jitsu tournament, and the workouts we had been doing—and from the fact that he had woken me up earlier than usual. “But I’m—”

  “But you’re what?” Uncle Jake said sharply, making me want to keep my thoughts to myself. But I just didn’t feel like I could do it today and I had to tell him.

  “I’m sore from the jiu-jitsu tournament.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he replied.

  “And we haven’t taken any rest days from working out, so my legs are sore.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Uncle Jake repeated.

  “And you woke me up earlier than usual. I just think I should get a full night’s rest if I’m going to try to do this.”

  “Well, you aren’t going to get a full night’s rest. And you are going to be sore. And you are not going to try to do this. You are going to do this,” Uncle Jake said in a stern voice.

  “Now stretch out.”

  I started to stretch out and get warmed up in silence.

  Suddenly, Uncle Jake asked, “Do you think that conditions are always going to be perfect for you in life?”

  “I guess not,” I answered.

  “Well, you guessed right. Things aren’t always perfect. In the SEAL Teams, when we were going on a mission, things were never perfect. The weather might be bad. The gear might be broken. The terrain might be awful. The water might be too cold. The enemy might be doing something you didn’t expect. But it doesn’t matter. We still had to do our mission.”

  I listened quietly as I stretched.

  “That’s what we do. That’s what a warrior does.”

  Uncle Jake was staring at me.

  “It doesn’t matter that you are tired. It doesn’t matter that you are sore. You have a mission to do. You have trained to do it. You are capable of doing it. You are going to have to push yourself hard—but you can do this. Are you ready?”

  “Yes, Uncle Jake.”

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  We walked out of the garage and lined up by the driveway to start.

  “Now. I am going to run the pace. You stay with me. No matter what, you stay with me. There is going to be a little voice of weakness in your head telling you to slow down, telling you that you don’t have anything left, telling you to give up. Here’s the thing: I want you to tell that little voice to BE QUIET with something called WILL. Do you know what will is Marc?” Uncle Jake asked.

  “I’m not sure, Uncle Jake.”

  “Will is determination. It is resolve. Will is when you hear that little voice and you feel like you are going to break, but instead of listening to that little voice you dig deep and KEEP GOING. Understand? That’s will. You KEEP GOING.”

  “Yes, Uncle Jake,” I told him. I still wasn’t sure I could keep pace with Uncle Jake, but I was sure going to try.

  “Okay,” Uncle Jake said. “Here we go…standby…BUST ‘EM!”

  With that, Uncle Jake sprinted off. I stayed with him. He was going at a fast pace, but I ran hard and stayed close.

  After the first block, I was feeling pretty good. But that didn’t last long. I started breathing harder. My legs started to feel tired.

  “Dig deep,” Uncle Jake said. “KEEP GOING.”

  I didn’t respond because I was breathing too hard. But I was staying with him.

  I stayed right next to him for a while, but as we got to the corner, I started to fade a little bit behind him.

  “STAY WITH ME! KEEP GOING!” he shouted.

  It shocked me a little to hear Uncle Jake shout and I reflexively stepped out and caught up with him.

  As we approached the corner to head up the hill, Uncle Jake said, “Alright, we are going to attack this hill. Get ready.”

  I didn’t respond. I just kept running as hard as I could. When we turned the corner and started up the hill, Uncle Jake attacked and picked up the pace even more.

  I felt like I was going to run out of energy. There was no way I was going to be able to keep up this pace. I could hear that little voice in my head saying that I needed to slow down to ease the strain on my legs and my lungs. I heard that little voice saying I didn’t have anything left. But I told that little voice to be quiet and said to myself, keep going. Just a little farther. KEEP GOING.