Two Wolves

There's nothing harder than getting back into the groove of things... mustering the courage to start dating again after a bad break up with someone you thought was "the one", learning how to do everyday tasks after having your arm in a cast for 8 weeks, waking up at 6 AM for work when you just got off a two week vacation in paradise.

I felt just how hard getting back in the groove could be this morning. After having taken a few days off from the gym to start healing up my shoulder, I decided to put in some work this morning anyways. I'd say it was against my doctors orders, but I still haven't gone to the doctor... whoops. What should have been a somewhat easy yoga session to start the day felt like my first class all over again. The workout which followed should have been a decent smoker but instead left me feeling like a geriatric gasping for his last breath. The 2 mile run cool down afterwards took me the same amount of time it usually takes me to run a 5k... when I'm not trying that hard.

So once I got home, I did the obvious... laid on the couch, cramped up as if I had just ran a marathon and turned on the television. Much to my satisfaction, the movie "Miracle" was on.

For those of you who have never seen it, "Miracle" is the story of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team that did the "impossible" and beat the Soviet Union, who had dominated the sport for years, later defeating Finland for the gold medal.

Brooks realized the potential in his boys, albeit they are just that... boys. With an average player age of 21, they would be the youngest team at the tournament and end up becoming the youngest team in US history to play in the Olympics. A stark contrast of the Russians, who were seasoned vets with a long, victory-laden history of international play.

In order to win, Brooks realized two things: one, he'd have to get a group of individuals and cliques to play as a team... and two, that team would have to straight up out hustle anyone they faced because of their lack of experience and talent. The first realization took time, to convince a group of 20 somethings that the name on the front of their new jerseys were more important than who they previous played for... and more important than the name on their back.

The second realization took even more time to develop but turned out to be the exact reason why they were successful. There are many scenes in the movie when Brooks repeats an important phrase, "the legs feed the wolf." After hard conditioning throughout the entire practice (and after some games), Brooks would often have the team line-up and conduct suicide sprints. Although I haven't played basketball since I was in high school, the thought of suicide sprints still haunts me.

Red line, back. Blue line, back. Far blue line, back. Far red line, back. 45 seconds to complete. These were never easy to finish when you were fresh, so you can imagine how bad they hurt during and after the end of practice. Puking in the corner of the gym and passing out from sheer exhaustion were common occurrences, none of which gave anyone too much concern.

Brooks dogged his boys because he knew they wouldn't be the best team at Lake Placid.. they didn't have the talent nor the experience. But what they could do was outwork their opponents... winning every loose puck and taking advantage of every lapse in judgment their opponents had. He told his boys, "We WILL be the best conditioned team, that I can promise you."

The legs feed the wolf.

For some reason, I can't let that phrase go. For some reason, I feel as though Herb Brooks meant more than what it just appears to be. Google search that quote and it will lead you to hundreds of thousands of results linked to fitness websites and blogs talking about the importance of training legs... but I think Herb was also aiming for the conditioning of the mind.

There's a story I always remember hearing when I was little and it goes something like this...

An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life...

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.

"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf will win?"

The old chief simply replied,
"The one you feed."

There are two wolves within all of us, and perhaps they roam about in our past and in our future. Perhaps they eat when we decide where we are moving. Do we let the evil wolf eat when we decide to stay stagnant and pity ourselves? When we allow doubt to overtake our desire to roll the dice and take a chance? When we back pedal into the past, letting the nay-sayers belittle our hopes and dreams? Does a group of college kids get scared and lie down in the fetal position as the Russians stomp all over them? Do we get intimidated when the big, scary wolf shows it teeth?

 

 

Or do we move forward... do we outrun the hatred, the lies and inferiority. Do we never give the wolf a chance at a meal because we never let it catch us? Do we prove the entire world wrong... do we believe in miracles?

There's a scene towards the end of the game when an American player steals the puck from one of the Russian stars with relative ease, leaving the comrade completely dumbfounded. How did the little guy just show up his invincible foe?

Ingenuity and hustle.

Working hard isn't a foreign concept, it's simply something most choose not to accept. The legs feed the evil wolf, but only when the prey accepts the fate that others think it deserves. When you stay hungry and stay foolish, you're crazy enough to think the good wolf won't go hungry... and it might just not.

The choice is yours, to listen to all your doubts and let the evil wolf eat... most people would understand if you folded your cards, in fact, many would encourage you to. But the choice is also yours to say "fuck that".

The legs feed the wolf... just make sure the good one's not malnourished.