I thought that since I was one of the winners of the big annual Saturday night training exercize at New England Warrior Camp (put on annually by the truly amazing Ken Savage) I should blog about the secret of my success. Partially it was due to the efforts of my 11 other team mates. We all worked together to make the whole event a great moment in our learning about Ninjutsu. We had to help each other and work as a group to have any chance at all (especially the part where we had to make a human ladder and confirm that no one was left behind).
The other part of the secret of our success lies with Ken Savage. The reason for this is simple: every year he runs training sessions that let us learn the skills we need to succeed at the big Saturday night challenge. For me this event is the best part of camp. It is part training and part adventure. I have only been to 4 camps, but at each of these we have done the challenge late at night with very little light. This makes them better as lessons and as challenges. The experience I gained on these previous Saturday night expeditions is really what lead me to survive to the end of this year’s exercise. The strategies I learned on all three of the previous camps I have attended is what let me make it. Everything from watching people try to organize a “perfect” strategy for “winning” the game (which always fell apart on impact with the actual difficulties and personalities involved), to operating in the dark, to stealth training, to geographical knowledge of where things are in camp (which are hard to find in the dark without prior knowledge) gave me insight into how to proceed.
Oddly though, I think the fact that I made it to the end of the exercise without getting tagged was great and exciting, but it was not that that made me a winner. I think I really won the game by just doing it. Many people treated it like the end goal of the mission was winning by not getting tagged (which I somehow managed to do). But really the only people who “won” are those who entered into the spirit of the event, and tried to learn from it. There was a point to it, and it was not getting to the finish line.
I’m hoping that I learned something else this year (it usually takes me a few weeks to realize just what it was), that will allow me to have continued success in the future. At least I think it will aid me learning whatever lesson Ken has for us next year.
Dave Buswell-Wible
SMAC Student
Facebook Comments
