Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. It has been a busy summer so far, full of projects, adventures, and running around with Speedy and El Duderino.
Still, I have manged to sneak in some quiet moments. Small stretches of serenity amid the chaos of summer shenanigans. In that time I was able to get lost in an old book.
Ender’s Game is a science fiction novel written by Orson Scott Card and published in 1985. I came by it via the books for a quarter shelf from the local public library. It was a little worse for wear, but there is something magical about a used book and something even more magical about the trip it will take you on, and for only a quarter at that.
The story follows the protagonist Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, on his trip to a military school in a distopian future Earth preparing for a third invasion against an alien bug species.
Card does a marvelous job telling a story that can be read and appreciated by children, while at the same time layering in such weighty topics as, morality, ethics, military strategy, psychology, manipulation, governance, and the dangers of a military industrial complex.
I thoroughly enjoyed my respite from the busy summer into the world of Ender and his mission. But, the part that stuck out to me, the part I want to share with you, is about orientation.
Below is a chopped up excerpt from the beginning chapters.
“He walked the short bridge to the door in the shuttle. He noticed that the wall to his right was carpeted like a floor. That was where the disorientation began. The moment he thought of the wall as a floor, he began to feel like he was walking on a wall.
The launch wasn’t bad. A little scary. Some jolting, a few moments of panic that this might be the first failed launch since the early days of the shuttle. Then it was over, and he was hanging by the straps, no gravity anywhere.
But because he had already reoriented himself, he was not surprised when Graff came up the ladder backward, as if he were climbing down to the front of the shuttle. Nor did it bother him when Graff hooked his feet under a rung and pushed off with his hands so that suddenly he swung upright, as if this were an ordinary airplane.
But for Ender, Graff’s gravity game was fun. And he carried it further imagining Graff was actually hanging upside down from the center aisle, and then picturing him sticking straight out from a side wall. Gravity could go any which way. However I want it to go. I can make Graff stand on his head and he doesn’t even know it”
Despite no prior experience in space, and no training, Ender starts the process of reorienting himself immediately, without being told.
Ender is chosen for his specific role in the military school because he is a genius. He is able to see patterns, develop tactics and strategies, and lead his fellow students effectively.
All of the other children, also chosen for their enhanced acumen, need to be instructed to do this first basic step.
There are several other examples in the book where enders quick ability to orient himself within a new battle and new situation save his life and allow him to continue to progress on his mission.
What struck me so much about this was how it is maddeningly simple, and yet difficult at the same time.
Ender is laughing to himself because he can “make Graff stand on his head” by reorienting a zero gravity room in his mind. None of the other boys can.
The same idea presents itself in Brazilian Jiu Jistu across a multitude of positions. Techniques that work from the bottom of closed guard are identical from the top of mount position. The only thing that has changed is the orientation.
There a lot of leg entanglement positions that can feel stuck or unfamiliar, but really the position is just oriented differently than one that is familiar and even advantageous.
Of course in BJJ there is gravity. Moving from the bottom opposing gravity, (and your opponent’s weight) is very different from being less encumbered in the top position.
Sometimes hip and leg movements are easier from the bottom despite battling gravity because your back is supporting your weight rather than one leg, while trying to move the other from a top position.
Still the mechanics remain the same, it is the orientation that changes. And, often times, it is that change in orientation that is the biggest hangup. Most bjj practitioners are capable of all of the mechanics. It is connecting the positions, anticipating them, from a different orientation that provides a degree of separation between good and great.
I think this is the same differntiation of good and great communicators. You can be a good communicator by thoroughly understanding your message. By choosing the right words to reach your audience.
To be great, I think you have to be able to change your orientation. To see things from the point of view of your audience. To see things from the point of view of those who would disagree with you.
Again, maddeningly simple, while at the same time extremely difficult.
I remember one particular group of students I worked with as a flight instructor. There was a grouo of twelve students that came to study aviation from Nigeria.
The students were chosen from across multiple provinces in a highly competitive selection process. Only the best and brightest made it to our program.
Likewise, the instructors chosen for the program had the highest pass ratings, and the best student ratings.
In spite of the signifcant credentials of both students and instructors, the program did not start off well.
The students did a great job of memorizing and regurgitating information. The instructors followed the same methods that worked so well with their other students. But, when it came time for the first round of flight testing the pass rates were abysmal.
We (the instructors) quickly realized that our students were too smart, but with too little shared experience to our own.
I remember my student was able to reply verbatim the airway right of way rules, but without an understanding of what he was saying. He knew an airship had the right of way over an airplane and could tell we you so, but he had no idea what an airship was.
We realized very quickly that most of our students from the US came from similair backgrounds to our own. They grew up around complex machinery that we take for granted. Lawn mowers, golf carts, cars. The Nigerian students had none of that shared experience.
It was that change in orientation, recognizing the lack of shared experience, that led us off the flight line, and into the parking lot with 12 nigerian students grinning ear to ear in the florida sun as the learned right of way traffic rules in golf carts.
That change in orientation, from assuming the methods that worked with our US students, to recognizing and then building from scratch a shared experience foundation made all the difference in their training.
Maddeningly simple, and yet extremely difficult. But, if you can reorient yourself, there is serenity to be found.
Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.
