The Slide For Life is the centerpiece of the Confidence Course; an obstacle course designed to do some of that “building back up” after the infamous “tearing down” phase of Marine Corps recruit training. (Other services have it too, apparently.)
The first time I climbed the Slide For Life, early in recruit training, it terrified me. (Granted, I went to boot camp before they invented safety nets – 1993.)
Here’s how it went down. One of the meanest human beings I had ever met was vehemently expressing that I ought to lay down, face first, on a downward pitched rope, and then to pull myself hand over hand towards certain death, off this ridiculous man-made cliff.
Fuuuuuuuuck that. Not a chance. Back down the ladder for me.
But the mean guy was relentless. He was cheering me on, and doing it with such enthusiasm that I’m pretty sure he spit on my lip. I could taste the Copenhagen chew. It wasn’t the first time.
So I got on that rope because my fear of him was greater than my fear of the rope, and not because I had any faith in my ability to perform the slide. I started to pull myself out past the ledge. My head swam. I was at least 400 feet in the air. (Probably 30ft) I was two feeble pulls past the ledge and my Drill Instructor added one last bit of motivation by shouting “Don’t let go, there’s alligators in the water!”
I realize now how ridiculous that sounds. I probably realized it then, but I was face down on a rope that some asshole was shaking back and forth, 20-something feet in the air, scanning the murky green water for leviathans, and it scared the heck out of me.
I didn’t fall in, though. I wish I had fallen in. No, I made it a third of the way, and then let go. Alligators or no alligators, I quit. (There were no alligators.)
I didn’t believe in myself. I knew I was incapable of doing this ridiculous upside down rope technique, and so I was. I quit. I couldn’t sleep that night. I wondered if I was a coward. I wondered if they would figure out that I was an impostor not worthy of being a Marine.
When we returned to the Confidence Course over a month later, I was determined to conquer the Slide. I had a lot to prove, but it was all to myself. I knew deep down that I had it in me to conquer fear, but so many times in my life I had chosen instead to run from danger. To quit. To give up. But not this time.
I had had enough of fear.
I wish I had a better story, but the reality is that performing the Slide For Life was incredibly easy the second time I attempted it. I enjoyed it immensely; this bane of my existence, and I REALLY wanted to do it again. (The DI said no and yelled at me some more.) All because of mindset. I knew I was going to be able to do it, and so I did it.
I see people attempt to overcome their fears every day in a CrossFit gym, We don’t have a Slide For Life at Boost (yet!), but a first handstand or a PR Snatch can be just as frightening. And nothing in CrossFit is more fulfilling than watching people overcome their fears.
I’m thankful every day that I get to be that asshole Drill Instructor for my community. ❤
*I’m still scared of spiders and bacon shortages.