“You focus on your sword and his sword; nothing else!”– Hector (Troy 2004) - Friday, May 7th, 2010

“You focus on your sword and his sword; nothing else!”– Hector

I spoke at “Meals on Wheels” last week for great Penn State Wrestling supporter Galen Driebelbis.    The “Meals on Wheels” program feeds elderly people who need a little help.  It’s a great thing.  In the speech I spoke about four overlooked principles that I think are essential to winning.  1-never being satisfied 2-work smart 3-be positive 4-focus on the process.

I am going to talk about the focusing on the process.   This means that when you compete you focus only on the process of what you want to do.  That is, focusing on the little things that you can control, that brings the best results.  That is what you are doing with hands, your feet, and your brain.  Everything else you forget about, like what could go wrong, what your opponent is going to do, the crowd, the referee and so on.

There is a great example from the movie “Troy” on the importance of focusing on the process.

Hector is a great warrior.  He is not a dude you want to fight.  When you see him coming against you and your army you would want to pretend like you don’t see him and find someone weaker to fight.  Hector is a stud.  Hector has a younger brother named Paris that isn’t quite as tough.  Paris is kind of a pretty boy sissy in fact. 

Well, in the story Paris stole king Menelaus’s wife and took her home with him.  Menelaus was upset and went to fight Paris for her.  Paris and Menelaus were set to sword fight to the death over Helen.  Women are always causing problems–ha-ha

Paris is not a great warrior like his brother Hector.  Before the fight, Hector coaches Paris saying, “Make him swing and miss; he’ll tire.”  Paris responds, “Brother if I fall, tell Helen…tell her…”  Hector says “I will.”  Then Paris keeps going saying “Don’t let Menelaus hurt her…”

At that time Hector grabs Paris, shakes him a little and says, “You focus on your sword and his sword, nothing else!”

That’s brilliant, and a great example of what focusing on the process is. Focus on your sword and his sword, nothing else.  Makes sense because nothing else is going to help at this point.  Worrying about the lawn getting cut or mail getting picked up is not going to help Paris win the fight.  So focus on the process.

Another side note here is that Hector gave Paris instructions to “make him swing and miss; he’ll tire.”

Paris didn’t listen to his coach and went out swinging wildly and didn’t last long.  He eventually fled back and clung to his brother’s leg in a cowardly fashion.   So even in the times of Hector, kids didn’t listen to their coaches–haha.

Focus on the process.

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