Page 10 - RADC Bulletin 2018

Phase 1 Training
Pte Brand RADC
“Don’t worry Brand, keep at it”, that’s exactly what I didn’t want to hear from Chris the climbing instructor, as I dangled inches from the ground of a rock face I was attempting to climb. I wanted to hear him say ‘times up, let someone else try now’, but he didn’t and I couldn’t climb this mountain - it was too hard, impossible, and I was knackered from my previous attempts for what seemed like hours but was more likely 30 minutes!
It was week 10 of my Phase 1 training and we were in the Brecon Beacons, Wales, on our SDW adventure training. This was supposed to be a fun and relaxing week from training, so why was I going through hell trying to climb this rock face? Was I about to give up, call it a day and walk away knowing that I had at least tried my best? Would I be satisfied with that? Hang on, that wasn’t why I was here, that’s not why I left my cushty job selling overpriced t-shirts to the privileged in Central London, and I didn’t leave my daughter just to come and ‘give it a go’!
For everything that we had done up to this stage I had given it my all, never given in or taken it easy, so why, on this mountain, was I struggling to continue. The old me would have given up after a couple attempts, but that was the old me, this was Rct Brand 2.0 I thought to myself.
For years I had worked in a job which I disliked, accepting just doing the minimum required to get by, but you get fed up of that, it’s not good for the mind. How could I tell my daughter to always do her best when I was ‘just getting by’ – I didn’t want to be
a hypocrite. That’s why I signed up to the Army, for times just like this, to be pushed and to push yourself through hard times and come out better the other end. But I really didn’t expect this to come on week 10 of Phase 1, this was meant to be the easiest week.
But this mountain had become so much more than just a fun activity, it summed up my complete Phase 1 journey. I dangled there thinking of different ways I could climb this mountain, I thought a lot, I thought of every time I had given up in my life, the boxing in my youth, university, every cycle race that I had settled with finishing in the back even though I was capable of being out front. I thought of the sporting stars
I had idolised growing up, mesmerised by my cycling heroes I had seen burst up a mountain climb to seal victory, or
watching Muhammad Ali defy odds and
do the impossible, this is who I looked up to, they made it possible for themselves, now it was my turn. I remembered a quote from Muhammad Ali saying “He who is
not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life”. “Let’s do it” I said to myself. Instructor Chris told me it could be climbed, my colleagues believed
in me, even the Battery Commander was there, who told me I could do it and the British Army wouldn’t lie would they. So I psyched myself up, took my grip, and with one almighty leap of everything I had left in my body I reached out and grasped the lip of the mountain I had been reaching for, I had done it! My own personal battle with this mountain was over, I had defeated it, and I had won. I climbed the rest with ease, and then came back down and thanked
my team. To them I had just completed
the second climb of the day, which they would all succeed in doing themselves, but to me it was so much more. Maybe they would never realise or maybe they would go through a similar thing at a different point in their own training? For me this was training in a nutshell - being given an “impossible”
8 RADC BULLETIN 2018
MEMORIES