Navy Seals Visit Student Athletes at Saint Paul’s College

Feb. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- The U.S. Navy SEALs in partnership with LuBear, a marketing and personnel recruitment and retention firm, will be visiting all 13 CIAA schools, for their “Mental Toughness, Never Quit” campaign.  They visited Saint Paul’s College on  Thursday, February 17.

The students had the opportunity to hear from Chief David Goggins, an ultra marathoner and Chief Dr. Rhadi Ferguson, a four time national Judo champion.  Both men told the students how they came from shaky backgrounds but through dedication and determination achieved great things.  “The goal of this campaign is to teach African-American students the importance of thinking things through,” said LuBear Consultant, Katrina Brown.

The campaign which is not a recruitment tool, follows four basic principles of:  goal-setting; visualization; positive self talk; and 4x4x4 breathing skills, an exercise in which you take four seconds to breath in, four seconds to breath out, and it’s done for four minutes.

Goggins, who ran 100 miles in less than 19 hours in a 24-hour race in San Diego that left him with broken metatarsals in both feet and a case of kidney failure, says when asked what motivates him “My journey is everlasting and there is no finish line, growing up I didn’t have much so I pushed myself to do better, when I look into my refrigerator and it’s full, I tell myself it’s empty and I keep going.”

Ferguson, who shared stories of his love for fighting, was asked the question, “Who are you so mad at?” After giving detailed stories of how he broke several competitors arms in competition, as well as how he competed with a torn thigh muscle, he responded, “The opposite of love is indifference, I’m not mad at anything life is great, but when I enter the ring I don’t care about my component, and until the referee blows his whistle for us to stop my mission is to kill.”

The Campaign will conclude with a “Mental Toughness” conditioning and team-building workshop at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, VA. Nine of the 13 schools will be asked to participate in the base events that will take place during spring football camp, a time in which the teams assess their talent and provide conditioning for the upcoming fall season. The SEALs will provide players with a unique look into how mental preparedness is essential to winning.