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This last technique is the Japanese method. It can seem pointlessly cruel, but it does reinforce a person's stubborness, recharge his determination and oblige him to look deep into himself to find his last scrap of will-power to go on. I was with my students, because I am not the kind of teacher, and never will be, who is content to write theory on the blackboard. 1-
I looked at them with pride and some envy : the ones who were not already competent adventurers were quickly becoming so. They were all enthusiastic, generous, ready to give their all. But they were also lucky, because things have been made easy for them : to learn the arts of survival, they need only send off a coupon. I, by contrast, had to learn by myself, at my own expense, by a continual process of trial and error, solving problems when they cropped up. Nobody ever told me :"Pay attention, if this happens to you, do this". It took years to learn what to do. It was my desire to pass on my experience and expertise to others which prompted me to open my school. I began by teaching a friend of mine how to use a compass, and I swear it all but reduced me to tears to see something I found so simple be the source of some much puzzlement. Then dumbfounded another friend by showing him how to light a fire with the sparks produced by scraping a strip of magnesium against the blade of a knife. I felt like I was a child again, playing at being an explorer by going a whole day without drinking to ready me for the desert. I used to read all sorts of stories of adventure on land and sea. Explorers, pirates, prospectors, sailors peopled my dreams night and day. So I thought I would find a place, with mountains all round, wooded, with a river, where I could recount what I had done and learnt to the many people who had always dreamt of having an adventure without ever having dared. About the same time, the Rambo and Indiana Jones's films were showing everywhere and there were a lot of people who wanted to try to emulate their adventures: though, if Rambo had really attempted some of the stunts performed in the films he would be dead a thousand times over. Still, in the films the stunts are well acted and the character, too, makes people dream. Obviously, there are real limits to everyone's capacity for endurance which only film-makers can afford to disregard. You have to find out what they are, and then strive to widen them a little, finding new reserves of energy that you have never put to the test. A weeks' training at the School opens new horizons for its students, who taste the pleasure of doing things they could never otherwise have done. Our reserves of ingenuity and endurance are almost inexhaustible at need, so long as they are sustained by our will. Will-power is the quality which I retain essential whether you are in the jungle, the desert or in straightforward daily life. "Never give up, unless you want to be a loser", I drum into the heads of my students. Remembering this maxim you can begin to train yourself every day to acquire new habits rather than be sunk in laziness, and live with your eyes always open to the world about you. There is so much to see and to learn, but it also necessary never to let yourself be taken by surprise. When the enrolled students arrive for a new course, in groups of twenty, it doesn't take long to establish a friendly atmosphere; somebody starts telling stories, others ask questions. One says he is a total bungler, but that he is curious to try; another describes how he spent 20 days in the desert with his motorbike; someone else describes trekking in Nepal. The students usually come from a wide variety of backgrounds. One group I remember contained a martial arts expert, an airline pilot as well as a clerk in a factory making nylon stocking, a company director, a quiet teacher, a doctor and a worker who had been made to come by his wife because he talked of nothing else. She had said: "Do me a favour, go on the course, that way, you'll get over these ideas". But he didn't, because he was still trying to get over it when he came with us to Borneo later on. Radios, newspapers, watches, television, all have to be forgotten. After the first few days a stockbroker was amazed that he had gone so long without reading the paper. He told us that he had even had one brought to his bedroom when he was on his honeymoon.
Every now and then the course's practical lessons, in which the students learn the arts of self-defence and absailing, are interrupted by theoretical lessons in which the potential hazards of any enviroment are discussed. One topic covered is how to prepare oneself psychologically against the dangers of urban violence. One special lesson, which is potentially very useful but which even anti-terrorist squads rarely practise in training, is the immersion of a car in water. The pupils' calm and speed of reaction are tried to the utmost in this lesson, during which the students show both their fear and give evidence of their personal courage. I don't like anyone talking to me about the "day after", or wearing para-military uniforms. I prefer the students to wear jeans and t-shirts. A yellow or even a pink singlet is more suitable than combat jackets and trousers, especially here where people might see and hear us. The students do not need to act like soldiers. They use what breath I leave them to laugh noisily. Generally speaking they are pleasant and helpful. The best of them help the weaker ones, the ones with the most guts go first, the more timid need not try if they do not wish to. The school wants to create neither heroes nor martyrs, even if, by the end of the course, nobody is hanging back. Once we had strung two ropes across the the river Brenta and everybody crossed over this makeshift bridge at a quite considerable height. The water was glinting in the pale March sun, but it was still icy cold. One woman pupil was left to make the crossing, torn between her caution and her sense of challenge. Then, with sudden decision, she took off her sweater so that "it wouldn't get wet if I fell". She added, "I'm 40 years old, and if I don't do it now, I never shall. I'll be left with the regret for the rest of my days. I should never forgive myself.
She didn't fall. Actually, she was better than many of the men, and I was happy because she had understood the School's spirit: the desire to find out what she could do had welled up in her and I knew that she would remember this moment and find in herself the strength to overcome other difficult moments of any kind. This is the element of the School's training which is novel and important. It is a testing ground where you can win the battle against yourself before you go on to challenge other people. There is always the possibility that we may be catapulted into a desert or some other hostile place where we need to know the skills of our ancestors. More usually, however, we are called upon to face daily difficulties, unforseen banal occurences which undermine our will-power and day by day make us bow down. Respond! That is our obligation. This doesn't mean being aggressive or resorting to violence, but self-awareness, a sense of your own value, knowledge of your capabilities, the spirit of initiative and the will-power to keep fighting are vital. It is a school where one learns all this as well as one where the students toughen up their muscles and catch some of the breath they have lost by smoking too many cigarettes. Above all, however, it is a school where students can learn how to acquire self-confidence, to face new challenges with enthusiasm, to feel able to take quick decisions objectively and realistically, at the same time as they apprehend the importance of collaborating with others, of working in a team to ensure the success of a mission. The instructors are always at hand in case of need, but otherwise act only as observers, as the students bivouack in the open in isolated areas, learn how to find their way about in the dark, how to be self-reliant with limited with limited technical resources and how to cope with the overturning of all normal timetables for sleeping and eating.
One of the courses started in a completely different manner from usual. One of the students was Enrico Montesano, the well-known Italian actor, who wanted to get himself into shape before acting in the film "Hard Men" with Renato Pozzetto, a film which was inspired by the School for Adventure and Survival. "There are a lot of interesting things to learn here", he observed with enthusiasm. "I'm a keen mountaineer and consider myself athletic. I've been going climbing for years, but there are many other disciplines to learn here. Building a Tibetan bridge, for instance, was a real achievement! The instructors know how to keep everyone's attention and they give you confidence by communicating their own experience to you. I'd like to come back with my son".
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