And what happened was the whole class as a group would close their eyes and practice “going to your level” but as I came out of my “level” I would open my eyes and find that the WHOLE class was turned around in their chairs and they had been watching me for 15 to 20 minutes. They had been watching my rapid eye movements, my body, and my technique. As I came out of it, they all began laughing at me. The instructor, however, was praising me like I was the next god’s gift to mankind. Telling me that I was the greatest student he has ever seen etc. etc..
During one of the breaks (about six weeks into the eight-week course) the instructor asks me to go outside to meet some of his “friends“. I go outside with him (and let me tell you when you are 10 years old and you are in a classroom for two hours at a time on your Saturdays and Sundays for eight straight weeks you ABSOLUTELY live for your 15-minute breaks) so needless to say I was not very interested in wasting my “break time” talking to whoever these people were. We go out the double doors and there are two men waiting to talk to me.
THEY BOTH WERE WEARING MILITARY UNIFORMS, one was wearing army green, and the other was in blue (possible air force but I can’t be sure). The instructor states to the men “this is the kid” and they make some small talk. To be honest I really didn’t pay much attention to them (I was looking at the other kids on the playground and wondering why the hell I’m over here and not over there). But here’s the main point; The man in green bends down on one knee and says to me “I hear you have some very special abilities” and I said, “I do”?
In a very confused response. He stands back up and speaks to the instructor some more, then kneels back down and says “It was very nice meeting you, YOU KNOW you’re GOING TO WORK FOR ME SOMEDAY!”As an 11-year-old you don’t quite grasp what is really going on and I remember laughing and telling him that I didn’t quite understand, but it was nice meeting him, and I ran off to the playground. But when I looked back, the three adults were still standing there looking at me, talking about me, and sizing me up.
I just seemed to have an uncanny ability to do whatever the teacher instructed the class to do. Everything he instructed us to “envision” in our minds I could do better than anyone else in the class. Bending spoons with your mind, going to your “level“, anything. I am now 11 years old and about to enter the 6th grade.
Sept 1981– I enter the 6th grade. I had been playing organized sports for a few years already (T-Ball, parent slow pitch, etc..), but now was the time for the first REAL challenge “the 8th-grade school soccer team.” When the school soccer tryouts came I tried out for the 8th-grade soccer team as a 6th grader. The coach was against that because he didn’t think I could play with the older boys, but he let me try out anyway.
Well, I made the team, but I was so good I turned out to be the best kid on the team, and we were the best team in the county. I just had an uncanny ability to do whatever the coach asked me to do. For example, the first day of tryouts the coach kicks the ball to me and jokingly says “I want you to take this ball, go down the field and score a goal” The thing is, I PICTURED IN MY MIND MYSELF GOING DOWN THE FIELD AND SCORING THE GOAL. THEN I TOOK THE BALL DRIBBLED THROUGH 4 GUYES AND I DID IT! I didn’t think about doing it, I just did it.
It was like it was mind over matter. It ís funny because honestly, I could do things that were so unbelievable on the soccer field. You have to see it to believe it. Here is how; I honestly didn’t know any better. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that, just take the ball down the field by yourself and score EVERY TIME!
But in my mind, I could do it, so I did it in real life EVERY TIME. When the opposing team’s coaches asked how old I was, when I told them they didn’t believe me, after the games were over they would thank me for not running up the score and humiliating “their boys“.That’s how good I was and I do have videotapes of the games to prove it!
I not only made the team but started at left-wing, and I was exceptional. Later in the year I also made the 8th-grade school Basketball team and the Baseball team. I didn’t start as a 6th grader in Basketball or Baseball but I did play. Just making the teams as a 6th grader was almost an incomprehensible feat, we were by far the dominant school in the county in almost everything (always the team to beat). I was very good for my age at Baseball and Basketball, but for whatever reason, I was untouchable when I was on the soccer field.
It’s funny, how can someone do things, they are not supposed to be able to do? Whether it is a feat of physical strength or skill, or it is a feat of great intellect or will, such as an actor or a professional athlete beating the odds against them and “making it“, when all others said that it couldn’t be done.