I have been talking with a few captains and heads of programs recently about preparation. Discussions have ranged from preparation for an event to preparation for a season. Both are important and not mutually exclusive.

So let’s break this down for a season. What should we be looking at? What are some of the factors we should address up front. Understand that, if you have read my blog before, you know each of these steps should ultimately have a goal, a set of factors that must be met. This will ultimately determine what your vision of success should look like. Here are the 5 factors to consider:

• Personnel
• Practice
• Coaching
• Sponsorship
• Budget

Let’s just go down the list, shall we?

“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius

Personnel – One thing I always tried to do was lead by example. I never asked my guys to do something I wasn’t doing. I believe leaders must promote and exude integrity as well as be trusted by the team they are leading. You do this by setting the example and WHEN you do this, you are setting the standard. I was the first guy to that field and a lot of times the last to leave. I took initiative and promoted it among the guys. Something every team needs is a list of expectations for the players that need to be recognized before donning the jersey. Write them out and hand them out at try-outs if need be. If a player can’t meet the requirements, thank you for coming, the door is that way. If it is discovered they can’t meet the expectations later and live up to the understandings set forth from the beginning? One word – cut. This will ensure you have the right band of merry warriors who are down with the cause. Does this always work? Excellent question. You can’t force loyalty but you can identify like-minded people and that’s something.

Remember, you are not paying the players (maybe you are… send me a PM and let’s talk). They are willingly giving of their time so the environment has to be one of mutual respect and drive. You all should want the same thing; to succeed; to win; to promote the team brand. If the team isn’t on the same page about this one simple thing, chances are you will not meet your overall goal much less have any longevity. What does your team stand for? What does it represent? Does the entire team agree?

We’ve talked about it before. Do you have talented players? Be advised, talented individuals do not make a team. Are they coachable, do they get along? Ask yourself these questions:

• Do I really believe he/she is a talented player? Why?
• What are his/her strengths and weaknesses and how do they fall within the parameters of the team?
• Is he/she loyal to the cause/team/teammates? How?
• Is he/she respectful of others? Does he/she show up on time?
• Does he/she have their equipment and is it working? Is he/she always borrowing stuff?
• Is he/she financially capable of carrying his/her own weight?
• Has he/she shown potential for improvement?

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

What are some other factors we should look for? What about honesty or accountability? How do they take constructive criticism?

There has to be a motivation or incentive to make your team want to be there and work hard. This is imperative if you are serious about winning.

Practice – This is a no brainer. I genuinely believe that a team’s practice regimen dictates their capability as well as identifies their drive to win. Now, we can discuss quality versus quantity when it comes to practice by why would you not strive for both? Yes, it is hard with everyone’s schedules to do this sort of thing. That’s why you look for this ability in Personnel…

Practice needs to be more than just the layout practices too. The team needs to get together a minimum of one other time a month to continue the gelling process and work on fundamental aspects of the game. Practices should never be just about the layout.

I am a huge proponent of videoing practices. I believe there needs to be a “film day” or “night class”. If possible, watch the footage as a team and leave the egos at the door. At the bare minimum, if you can’t watch in the same room together, start a private thread on social media or in email. Everyone needs to have input and everyone SHOULD be giving input.

Also, schedule a good team to scrimmage. If possible, schedule against a higher division team. If you must scrimmage a lower division team, ensure they are a serious competitor in their division or handicap yourself in some way.

“You hit home runs not by chance but by preparation.” -Roger Maris

Coaching – Having a coach is so much more than having a guy who “tells us what to do”. There are coaches, there are captains, there are even managers. They all have certain responsibilities and those responsibilities need to be crystal clear. “Coach” is such a generic term in paintball. Is this the guy who runs practices? Chances are he is a coach then. Is this the guys who calls lines, plays? Probably a coach… Is this the guy who scouts opponents and brings actionable intel to the team and how to beat them? Maybe an assistant coach. The guy who handles logistics for the team, books the hotels, manages where everyone is and the schedule, makes sure small details are addressed… perhaps a team owner or manager, yes? What I am getting at is get past the semantics of it and recognize who has what responsibility. Make sure stuff gets done. Anytime you have good organization of a team, you have a serious advantage. More time can be focused on getting better. But make sure it is well thought out and delegated. Don’t expect one guy to do it all. That is folly. I am a firm proponent of a coach, an assistant coach, and a manager. Having all three sure makes things easier. Obviously not every team can have this but if you have the capability… you should make it happen. Efficiency is key here and overwhelming someone can be bad. Look at the successful pro teams right now. Each doesn’t have one dedicated coach but a secondary who assists. Bart and Dave, Alex and Ryan, Rusty and Fraige, the Russians… you get the picture. Not to mention all the other important support staff. Maybe this should go under personnel but have a good pit crew too. Pod runner, paint people, you get the picture.

Oh, and while we are on the topic, field preparation, to me, is a lot more than just playing the lay out for two weekends and telling players what they did wrong when they don’t play well. I love breaking a field down to basic components and then building it back up based off a team’s strengths and weaknesses.  I also really enjoy the challenge of finding bunkers everyone thinks can’t be used effectively and turning them into assets.  Coming up with breakouts and plays that push the envelope.  Which leads to the next portion…

You’ve heard me talk about “processing speed”. The top pros are top pros because they have incredibly fast processing speed or rather they recognize what needs to happen when. They have this processing speed because of experience and practice. So how do you make up for that? Good coaches figure out how the player learns. It’s like our education system today. If a player can’t learn the way we teach, perhaps we should teach the way the player learns. Coaches can’t be hammers all the time. Sometimes it needs to be a scalpel or a needle. Coaches need to know their players and they need to generate a cohesive and trusting atmosphere.

Sponsorship – This is an odd one and here’s why…paintball companies and usually any other entity that is going to supply you with goods and services already have a brand image. And chances are, they are getting everything they need out of you at very little investment. But it is worth the conversation. What is it about the company you are sponsored by that drew you to them? Did they have the best deal, do you just like their stuff, or both? What drew them to you? Were you just a sale? As a “sponsored” team, do you feel appreciated? What kind of relationship do you have with them… is it with the sales rep or someone higher? Is it completely transactional/business? Is there a friendship/trust there?

There are two things to look at basically. What you do for them and what they do for you. Is it mutually beneficial or does it favor one or the other? If the answer to this is that it is mutually beneficial, then you are golden. If it favors them, which is the case 90% of the time, it may need to be addressed if you feel you are giving a whole lot more than you appear to be getting (be careful and don’t flatter yourself). If it favors you, you are a winning team and have longevity in their eyes with a sizable social media impact on sales… that, or something is terribly wrong.

“Preparation is a mentality… With wrestling being my background, I’ve always learned to overwork, overwork. Work, work, work, work. It’s not always the talented that wins, but it’s the one who puts in the most preparation and thought into things.” – Dominick Cruz

What I am getting at here is, what is your image and why? What does the sponsorship you have say about you and your team and your worth to the sponsor? Sponsorships should help your guys compete. The goal of them is to shift some of the financial burden to a company that believes in your brand. And you should rep them hard. The programs offered by the paint companies are impressive these days. It’s fascinating in the fact that the industry has come a LONG way.

Budget – This ultimately guides your sustainability. And that’s something most paintball teams don’t even take into consideration… sustainability. How long can we keep this up? And How? My rough estimate of running an unsponsored team for a season in the NXL would include entry fees, lodging, and paint. So let’s take a high level look at Semi Pro. Newflash – it ain’t cheap. Obviously, it will be a little cheaper at the lower divisions due to entry fees being less, paint consumption, etc. Just the same, I would imagine a season for D1/Semi Pro would be around $30-40K annually. Or essentially $6-8K per event. This is based off the following:

• $2800 entry fee per event ($14k for season)
• ($1200) $100 room average per night for 3 rooms over 4 nights ($6k for season)
• Figure 40-60 cases of paint per event per preliminaries, figure 12-15 additional cases per match for Sunday (4 matches so another 48 to 60). Let’s use the average of 50 cases for just prelims. That’s 250 cases of paint annually at events ($10k)

Here’s the kicker. I’m not including practice paint, flights, gas, and food.

The question is what assets do you have in place to meet these financial responsibilities? A paint sponsorship can certainly go a long way in helping alleviate some of the costs. What other aspects do you have? How much does each player contribute? What are some other methods of finance?

Okay, so based off this quick high level simplistic guide to preparing for a season, do you think you have what it takes to put together a sustainable winning team?

Be water my friends.

After a couple of clinics I did recently as well as watching/participating in a few practices prior to this past weekend’s Dallas NXL, I became inspired. I’ve had four different topics mulling around in my head lately and was trying to figure out which one I wanted to tackle first when my youngest son made the decision for me.

It started out simple enough. “Why Dad?” Because of this son. “Why that Dad?” Well, because of this son. “But why is that, Dad?” On and on it went until he was satisfied he understood. See, my son, as do most children, play a type of “Language game” when learning. It helps them discover cause and effect…. It was this interaction that helped me realize what we would discuss this month. The question “Why?” obviously sticks with us into adulthood. We always want to understand why. In order to know the answer to why we have to start with the cause and ultimately the effect of the question. Ah, see where we are going here? Figured you might…

Now, this month’s topic may not be one for players who have been in the game for some time. However, it never hurts to have a refresher. One of the most difficult things to do as a coach, captain, or even blogger is to communicate on levels that everyone can understand. So let’s see if we can do that.

Field walking/game planning is probably one of, if not the most, common inquiry I get. How should we approach this layout? Well, that depends on your assets, your strengths, your weaknesses… lots to unfold there. Perhaps the easiest way to unpack this is simply asking the question why and then looking at cause and effect during practice/implementation.

“If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‘Why the hell not?’”- John Wayne

Causality (or Causation, whichever you prefer) is a simple way to approach your field walk, your break out, and your game planning. Causality is simply that which connects one process (cause) with another (effect) where the first portion is understood to be responsible for the second portion of the equation.

This is the basis for all problem solving, yes? Okay, so let’s apply it in simple terms regarding walking a field. As we walk the field, we identify bunkers on a number of levels. What can we see from this bunker and in return, what can see us? Based off the visual acuity or lack thereof, what can we accomplish from this bunker? Who can we eliminate from this position, who can we protect from our team from here, can we stop our opponent’s progress from here, do we have a blind shot somewhere, or perhaps a bounce shot? In other words, why would we want to be here?

These initial questions lead us to develop a broad “roadmap” of opportunities/possibilities. But it doesn’t stop there. To really understand the “big picture”, now we take it to the next level.

“Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.” – George Carlin

If we don’t ask why at this point, we are robbing ourselves of additional (and valuable) information. Anytime we have an opportunity to examine why a certain thing is, it paints a clearer path. Especially in paintball. How many times have you heard the comparison between paintball and other sports? (No, I’m not jumping the shark here. Bear with me). Whereas there are certainly some comparisons and analogies that make sense, there is one thing we need to remember (besides the fact, in those sports, there is only one ball…) and that is, in the majority of sports, you can see your opponent 99.9% of the time. Football, Basketball, soccer, baseball… not the case in paintball. So how does this change the way we play? I can tell you it certainly changes the way we plan.

So let’s jump back to understanding what is possible from each bunker and why. Let’s use an example of what it might look and sound like. Let’s say we know the snake corner can stop progress down the snake as well as wrap on key bunkers that my opponents will use to feed the snake. It is also protected from the D side opponents on cross field shots until they make it onto our side of the field. This position should also allow me to protect my snake player. So the question becomes, in the context of the breakout, the play/goal of the point, etc. Why do I want to be here? Now go back to the examples I gave above. Obviously I can contain from this bunker, I can defend from the bunker, I can protect from this bunker, maybe even attack from this bunker, and survive in this bunker.

Do I need to be here on the break? Why?

See how this works?

So let’s put it into a very basic outline form:

1. What are the “zones of progress” (quickest and easiest ways to get down the field)
   1. Why are they the quickest?
      1. Why do we want to control these zones?
2. What are some of the key bunkers to start from (bread and butter)?
   1. Why?
      1. Why do we want to be here?
3. What are the lanes on the break?
   1. Why would this be the best lane?
4. What are the shots from the D side?
   1. Why is this the first shot we would take or the second?
5. What are the shots from the snake side?
   1. Why are these the shots we should study?
6. What are the shots from the center?
   1. Why?
7. What are key bunkers to win from?
   1. Why?
      1. Close out? Why?
8. What is our goal of each point?
   1. Why?
      1. Where is our push coming from?
         1. Why?
9. Is the clock our friend or enemy?
   1. Why?
10. What are our opponent’s strengths/weaknesses?
    1. Why?

You get the picture. The next question after the last outline question would be, “How do we exploit them?”

Effective questioning, causality, whatever you want to call it, it isn’t rocket science but it does take three dimensional thinking to understand. Some of heard me mention this numerous times. It simply means the ability to track a scenario from its past to its future. We process the data we have on the field and based off our “why” questions, we can quickly access the answer (processing speed).

Is any of this making sense? Let me know.

Be water my friends.

“Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one’s power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo

“The difference between men is in energy, in the strong will, in the settled purpose and in the invincible determination.” – Vince Lombardi

Imagine if Lombardi had a team full of samurai minds in the bodies of his players… whoa….Green Bay Packers would have had a whole new meaning… like, Green Bay Death Squad.

The next season of competitive paintball is almost upon us.  Every paintball player is out there preparing themselves for the “grind” and teams are hastily polishing their game.  Because of this, I thought we would visit the topic of “preparation” in this month’s blog post.  I wrote on this topic a while ago about the “mental aspect” of the game itself.  But it is so much more than that.

I am an avid protagonist of being prepared especially when it involves competition.  And I’m not just talking about physically.  Sure, we drill, we scrimmage, we train… but are we truly prepared in both mind, body, and spirit?

I don’t think most paintballers are fully aware of what a good preparation is made up of.  There are many levels of preparation and they must ALL be built upon.  Confidence is built when we know we are physically fit, that we are healthy, and that we know we have put in the time to develop the skill sets required to be effective.   But what all does that entail?  Besides the obvious of being in shape for the season, getting good sleep, eating right, putting in the work… what are some things we may miss?  Besides the immediate short term goals, what about the long term ones?

Players and coaches will always be more effective when they are more efficient.  Anytime you can remove unnecessary stresses you are more apt to create efficiencies.  Translation – better use of time leads to greater gain.  For instance, I like to have all the logistics locked down well in advance of an event.  I like to know every aspect of logistics prior to the first practice.  When is everyone arriving, how they are arriving, where are we staying, how far is it from the venue, is their local grocery stores nearby, what are our routes to and from the venue, do we have the vehicles necessary, what is everyone’s cost, etc.  If the coach and the team have these SIMPLE things addressed well in advance, it is one less thing you need to worry/concern/think about in your preparation.  That time can now be spent on what matters.    Distractions suck and will hinder your mental preparation which is every bit as important as your physical preparations.  Mental preparation is simply preparing the mind to achieve success or rather, it is training the mind for a successful performance. So why place barriers in our own way?  Waiting until the last moment to book a hotel, a flight, rent a car, wondering where people are, etc. is foolish.  These are things that are easily in your control.  To procrastinate is to place an undue stress.  And that isn’t very smart.  I would argue you need to reassess your leadership criteria.

How about when we are injured, hurt, upset about our playing, the team’s overall performance, etc.?  How can we prepare ourselves for that?  How can we be mentally tough when it matters most?  How can we create drive and dedication in ourselves as well as our teammates?  We do this by teaching ourselves how to maximize the abilities we possess and meeting each goal we set, one after the other.

The mental demands of competition can be enormous, especially in the world of paintball.  We aren’t getting paid to do this (not most of us anyway) and we probably have other issues in the background/foreground such as job, family, significant other, etc.  So, the mental aspect has to be part of your training.  I don’t think the basketball coach of the Chicago Bulls Phil Jackson realized how significant his words would translate to paintballers when he said, “Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.” All the markers are the same yes?  And the field is mirrored, yes?  There are a lot of equals out on that field actually.  Ask any champion of any sport or business and they will more than likely tell you that proper mental preparation is the key to any performance.

See, those same people who regularly train their minds will almost always be more consistent.  And consistency leads to victory.  And you want to know what else?  Victory leads to enjoyment.  Who doesn’t like winning?  Once you taste it, you want it again.  I seriously doubt you will ever meet a champion, a true champion, who is complacent.

Let’s break it down a bit.  Normally, as people progress in their chosen sport and you reach the higher levels (professional?), the physical aspect has a tendency to “equal out”.  It’s the consistency, the mental aspect, the decision making (remember talking about our paintball processors?) that differentiates the players/teams.  I think having a superior mindset is the key advantage here.

Ask yourself if you and your team have these traits:

• Focus on the goal – what needs to happen to win
• Intestinal fortitude – drawing on reserves of strength when things are tough while maintain positivity
• Confidence – belief in yourself and your abilities and those of your teammates
• Motivation – the drive to improve, to be better than your last; no ego

If you can check each and every one of those off, you are good to go.  But you also have to be honest with yourself.  Don’t rationalize.  It’s okay to recognize the fact you and your team may not have all of these traits.  When you are honest and recognize it, now you know what needs to CHANGE.

In order to fine tune ones game, you must approach this from a mental and even an emotional aspect.  You have to manage your expectations and realize change doesn’t happen overnight.  You must recognize from the genesis that it will be hard work and a long haul.  There will be ups and downs.  It is what we do with the ups AND the downs that will define our success.  Manage those expectations appropriately and you will see levels of success.

The way you mentally prepare for paintball, whether it is practice or an event, will either hold you back or launch you forward.  Master your approach… don’t let it master you.  If you cannot accomplish this, then you have already lost.  It may not be shown on the scoreboard or immediately, but it is coming. (That was my best impersonation of samurai writing…)

Just like playing an X-ball match, you have to have a game plan, whether it is logistics for an event, how to practice, what to practice, or even where will the team go to eat, know what needs to happen!  Learn from your wins as well as your losses.  What did we do right, what did we do wrong, what did THEY do right and wrong? Learn from them too!  Be mentally prepared for the next time you meet them on the field!

All of this was to say, “Be efficient, be smart, be prepared, and know yourself”.  Don’t create problems by not addressing the little things.  It’s okay to over plan but don’t become a slave to it either.  Are you prepared?  Are you ready?  Are you mentally focused?  Good.  Do it some more…

Be water my friends.

We have covered several topics here at Zen over the last year; from sports psychology and coaching to individual motivation and skill set training, we have always tried to speak on topics that commonly occur in the paintball community. Some have been advanced and others pretty basic.  Usually the topics are derived from a conversation I may have had recently, from an email I received from a player or coach, or from a question I received at a clinic I recently taught.  Either way, it usually strikes when it strikes (hence a topic only once a month).

My wife says I need to write down some of my “Biancanisms”, phrases I have come to use often over the course of my paintball career. “The guy who keeps his head in a gunfight usually keeps his head” or “What makes the grass grow?  Blood! Blood! Blood!”.  Silly stuff that, when said in the moment may sound profound or motivational but is really just common sense (except for the blood part…maybe).  At one point, she wanted me to make T-shirts.  Come to think of it, that might have been fun.

I am also fond of quoting great men and women. For instance, Benjamin Franklin has one of my favorites, “Well done is better than well said.”

Anyway, I thought I might put together a list of some of my favorite quotes. Perhaps some you will be familiar with, perhaps not.  But it should be a fun little jaunt.  Who knows, maybe you will find a gem among these that will help you? I know I did.

So let’s begin with my man, Bruce Lee.  Next to my own father, grandfather and brothers, this man (and one other who we will get to at the end of this post) has had a tremendous impact on me.  I could probably write a book on him but in the interest of expediency, we are going to try and keep this post to a reasonable length. Enjoy!

• “I fear not the man who has practiced 10000 kicks once but the man who practiced one kick 10000 times.” – Bruce Lee
• “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee
• “Knowing is not enough, we must apply what we know. Willing is not enough, we must act!” – Bruce Lee
• “If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus and you must not stay there. You must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee

Let’s move on to a man who was very much about family. Considered one of the most influential figures throughout history, if you read just a little of Confucius’ work, you realize he was very much about The Golden Rule or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.  He was also very much about personal responsibility which I dig.

• “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying stones.” – Confucius
• “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance” – Confucius
• “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself” – Confucius
• “We learn wisdom by 3 methods. The noblest is by reflection, the easiest by imitation, and by experience which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
• “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand” – Confucius

One of my favorite books of all time and one I have given as a gift to good friends is The Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. He was a Japanese swordsman and philosopher.  Google him.  I promise you will be impressed and probably learn something too.

• “Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.” – Miyamoto Musashi
• “You win battles by knowing the enemy’s timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.” – Miyamoto Musashi
• “Do nothing which is of no use.” – Miyamoto Musashi

While The Five Rings is a book I have given as a gift of late, when we talk about influential books, I would be quite remiss not to mention the author of The Art of War. Sun Tzu was a Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher from China. The Art of War is probably one of the most influential books in the world next to the Bible.

• “The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.” – Sun Tzu
• “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” -Sun Tzu
• “Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.” – Sun Tzu
• “The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.” – Sun Tzu

Okay, let’s leave the Eastern Philosophies as they are chalk full of great quotes and could very well be written about until we ran out of bandwidth. Let’s give a little love to some American warriors.  You don’t become the great nation we have become without having a few badass men among us.  Probably one of the most prominent would be a man from California, who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics, graduated the Virginia Military Academy and West Point.  Of course, I am referring to none other than George S Patton!  And if you pay attention, you will notice some similarities between him and his eastern warrior brethren.

• “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” – George S. Patton
• “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” – George S. Patton
• “Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.” – George S. Patton
• “Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” – George S. Patton
• “Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.” – George S. Patton
• “There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.” – George S. Patton
• “Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.” – George S. Patton

Alright, this next person doesn’t need an introduction.  Though not a true warrior in the sense of the word, he played one on TV.  Born Marion Mitchell Morrison, but who is commonly referred to as The Duke, John Wayne influenced an entire generation of men, especially those in my household.  This blog post on this topic would not be complete without a few from the man.

• “Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.” – John Wayne
• “Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid.” – John Wayne
• “Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne
• “Don’t pick a fight, but if you do, make damn sure you win.” – John Wayne
• “I’m only responsible for what I say, not what you understand.” – John Wayne
• “Sure I wave the American Flag! Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I’m not ashamed of that, never have been, ever will be.” – John Wayne

Here are a few honorable mentions:

• “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
• “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” – Marcus Aurelius
• “When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.” – Tecumseh
• “Let us form one body, one heart, and defend to the last warrior our country, our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers.” – Tecumseh
• “You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never to get involved in a land war in Asia. And only slightly less well known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!” – Vizzini

That should wrap it up. Until next year, be water my friends.

Bianca