The purpose of the following words is to tell you about a somewhat different experience connected to the Mind Olympics. But first, a few words about myself.

My name is Eyal, and I’ve been a Mind Lab instructor for five years. During this time, I’ve taught many children tips, secrets, and the moves that will help them improve in playing the Mind Olympics games. This has brought a lot of enjoyment to all concerned – but perhaps the greatest enjoyment and satisfaction came from the last team I coached.

I especially remember this team because its members weren’t the school’s top students or the most popular kids. What they had going for them was setting themselves a team goal: to win no matter what. They invested above and beyond.

When I first came to their school, their team was considered weak, and none of the other instructors believed that they had a chance to compete in tournaments, let alone to go far and achieve impressive results.

I made every effort so that the lessons would provide a real treasury of “gems” for the pupils’ hearts and minds. This enrichment covered a wide range of areas: game-playing strategies, planning, concentration, spatial perception and orientation, as well as life skills: coping with losing and success, cooperation with teammates, honesty, mutual respect, and much more.

Slowly, the pupils began to show a growing interest. After two months went by, the lesson became productive and interesting for everyone. Pupils suggested clever ideas, and I helped them develop these into tactics and strategies that they could use to significantly improve their level of playing.

The lesson became a magnet that attracted the interest of the entire school. Many times, pupils from other classes would ask if they might take part and sit in on the session to watch and listen.

“All for one and one for all!”

When the classroom and schoolwide tournaments were over, I gathered together the four players who made up the school’s championship team for a talk. Now, I explained to them, here’s what it means to be a team!

Up till now, the game-playing was an individual sport where each player had direct and sole responsibility for his own results. From now on, though, this is a team sport in which each player depends on and supports his teammates.

I explained to the members of the newly formed team: in order for this to go well and smoothly, you’ll have to internalize the concept that together as a team you’ll make a shared dream come true. From now on, when I win it’s a win for the team, my points go to the group score, and this can make up for a teammate’s loss.

They understood very well that they’d become a single unit, and in order to reach its potential, each one should feel at home, protected, appreciated, liked, and supported. This meant that from now on, they should become each other’s best friends – and thath this would be like getting a gift, an experience that would affect them deeply for years to come.

For the month preceding the Olympics competition, we made a decision to set up a regular training routine, three times a week after school.

In this space of time, we decided to focus on reviewing tactics and methods, to play and to learn from our mistakes, over and over and over again...

Members of previous teams who were now in junior high had stayed in regular contact with me and this new team. Now, from their sense of concern and caring, they were always ready to come and help train the team.

Another related matter: it was very important to me to mention, praise, thank, and include in the team’s achievement the part played by the other pupils who showed up at practices even though they themselves weren’t on the team, at every opportunity and in every setting.

This really isn’t simple and certainly not to be taken for granted, agreeing to contribute your free time to helping the school’s championship team, especially knowing that when playing these training games, most times you’re going to lose.

This is a real contribution, and behavior worthy of commendation.

Even with all of the above, this period of time revealed to me the heavy doubts felt by the pupils who were competing.

In one of these training sessions, the Checkers player came over and told me he had decided to quit the team! He was exhausted and had reached the breaking point.

His teammates put a lot of pressure on him to overcome his fears and not to break up the team.

I understood his doubts and fears. After all, this was the first time he was participating in the Mind Olympics games. I tried listening supportively to this pupil’s feelings and attitudes, without adding any further pressures.

However, there’s an exception: when the pupil’s decision not to compete comes from his fear of being inexperienced in a high-level tournament. I like to make a comparison with going on a roller coaster at an amusement park. Scary as it is, nothing bad is going to happen to you – and tournament competition can be viewed the same way. Try to take it as a new experience, while playing a game you love and know well and racking up points for your team.

So I presented this roller coaster example to our Checkers player, then asked him, “Hey, you still want to buy a ticket for the ride?”

He agreed!

I worked hard to give the players a philosophical sense of composure, to relate equally to wins and losses.

In the beginning, I tried to show this in a positive light, how a loss could be a kind of gift in disguise. I put it this way: after every loss we’ve had an extra lesson, both in tactics and in experiencing something new – another reaction we’ve felt and learned to cope with.

As time went by, my team learned to identify these things on their own and would even point out to me how losing had been of benefit.

The morning of the tournament - - -

We were all excited and tense. But we were a championship team, unified and mutually supportive!

I took care of providing the team members with a kit that included the four Mind Olympic games, team shirts for the compettition, and the Training Journal in which they’d written down and kept track of their training and competitions (and by the way, this is an excellent tool for gaining self-confidence, by proving how improvement and belief develop as you go along).

So with the love in our hearts for thinking games mixed with the surge of adrenaline at the excitement of participating in such a worthy tournament, we were on our way!

Round after round, step after step, our players racked up wins and points, and climbed to the top of the chart!

They won the tournament and took home a shining trophy and the sweet taste of victory!

Thanks to combined efforts and faith in themselves and their ability, they “conquered the peak” and became Olympic champions.