In the Karate vs Kung Fu post, Shane made an interesting comment I’d like to get back to now. Here’s what he wrote:
Hi Wim,
Great couple of posts. I’m not sure that I agree about beating a better opponent in a competition, or losing to a worse one. If you win you are better, if you lose, you are worse. Simple as that. The competition is the empirical test, for a given set of rules at a given moment in time. We sometimes are surprised by beating or losing to someone, and occasionally luck can play a part, but if we can’t use competition to gage relative ability, what can we use? Past performance? Maybe. Reputation or the color of the belt holding someones trousers up? I sincerely hope not.
I used to enter a lot of pushing hands comps, and a few karate ones when I was younger. I mostly lost, but through perseverance gathered a handful of medals over the years. On those occasions, I dare say some of the other guys thought they should have won. If they could have, they would have, hence they were demonstrably proven wrong
I hate the ‘what if’ game. You know, if I had just done this technique, I would have won for sure. If I was more mentally prepared. If I had lost a few pounds and gone down a weight. (Or in my case, if I had just spent less time sitting on my arse drinking beer, and more time doing nei kung) It’s all fantasy, and competitions are the corresponding reality check.
All the best,
Shane
Here’s how I see it:
For me, it’s not really a “What if?” game. There’s certainly a place for that as analyzing your performance after the fight is key to improving your abilities. But I’m not all that concerned about what I should have done. I’m usually thinking more about getting it right the next time. Fights are chaos in action and there’s just no way you’ll get it right every single time. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
By playing a constructive “What if” game, you use the experience in the fight you lost to your advantage. Instead of beating yourself up over what you did wrong, you get over it and focus on how to avoid making the same mistake. Of course, there is rarely a black and white solution for whatever mistake you make. Usually there will be a bunch of options you could have tried, each with varying chances for success. I think that’s just wicked cool. It means more learning during training and I enjoy that the most. But I digress, back on track: