We had a busy weekend with all the competitions we had scheduled. I would like to congratulate everyone who competed and thank everyone who helped them prepare and kept everything running so that our instructors and some of our senior guys could compete.
I feel like everybody did well, worked a battleplan, and showed heart. We had some successes and some defeats which is inevitable when you compete on an international and national level. The important thing is that we learn as much as we can from both our wins and our losses and remain objective about our performance and what we can do to improve.
I would like to address a few points that I think we all can benefit from.
1. Competition is a time to test yourself, see how far you’ve come and how well you deal with the challenge of new opponents. It’s a time where you don’t have to hold anything back and put all your technique, power, speed, and heart on the line.
2. Preparing for a competitions gives you concrete time goals for working and developing your game – win, loose, or draw your game can’t help get better by having something to push you and strive for.
3. Martial Arts are a way to become better people; stronger, more resolute, and more humble. No matter who you are there is somebody out there that can beat you on any given day. If you win the gold you just didn’t face that person in the finals.
4. This is a journey, not a destination. Have you grown, learned things about yourself or your teammates you didn’t know before? Then it was a worthwhile endeavor. Lots of people get off the train because the journey is too hard – they want the gold medal or title but lack the dedication, desire, and vision to put in the work.
If you are willing to put in the work, I will be there to support you with technical knowledge, coaching, hard training, battleplan development, and current strategic advise based on never ending hours of top level competition analysis. I may even have a few words of encouragement along the way. If you are willing to do the work, you will have successes.
This is a journey measured in years, not weeks or months.
Great job again to everybody, I look forward to many more years of hard work, success, and camaraderie.
Thanks,
Coach
