When I was about 10 years old my father took my brothers and I to Kansas City to watch the Kansas City Royals play the Baltimore Orioles.  This was my first Major League Baseball game.  I played baseball for as long as I could remember and had dreams of playing professionally (like most little league players).  I was excited; it was my first pro baseball game, my first pro game for any sport for that matter.  Not only that, but a man widely known as the greatest athlete in pro sports was going to be playing, Bo Jackson.  My memory isn’t the greatest, so I may be off a little on this, but I believe Bo hit 15 home runs in one game that day.  Give or take a couple.  I was in awe of the players.  I was also crushed.  Crushed because that is when I realized I had no chance of being a professional baseball player.  These people were athletic gods.  I was just a lowly human.

Like with any sport, hobby or career, there are people out there that are extremely good at what they do and others that aren’t as great.  I see many students look at these talented individuals and get frustrated, suggesting that they will never be that good so they may as well quit.  We tend to see the negative side of things quicker and more often than the positive.  We focus on what we can’t do rather than what we can do.  We see those who are better than us rather than those we are better than.  We also tend to forget that some people are great because they worked hard to become great….it didn’t happen overnight and they very well may have been bad when they first started.  We can’t let these people stifle our dreams and aspirations just because we don’t feel we can be better than they are or even equal, especially when it comes to martial arts.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times in previous articles, martial arts is something different to everyone.  One may be physically talented and able to defend themselves easily with their physical abilities, but how is that any better than the person who is more gifted in reading people and their actions and able to avoid the physical altercation to begin with?  Did they not just both defend themselves from harm?  There is no set standard for greatness in the martial arts.  Some are good with kicking and striking, others with grappling, some with weapons, and some with knowledge and cerebral abilities and other still have been successful at using martial arts as a way to become healthier.

At a tournament years ago I watched a sparring match, one very talented individual and one….we’ll say an individual with skills elsewhere.  The competitor, as well as everyone around the ring, knew he had no chance.  As the referee yelled, “begin”, the competitor paused, stepped back out of his fighting stance and put his hands up as if to say, “hold on a second”, and pointed behind the other competitor frantically.  The other, more skilled, competitor quickly stopped and looked over his shoulder.  And upon doing so, was quickly punched in the back of the head for a quick easy point.  The oldest trick in the book may be old, but people still fall for it!  There are no rules in the rule book about distractions!  Did that competitor win?  Of course not, he got pummeled 5-1.  But the point is, there was no reason he should have gotten that 1, yet he found a way around his lack of physical skill set to get that point.

It’s not always about winning, the root of most gained knowledge and skills are based on self improvement.  Learning about yourself, improving yourself, catering to your strengths, protecting or removing your weaknesses, these should be your goals.  If attaining those goals happens to lead you to a win in a competition or elsewhere, fantastic.  Don’t compare yourself to others, who they are has nothing to do with you and who you are.  If being around and watching people that are great at what you want to be great at helps inspire and drive you, that’s great, continue to be inspired by them.  But if it just brings you down and takes the wind out of your sails, it’s time to stop paying attention to them and spend more time on yourself.  You’re more important.