Win some, Lose some

Winning is not everything in the martial arts.  Many times losing is the key to success, in the long run anyway.  Win less, to learn more.  Losing is part of anybody’s game, some more, others less.  Losing keeps our minds engaged so we can analyse where we might have gone wrong. 

The trick is to improve your ‘win’ percentages and that can only happen with continued training and perseverance. There will be times when your winning percentages take a llittle dive which usually happens when you move to another level (wrestling or sparring better opponents), but that does not mean you haven't improved, it's just that you needed to move up a notch for the next phase of development. 

To maintain the 'win' percentages, one has to know how much emphasis to place on attack or defence but that should not discourage anyone to try something new.  If you have good defence, there is a good chance you won't get tapped out or knocked down but just remember if you neglect your defence, a better opponent might just capitalise on your mistakes.  Again, that is not a bad thing because you learn from that too.  To quote, ‘I am not sticking my arm out like that again’.

You have to be in it to win it!
GA