So in talking to one of my fellow students the other day something interesting came up about competitions. It was really a question of setting goals for yourself in competitions. It is easy to say that everyone in a competition is in it to win, hell, we would all like to go home with a big trophy to find a home for, but what really occurred to me is this. In a competition of 16 people, only 18% are going home having placed first second or third. In a competition of 20, only 15 percent. That does not mean that it is not a noble goal, but what it does mean is that if your sole intention going into it, you may be setting yourself up for failure. If 18% are going home winning, that means that 82% are not. In real numbers if a competition has 3 places and you are not the 1st, 2nd or 3rd, you are among the other 13 people who also did not "win".
So how do you work around that?
I spent a lot of time this summer doing Highland Games and not in sword class. While the time away was a good experience one of the largest takeaways I had was one that is shared in both the highland games, as well as running as I understand it, and that is the idea of a Personal Record or PR. It goes something like this, This was my first year doing highland games, and though I feel I made marked improvements, even at my last games I was falling behind the pack in my throws on most things. It would be pretty easy to beat myself up for it, as I was not doing as well as other people, after all, even as hard as I pushed myself, it was not as good as the other people I was competing against. But this is where PR's come in. At the end of the day I could look at my weight for distance score and if it was better than last time, I had improved. Yes, I had not, beat the people I was throwing against but there was a good way numerically to prove that I was doing better, regardless of how others were doing in events.
In sword, it is not always so easy. If you have a set number of matches and you lose them, that means that your opponent did better in that match that day, and that is a biter pill to swallow, but what if we looked at winning in a different way. Last time you only scored a combined point value of a certain number in 3 matches, this time the goal is to do a little better. Maybe you only scored 2 points or 3 a match last time, but this time you look for a score of 3 or 4 instead. Maybe, you only had 1 win last time, this time go for 2. For a goal to be good it has to be manageable, and definite. Did you do it or no? Even if you do not win all of your matches, did you apply yourself and give your opponent as many hits against them as you could? When you were going for that head shot, did you do it? When looking to hit that arm, or leg, did you do what you had intended? 82% are not going to win, how can you win for yourself if not in trophies or medals?
There is a reason it need to be specific. If all you walk in with is the idea that you are going to do your best, how can you objectively define that? How do you know that you did your best at the end of the match or the day? If you set a goal of a certain number of points you scored, then at the end of the match, you made it or you did not, if not, then it can be a goal the next time.
At the end of the season throwing, I had done better on some events, and others I had done worse or not improved, but the places I had improved, it felt awesome to see where I had gotten better, I knew what I need to work on in the off season, and what I want to do next time. Maybe I did not win first place in any event in my "class" but I had improved. Maybe in competition you don't take first or second or third, but how many points did you score, how much was scored against you, and is that better than last time. On the other hand, if it is your first competition, no matter where you place or how well you do, it is the best you have done, and next time work to make it better. We can't all place, but we can make it a lot harder for the people who end up placing, and if you allow yourself to be ok with a loss you are less likely to let that get in your head and let your first round ruin your second match or third.
