In 1988, a world karate championship came to Philadelphia. The school that I attended was involved in the promotion of the tournament and began preparing favored students as competitors almost a year in advance. I wasn’t one of them. Instead, I practiced at home on my own three to four hours per day almost every day, wanting to prove myself worthy. On reflection, I needed to prove this to myself. Competitors from twenty-three countries competed and there were fifty fighting in the brown belt division, including me. Interestingly enough, the championship match came down to me and my favored classmate. To everyone’s amazement, including me, I shut him out. I actually won both the forms and fighting division that day.
My classmate wasn’t happy about the results the day of the tournament. He called me lucky, very lucky, and demanded a rematch. I was happy to give him one because no one wants to be thought of as less than a champion when you win a championship.We met at the dojo two weeks after the championship because we needed some time to heal from the tournament and had a private match. I brought the trophy in and put it up with a senior student as the referee. I actually beat him worse then. The results were confirmed. I was the champion. He was runner-up. I didn’t brag about it and he could stop clucking like a little chicken. He quit the dojo shortly afterwards.
If you practice for perfection, practice with sincere dedication, you ultimately wind up competing against yourself. I have spent a lot of time competing with myself since then, and it’s led me to studying several martial arts.