6 Comments

I'm... "naturally" very self deprecating, and often don't have a good assessment of my techniques in budo. I justify it by telling myself that I'm being humble about where I am at performing waza that I've learnt. This is why I view feedback especially from those I respect like the seniors at my club and my sensei as invaluable and uplifting. I'm learning not to sell myself short so much, and learning to be comfortable with where I am, knowing I am at a level where I am good enough at this point in time, but also aware that I can be better and aspire to be like other well versed practitioners, and given time in consistent training, I may yet get there..

Expand full comment

Humility goes a long way in martial arts. Especially in iaido. You can't really BS your way into better technique like you can with karate. (If you are too humble or lack confidence in a sparring match that can lead to you getting smashed).

Be confident but not cocky. Be humble but realistic. Balance in all things.

Expand full comment

thought provoking indeed the paradigm for self evaluation becomes more complicated as you get older at 65 your technique may be above average but physical performance is now becoming a factor to consider,i.e. can I go the distance?

Expand full comment

Oh absolutely. Outside of Substack I’ve received similar comments and they are very thought provoking. I’m turning 40 this year and I’m still getting faster as a runner. My trajectory with running has me locked into improving times but I know this is going to change over time.

As we age I believe we start measuring ourselves by different metrics. And that’s a reasonable and honest way to go about it.

Expand full comment

Nice piece. It brought to mind a number of themes for me. I am thinking of writing a piece about a 'ringer' I came across in competition, the same guy more than once actually. That's for another day.

I think I see your science background coming through on this.

Expand full comment

The desire to quantify things is always going to show my science background. 🤣

Many years ago when I trained in the UK I was involved in quite a questionable karate organization. The org had “instructor belts” which they gave to people who weren’t black belts but were instructors. I saw one guy (who obviously had experience in another style) enter a competition as a yellow belt, wreck everyone in the kata and kumite part of that division, put on his instructor belt, then compete again in the upper belt category.

People like that are just the worst.

Expand full comment