Excerpts from the article linked here – Budo Is Not Competition.
“One lesson of competition is to keep score. The lesson of budo practice is that there is no score. We all improve together.”
“Dr. Ann Maria DeMars is a former world champion judoka. Let that sink in. World champion. At some point, she was the best on the planet at what she did. Yet now she can write about how she completely forgets having done that.”
Do you remember your last rank promotion test? Do you remember the last game that you won? If you remember the score, do you remember how you performed? Have you ever wondered why professionals who play games watch “game” films? They have to remember what they did to repeat successes and reduce failures.
Learning, growing, developing are things that don’t have scores! You can see it regularly in the posts from people who have to make sure they tell you about the good things they’ve done. They’re keeping score to prove they’re better…winners.
Competition IS a zero sum action that I have never embraced. Back in high school days, when playing games, I would regularly pick partners who thought they would struggle to play well and keep up. I told them “Play and have fun. It’s just a game.” We usually enjoyed the game much more then (that part I do remember!)
STOP PLAYING GAMES AS IF THEY ARE REAL LIFE!
Author: Master Robert Frankovich
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