Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte Karate  Try telling a boxer that he doesn't do a "real" combat sport. I have competed in martial arts competitions for the last 12 years and done quite well. The difference is, I'm there at the comptitions to LEARN, not just to compete and win. As long as you go into the competition with a learning mind, you will learn, and even if you loose the fight, you win because you learned. |
The most successful boxers don't balk at cutting weight to fight in the class most advantageous to them.
As for the rest...yeah, yeah, learning and growing as an individual and achieving self actualization and all the rest is nice talk to make people feel good about something they shouldn't. If you enter a competition it is logically for the purpose of winning. Losing sucks and there's no way of talking around it. People sometimes try to give themselves disclaimers like, "I'm just in it for the experience" to buffer the sting and ease the bile, but deep down inside everyone knows...