WINNING and losing

Blah. Its Wednesday, November 30, 2011, I'm needing some caffeine and this is The Side. had a nasty headache all day Sunday. Monday I had the headache hangover and felt like i was walking through cement all day. I'm still feeling out of sorts. However, there is work to be done, and work doesn't wait until you feel like doing it.

Neither does a blog.

Well, OK, yeah it does, but its a lot more dramatic if it didn't.

GAME TIME!

Competition is a good thing. While some people can get too into it, if pursued in a healthy manner in can serve to bring out the best in people. It can drive them to try harder. People like to be the best. I played sports growing up, mainly Soccer. I've trained in Karate since I was a kid. I've gotten plenty of first place trophies. I've come in dead last. I've been part of soccer teams that won their league championships, and I've been on teams that never won a single game. I was even in a bowling league and my team won the championship. I've been a loser, and I've been a winner.

Winning doesn't suck.

But its really easy to not like winners. And that has me wondering about the blow back from a really lopsided basketball game. Here's the quick version. Two middle school teams were in a basketball tournament. One school is bigger and is really talented. The other is kinda lucky to be able to field a team. The bigger school broke out to big lead very quickly. The coach pulled out the starting players. By half time the score was 70-0. The coach told his team to stop playing defense to give the other team a chance to score some points. The end score was 100-2. Now there's talk that the winning team might be forced to forfeit their season, because they won by such a huge score.

So, the message is: do your best, unless you're a lot better than that other person then you better not or you can't play anymore.

This is stupid. I deal with kids and competition. In the dojo the main competition is against yourself, and making yourself as good as you can be. When the gloves go on, we are training each other and trying to push each other to become better. If i have a brown belt fighting a white belt, then that brown belt controls his skills and techniques fighting down to a lower level but still pushing that lower ranked student. In open tournaments students are separated by rank and age. You go out, give it everything you've got and see what happens.

For years I fought one particular guy on the local tournament circuit. It seems like whenever we were in the same tournament we'd be matched against each other in round one. He nearly always beat me. He's a very good fighter, and excellent at point fighting. Every year, I'd just have to try harder. The last time we fought each other, I still lost, but everyone who saw that fight applauded. We were to the point that there was nothing left to prove to each other. We both knew and respected each other. There was only the application of our techniques and a demonstration of control and precision that impressed those around us. He made me a better fighter.

A sensei in the dojo is a lot like a coach. When I watch my students its my duty to point out mistakes and also the things they did right. The whole point is to make the kids better. When they compete, I'm thrilled if they win, but just as proud of them when they and if they don't, because they still went out there and gave it their all.

The focus in the instance of the basketball game is in the wrong place. The team that won did so because they were flat out better than the other team. That other team deserves the credit in going out there as underdogs and competing and doing their best. Hopefully the coaches will be able to use the experience to teach the team a few things and make a better team of them.

I know people seem to like to punish winners. It can't be "fair" that someone wins so big. That's life. If you want "fair" go play Candyland.

MUSIC!

A fair fight? That would be the one I win.



That's it for me me. See y'all Friday.

The Not So Great Divide

It's Friday, November 4, 2011, its my stepmother's birthday, and this is The Side. Hopefully the HITMAN volume 5 trade I ordered for her will get here soon.

I'm very tired right now.

I'm thinking today about the division of things, mainly groups of people. It seems like there's a lot of focus on it now. In many areas I'm all for it when we keep things in perspective. Splitting things up can bring about competition, which can be fun and enjoyable. The competition can be physical, mental, or emotional.

Physical competition is pretty obvious. We typically see it in sports. It gets the blood up, and pushes those competing to be the best person out there.

Mental competition also pushes folks. We see this in debates, spelling bees, chess matches, and any other intellectual pursuit that can involve more than one person. This is also good. It keeps the mind sharp.

Emotional competition is along the lines of being a fan of something. Let's say you're a Yankees fan. If your team is on the field you're invested at least a little bit emotionally. Well, there's someone else out there who's invested emotionally in whoever the Yanks are playing. Being passionate about something is good for the soul.

There's a flip side to all this. Competition can bring out a lot of bad stuff. people can cheat. They can do something to intentionally hurt someone. They can get so obsesses with winning that they hurt themselves. This happens when people forget something very important: they are part of a larger group.

That person cheering for the sports team that's playing against the team you love. You both love the same game.

That guy at the comic shop who loves Marvel Comics instead of DC. Guess what. You both love comics.

That guy I face in the ring when the gloves go on. He's there because he loves martial arts just like me. That's why the first thing we do is bow.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who want to focus so much on the divides in things that they do some really stupid stuff. There's no competition to see who is a better person. In that its when you start behaving like you're better than someone else because of some divide that separates you, you become a worse person.

Atheists that malign religious folks needlessly, and just as much a bunch of douchebags as those 'Christians' who tell people "You're going to hell" for not living their lives a certain way.

Anyone who assaults another person for being a fan of a particular sports team should get to spend time in cell to think about what they've done.

People standing around pointlessly in the streets because they're not as successful as they wish they were and someone else is doing well because they worked hard and got a little lucky are just being petty.

Calling somebody a "racist" simply for having a differing political view that has nothing to do with race at all simply because you want to tear down those people is pretty disgusting.

However, all this ranting probably will be forgotten fairly quickly by anyone who reads it. After all. Next year is an election year.

MUSIC!!

Heard these guys broke up.



See y'all Sunday.