There's a great exchange in the Bruce Lee flick Enter the Dragon between the eccentric and evil millionaire martial arts enthusiast Mr. Han and the Jim Kelly character. Mr. Han says, "We are all ready to win, just as we are born knowing only life. It is defeat that you must learn to prepare for." Kelly answers, "I don't waste my time with it. When it comes, I won't even notice . . . I'll be too busy looking gooood!"
Kelly's line is funny, but the blaxploitation giggles belie a remarkable response to the anxieties many athletes feel about competition. First, there is the recognition and acceptance that loss is inevitable. He says "When it comes," not "If it comes." This incontrovertible fact of individual competition, i.e. that everyone will at some point lose, is hard for most of us to come to grips with. Yet, Kelly says "When it comes, I won't even notice." This sort of serenity in the face of certain defeat is rare.
Usually when we are forced to talk about losing, even the best of us turn coward and try to explain it away. Saitiev's assessment of his loss to Brandon Slay at the 2000 Olympics is typical:
I let this person take me down in the second round. I didn't even know who he was. I had to look him up on the Internet. I don't think he should've been in the Olympics at all, he was like a plane fly-by. He flew in, flew out, and didn't have much to offer. Maybe they fed him something. He appeared, caused havoc, and disappeared. Kind of like that Rulon Gardner, but Rulon at least fought again somewhere. That Slay guy disappeared for good. He's not even worth my thoughts. If someone asks me a question about him only then do I remember, otherwise he doesn't exist for me. (Silent Gladiators)
It's astounding that the greatest wrestler to ever live feels the need to make excuses about a loss. "It was luck! It was steroids! It was a figment of the imagination!" Saitiev's attempts to pin the loss on something untoward suggests an incongruous naiveté about the nature of sport. Further, there is an unexpected diffidence about his wrestling abilities that his bravado can't hide. If Slay is not worth his thoughts, why did he look him up on the Internet? If he didn't have much to offer, aren't Saitiev's own accomplishments suspect? Saitiev's paranoid worries are common for wrestlers. They can haunt, consume, and paralyze us.
Kelly, though, does not worry. Instead, he faces the inevitable with serenity. It is Kelly's serenity that allows him to get on with more important matters, like "looking good!" While "looking good" is not in the cards for most wrestlers, the general point holds. If the athlete can get himself to stop worrying about losing, he will be able to give his best effort.
However, as the Saitiev quote illustrates, this is easier said than done. It seems that most athletes want to deny loss, to push it as far away from them as possible. But since such efforts will prove fruitless and end in frustration, a better option might be to familiarize ourselves with loss, to think about it every day until it is no longer strange and frightening. Many religions use this approach to coping with death, and it makes a lot of sense to me in this context. To this end, the following is something that you might want to consider reciting every day.
A. LOSING IS CERTAIN
1. There is no possible way to escape losing. No-one ever has, not even Gable, Sanderson, Smith, Saitiev, etc. Of the tens of thousands of varsity wrestlers that will compete this year, almost none will be undefeated by March. Those that are will almost certainly lose by the end of the summer. No athlete holds out for even a decade.
2. Competition has a definite, inflexible logic and each moment brings us closer to losing. We are approaching the loss from the first moment we step on the mat.
3. A loss comes in a moment, and its time is unexpected. All that separates us from the next loss is one breath.
B. THE TIME OF LOSS IS UNCERTAIN
1. The duration of any winning streak is uncertain. The experienced wrestlers can lose to less experienced ones, the strong wrestler can lose to the weak, etc. The quick to the slow. The smart to the dumb. The skilled to the clumsy.
2. There are many causes and circumstances that lead to a loss, but few that lead to winning.
Even things that prepare us to win can cause us to lose, for example intense training can lead to injury.
3. The weakness and fragility of one's physical body contribute to winning's uncertainty.
The body can be easily destroyed by disease or accident, for example skin conditions, flu, broken bones.
C. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN HELP US COMPETE AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL IN THE FACE OF INEVITABLE LOSS IS OUR MENTAL/SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
1. Worldly possessions such as the most expensive or exotic shoes or past championship medals can't help
2. Coaches and practice partners can neither prevent losing nor lose with us.
3. Even our own precious body is of no help to us. It does not experience the loss no matter how poorly or well conditioned. Only the mind does.
D. COMMITMENTS
1. To exert maximum effort.
2. To exert maximum effort now.
3. To exert maximum effort without concern for reward.
Coach Moore
