# Ever feel like you didn't earn a medal?



## Uchimedic (Nov 17, 2019)

I had a judo tournament yesterday and lost every match yet still left with a silver in ne waza and bronze in tachi waza because there were only 2 people in my ne waza division and 3 in tachi waza. So' now I have 2 respectable looking medals that i don't feel like I won or deserve. Is there another way to look at this? Does anyone else run into feeling this way?


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## dvcochran (Nov 17, 2019)

Those are the tournaments you look at and just be glad you got to compete at all. A glass half full perspective.

Another perspective is you did not walk away with two gold medals so there is always room for improvement. Hopefully that will be motivation to train hard for the next tournament.

Let us know how the next match goes.


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## Bill Mattocks (Nov 17, 2019)

Uchimedic said:


> I had a judo tournament yesterday and lost every match yet still left with a silver in ne waza and bronze in tachi waza because there were only 2 people in my ne waza division and 3 in tachi waza. So' now I have 2 respectable looking medals that i don't feel like I won or deserve. Is there another way to look at this? Does anyone else run into feeling this way?



Although I'll admit I'm not big on 'participation awards' in general, you can look at it this way - you beat all the people who didn't show up.

And keep training.  More and better challenges will come.


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## isshinryuronin (Nov 17, 2019)

Uchimedic said:


> I had a judo tournament yesterday and lost every match yet still left with a silver in ne waza and bronze in tachi waza because there were only 2 people in my ne waza division and 3 in tachi waza. So' now I have 2 respectable looking medals that i don't feel like I won or deserve. Is there another way to look at this? Does anyone else run into feeling this way?


As posted above, just use it for motivation.  Also see it as a reward for entering the tournament and willing to mix it up and test yourself.  Is there video of your event, or someone who watched that can be asked for feedback?  Do you know why the other guys outperformed you?  If you can learn something from a failure - it isn't really a failure.  It took Thomas Edison 1000 tries till he invented the light bulb.  He famously quipped, "I didn't fail 999 times, I successfully discovered 999 things that didn't work.


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## Uchimedic (Nov 17, 2019)

Bill Mattocks said:


> you can look at it this way - you beat all the people who didn't show up.



That's the most common thing I've been told, but I feel as if it should require some minimal level of performance and that threshold is above losing every match


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## Bill Mattocks (Nov 17, 2019)

Uchimedic said:


> That's the most common thing I've been told, but I feel as if it should require some minimal level of performance and that threshold is above losing every match



You did your part.  There's not much you can do about the lack of competition.  Relax.


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## Uchimedic (Nov 17, 2019)

isshinryuronin said:


> As posted above, just use it for motivation.  Also see it as a reward for entering the tournament and willing to mix it up and test yourself.  Is there video of your event, or someone who watched that can be asked for feedback?  Do you know why the other guys outperformed you?  If you can learn something from a failure - it isn't really a failure.  It took Thomas Edison 1000 tries till he invented the light bulb.  He famously quipped, "I didn't fail 999 times, I successfully discovered 999 things that didn't work.



Both tachi waza matches were recorded by my instructor and i might be able to post them and get feedback here.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Nov 17, 2019)

Uchimedic said:


> That's the most common thing I've been told, but I feel as if it should require some minimal level of performance and that threshold is above losing every match


If you don't feel like you deserve them, throw them out. Or treat them (maybe even write on them) as a "last place" trophy, as motivation to improve for future competitions.

Just because it's given to you doesn't mean you have to accept it, or accept it's meaning.


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## _Simon_ (Nov 18, 2019)

Yep, I know that feeling!

I competed two years ago, qualifying in earlier rounds and was now in the State titles. Very excited, trained well enough leading up to it, woke up very early to make the hour and a half trip up, drank heaps of fluids, practiced a bunch while others were competing, waited half the day for my division, only to find out no one else was in my division. I was the only one.

It was the forms division, and they let me know there was no one else, and that I could still go out there and do my form if I wanted. So basically I went out there, and gave my kata everything I had. Didn't slacken off, did everything like I had planned to, regardless of the lack of other competitors.

At the end I "lined up", and was awarded the gold trophy.

Did I feel like I didn't really earn it? To some degree, yes, as this was a competition, competing against others.

But honestly, after reflection, I absolutely earned it. All my preparation, nerves, willingness, even rocking up on the day and stepping out onto the mat was enough. And all that I learned too on the way there was invaluable.

Sometimes it's a bit of a throw of the dice who or how many are going to be competing that day, and as honestly annoyed as I was initially that there were no others, I still treated it the same. Because to me what mattered was me doing it, what it meant to me, and not how many people I beat.


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## jobo (Nov 18, 2019)

Uchimedic said:


> That's the most common thing I've been told, but I feel as if it should require some minimal level of performance and that threshold is above losing every match


if that's what you feel then they are worthless, but medals are worthless anyway unless they are actually made of silver. the issue isn't the medals but that you came LAST in every category in which you completed and that could be used to spur you on to greater effort rather than be humiliated next time

when I was a kid I got a medal for coming tenth in the county cross country championshi, I could have , looked at the fact the fact that I had beated 200 people, but all I wanted was to be the best, so I threw it the bin and I worked harder next year and I was the best


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## Buka (Nov 18, 2019)

I competed more than a hundred times over a thirty year span. Maybe closer to two hundred, I don't know, it's just something we did all the time. All kinds of competitions, Karate Ju-jitsu, kick boxing yada yada.

I had a couple of those "you lost, here's a medal/trophy". Kickboxing was more fun because if you lost they still paid you money. 
But, my guess is - you didn't go there looking for hardware, you went because you wanted to compete. And, bro, that's awesome.

Go again. They become more fun the more you go. And fun is the key. After the nervousness of being new wears off....man, it's a ball.


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## Uchimedic (Nov 18, 2019)

Buka said:


> I competed more than a hundred times over a thirty year span. Maybe closer to two hundred, I don't know, it's just something we did all the time. All kinds of competitions, Karate Ju-jitsu, kick boxing yada yada.
> 
> I had a couple of those "you lost, here's a medal/trophy". Kickboxing was more fun because if you lost they still paid you money.
> But, my guess is - you didn't go there looking for hardware, you went because you wanted to compete. And, bro, that's awesome.
> ...



Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the tournament.  Both guys that beat me were really nice cool guys. My ne waza competitor even took a few minutes to show me some stuff afterwards since he also does BJJ and is much more competent on the ground than me or even than he is standing up.


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## dvcochran (Nov 19, 2019)

Uchimedic said:


> Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the tournament.  Both guys that beat me were really nice cool guys. My ne waza competitor even took a few minutes to show me some stuff afterwards since he also does BJJ and is much more competent on the ground than me or even than he is standing up.


That is how it is done. I always enjoy meeting people from different schools/systems. A good example of the extended value of going to tournaments. It is not all about competing if a person takes the time.


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