Obviously I'm pretty bummed out about it. I feel like I've let everyone down, everyone who helped me train for this tournament, everyone who came to support me, and everyone at our school. I feel like I wasted all of my time training for this tournament as I didn't even make it to the finals.
I blame myself for this, as I know I underestimated the competition this year by comparing it with last year’s competitors. I wasn't training properly for what was to come and instead I was training according to what I knew of the prior year. Even with my girlfriend's consistent warnings that I'm slacking in my training, I chose not to listen as I believed I knew best.
Everyone has been telling me that I needed this loss to get everything back in perspective. I believe that too now, this being the first time that I've never placed in a tournament that I participated in. I guess as some say that "I was resting on my Laurels". I was too confident of my own capabilities that I felt no need to go through the same type of rigorous training as I did the last year and by doing so hindering my chances of success.
Sifu gave me some advices before my fight, which looking back at it now I wish I had followed. Instead, I did what worked for me last year during my matches and therefore the results of my current fight. What I am happy about is that I came out of it with new sparring philosophies, new thoughts and ideas that broke some of the previous ones that I had set my sparring skills on. I'm actually pretty excited to see how well they will work for me.
All in all, I haven't quite made my mind up yet on whether or not I will go back for next year's tournament. What I do know is that from now on, I will try my best to participate in every local tournament that I can. I will train according the same mindset that I had the first year and more.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me throughout my training period and thank you to all those who sent me support. I hope with this experience, I will grow a better fighter if not at least a better teacher/coach.
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