Limits, fuck 'em

Preamble

If you hadn't figured it out already, I am a vulgar person.  Expect more of the same... I find that being blunt helps me get to the point, and since I'm already very long winded that cuts down on the overall number of words.  Anyhow... onto the thing.

The Master has Failed...

The words that echo in my head are "the master has failed more times then the novice has even tried".  The point being that the master didn't  become a master by some sort of magic or sorcery, they just stuck with it and did their particular art long enough to become good at it.  In an age where everything can now come with instant gratification, (I want it NOW!) the idea of actually taking the time to master something is starting to get lost because honestly, who wants to fail over and over again until they get it right when they can just have mediocrity handed to them?

... But that's what's required.  A lot of fighters that I know and many more that I've seen eventually plateau.  They learn a particular skill set that works for them or pick up a certain set of gear (*cough* tower shields *cough*) and then never improve past that point.  Back when I spent more time training people they'd get through the stuff I'd file under "basics" and because that meant they killed 90% of new people and went 3/10 or so fights against better fighters many of those trainees decided that they were done learning.

...and that's fine.  It's important not to demonize a fighter that plateau's or opts to stop improving. There's more to life then fighting and each person has to find their own balance.

I wanted to be a great (or the best!) 

At least for me though, I decided I wasn't content with being a mediocre florentine fighter, I wanted to be a great (or the best!) florentine fighter.  I wouldn't say that I'm the best by any stretch of the imagination but I definitely have some renown for that skill set, enough to make me feel as though I've gained some mastery over it.

Florentine is one of those styles that will absolutely get you killed over and over again.  Since you only have blades to block with, missing a block even by an inch, is the end of you.  Even when you've learned how to aggress effectively you'll still wind up dead more often then not simply because the hand you swung with was also the one you needed to block with.  It is not a thing for the easily discouraged, not for people who can't die over and over again, and if you want to be any good it's not for a person who can't dedicate themselves to that art.  To become truly great at florentine you must, 1) learn how to block every conceivable shot from every weapon and 2) at the same time know how to counterattack or retaliate for each shot thrown.  It's not enough to simply flail until you hit something, and repeatedly suiciding for kills doesn't make you good regardless of who you've thrown into.

Dying, A LOT

The way that I got good at fighting was by dying, A LOT.  To date I am the worst fighter I've ever met compared to when I started, and in 12 years of fighting I've met a lot of fighters.  Back when I started I didn't move, I didn't swing, I just sat there and got hit.  Learning to become as good as I am was the process of simply trying over and over until something clicked and I started to move.  When I started I just sparred every person who would spar me until everyone left the field.  Eventually I started to respond when people swung, eventually when the battle was started I actually moved and swung.  ...but it took time, time I was only too happy to give.  You have to fall in love with the process of getting better.  If it feels like work it's hard to keep at it.

Now that I've reached some degree of skill, it would be easy for me to rely on the things that I've learned in getting to this point.  It would be easy to plateau myself, to stop pushing myself to improve, to stop trying to be something greater then what I already am.  As years roll by it would be easy to start to use being older then I used to be when I started (18 then, 30 now) as an excuse to stop moving.  But doing any of those things would be accepting limits.  Fuck limits.  Being "old" translates to being winded or being slow.  That's just cardio and hand speed, there are plenty of guys who are much older then I am who still manage to move at insane speeds.  So I don't think that's valid.  It just means more cardio, more work, compared to a time when that all came easily.  With work, that limit is easily surpassed.

I could also rely on the tech that I already have; it's not as though I don't rack up kills with my current skill set (even as I knock some rust off).  I could be comfortable with the shots that I know how to throw and comfortable with the gear that I've grown accustomed to.  I choose not to.  I fight florentine in an effort to get back some of my lost skills, even against unfavorable match ups, because that's how I'll improve.  By learning to breach a line with a florentine set I'll have to up my blocking game, and learning to get those blocks is going to involve a ton of failure in the interim.  To become good at fighting many vs one with florentine again I'm going to spend a bunch of time missing blocks from odd angles.  I'm going to be practicing sword and board and trying to get some really good deep wraps, but before I've got that locked in, I'm going to be throwing some really shitty wraps that I'm going to get murdered for.

Getting Murdered is Just Fine

The point is, that getting murdered is just fine.  Getting murdered is just fine because I want to surpass my own limits.  It's my heartfelt belief that if I'm willing to go out there and do something I'm bad at long enough, I will eventually improve and whatever it was, whatever limit I thought I had, I'll eventually be able to break through.  That having been said... it's important to correct errors when you find them, because if you practice doing only the wrong thing, that's what you'll get really good at.

It's not for everyone.  Ego is a real thing that I feel like the sport as a whole doesn't talk about enough.  Going from being the biggest bad ass on the field, to getting murdered repeatedly while you learn that new thing isn't an easy pill to swallow.  The question is just what's more important, would you rather plateau and be good?  or suck for a while so you can be great?

What about you?  Do you allow yourself to be defined by your limits or do you let yourself get murdered so you can surpass them?

Comment below :-P.