I still remember one match I had at brown belt in Tangsoodo. I was more mentally than physically tired afterwards. He won because he scored the only point. I had to completely use soft techniques, breathing, positioning and strategy to last the full match because he had decades of martial arts experience. It was a real chess match more so than sparring. And I ended up improving a lot because of it.

No, becasue not all of us train for competition sparring.

Like the realization not to take everything for granted? Never missing a workout does not guarantee a win every time. It's not a trade off, if I do this I will get that.

BTW it is not only the losses that are humbling. I had wins that are humbling too.

Everything we do changes us little by little.

But yes there are major events that change us faster. Some change us for the good and some for the bad.

I remember being a brown belt and getting hit in the back of the head by my best friend as we were sparring. I made a really bad decision and turned in a way that exposed the back of my head. Thankfully he has incredible control and is an honorable man. The hit while pulled still struck me, and while I wasn't hurt, it served as a very important lesson in my training on what will go wrong when you make the mistake I did. In my case, I was fortunate that it was in class, sparring a friend. Against someone else, or in a real fight it would have ended badly for me.

The point of my story is that I learned what not to do by making a mistake. And I learned what a huge mistake it was. So I've been aware of that ever since and have it in my head when I'm sparring or working with someone.

yeah its true