Failure: We all have an internal voice that tell us whether or not a given move that we attempt during sparring or competition has succeeded or failed. When you compete against opponents your own size and skill level, the great majority of your attempted moves will fail. So that voice in your head will be saying “you failed” very often. When we experience failure it's natural to feel frustration and disappointment. This usually has the effect of lowering our morale over time until you stop attempting moves because they simply aren't succeeding. You must not slide into this way of thinking. Understand this – A SUCCESSION OF FAILED MOVES PAVES THE WAY FOR A SUCCESSFUL MOVE – why? Because every act of resistance is a drain on your opponents energy levels. As long as you are not expending more energy than your opponent over time, a series of failures will create a tired and fatigued opponent who will eventually be unable to defend the next move. One failed move doesn't do anything, a but a long succession of failed moves can degrade an opponents energy levels to a point where success is inevitable. As long as you keep this view in your mind, the many inevitable failures you will experience in the course of a hard match won't get you dispirited – on the contrary – they will inspire you to keep pushing. Skilled opponents can stop almost any move when they're fresh, but even the most skilled opponent can't stop a move in a state of total exhaustion. Victory never came from a single failure, but many victories came from multiple failures over time that kept an opponent working to exhaustion until he couldn't stop the next move
