We did some sparring in Black Belt class a couple of weeks ago and after Sifu Ryback asked us if our egos were involved. I thought to myself that mine is definitely not. I can assure you that for many years before it most certainly was. I didn’t want to get hit and I was always trying to get the upper hand and be dominate. Now I have changed my focus.
My main focuses in sparring are:
1) I try and recognize what my opponent is going to do before they do it.
2)I work on sparring form a right lead instead of the dominant lead.
3)I try and incorporate new combinations and see which ones work or don’t work and why.
I recognize that there are people that are way better at sparring than I am and I am okay with this. I am working on things that will hopefully make other people better at sparring or even better than they are now.
After all this, is there some ego in here. I would say yes as but it is a lot different that it was before