Fact is if you train long enough, or do anything long enough, including writing, you are going to have one of these days.

More than likely you will have several of these days.

At first, this day will appear like any other day really.

Stretching and chatting with team mates before class, breezing through the warm up, drilling the technique.

Then it’s time to spar. Then before you know it, it’s over.

And you feel like crap. You feel like everyone used all their strength on you. You felt like you saw moves but you hesitated. You were tired and sucking wind midway through the first roll and never recovered. You never hit a point of flow. You tapped to people you usually don’t tap to and to taps you should have been able to avoid.

These days are normal. You train long and consistent enough and they are always on the horizon.

But regardless, they eat at you. They erode your confidence. They allow the negativity of self-talk to swallow the world. They make you want to burn your belt.

They make you want to quit.

The ego is a terrible master.

If you let him be.