Victory and Defeat

“…
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
…” (From ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling)

Well there wasn’t much triumph or disaster at the recent French national Tai Chi championships, but there was as usual some cause for reflection, and some pointers for those seeking victory (I don’t think anyone was seeking defeat).
Dominique and Ladan were in the same forms competitions, with the former coming first and the latter last (or nearly), quite systematically. What does this mean, if anything? Well, broadly speaking I would agree that the one performed “better” than the other. However, I don’t believe that either really deserved their rankings. The former was (and has always has been) after medals. The latter was by far the more courageous and, in a sense, was the greater winner.
Dan said recently that the aim of doing a competition was “medals”. A few years ago he said “experience” (he’s good at one word answers). This was the case with Dominique and Ladan.
“Normally” (which means in general, outside ‘the French exception’), forms are judged openly with points being shown after a competitor has done their thang. A Judging committee only meets if there is a wide disparity in the scores. Not last weekend, where the discussion circle of the wise and sagacious heads of the French federation met after all competitors had been through, in order to decide who should get what. Not exactly transparent, but then neither were our Russian friends in 2004, where even in Tui Shou the referees kept the scores to themselves and the competitors had little or no idea what they needed to go to get on to the next round. One of the esteemed elders on the French jury last weekend used to compete, and always got a gold medal in the French competitions but in no others. Perhaps it was just co-incidence that her teacher was always on those jury tables. Another sagacious one has a vested interest in certain people being in certain positions, all the more to bolster her own position (which is now more than ever threatened by the invading hordes). Yet another is a personal friend of the gold medalist, who I noticed smiling (serenely) at the camera, instead of looking at what she was doing with her saber. I did see other competitors from other styles who were more focused, more precise, more martial, better balanced and better structured than Dominique – but she definitely took the prize for dress sense (worth 10% of the points).
In fixed and ‘free’ pushing hands, I was matched with Philippe Danel (one of the “quatre philippes”) and a guy named Abdou, trained in Chinese boxing and wrestling. Unsurprisingly, he won through in the ‘libre’ (moving step with throws, sweeps and leg grabs). Unsurprisingly, Philippe was defeated (he doesn’t do much at all of the moving step stuff). In the fixed step, unsurprisingly, Abdou was defeated (they don’t stand still in shuai jiao). Between myself and Philippe it was the same old story: we’ve crossed hands on a good few occasions, and it’s usually 50-50 (except in Russia where sensitivity was not so important). We went to the 30 second tie break which he won by 1 point. It could have been the other way round, but I got a couple of faults for grabbing and pulling, which I discovered, you were allowed to do but only if there was movement first. I pointed out to the ref. that grabbing and pulling is, in fact, movement … and was told to be more sensitive. The ref, dear Eric, had earlier been very put out (he’s a sensitive guy) when I put a lock on his elbow as we were practicing.
There were three of us, only, equally and inequally matched, with rules that turned and twisted like the yellow river. I don’t consider that any of us won or lost.
The famous and dead Chinese master, Zheng man qing (Cheng man ching) provided the tai chi with an oft-cited saying: “Invest in Loss”. Apparently this is a bad translation. Also I would add a rider: “Invest in Loss, but try to win”. Defeat is inevitable as we gain experience. Babies don’t know how to do forms or win push-hands competitions. Everyone has to start somewhere and I am proud for both Ladan and Nathalie because they bit the bullet and got out there for their first taste, their first steps in competition experience. Few people get anywhere the first time, but these two deserve applause for just doing it. And I think they both found it’s not as bad as all that.
I’ll finish with an anecdote taken from one of Henry Plée’s excellent ‘Chroniques’. He tells the story of a French karate champion, who won his competition by a knock-out – his own. The competition format excluded excessive contact, so his opponent was disqualified for having knocked the guy out.