Overcoming Mordred's frustration

I know the feeling.

Most people with the same years in training as me are so far beyond me ability-wise it's incredible.

Some of it I could put down to not being dedicated enough, but plenty of it is just that I have very little natural ability.

For me I just quit trying to compare myself anymore, for whatever reason it gets easier the older I get. I just try to have fun and do the best I can from where I am at. Remember you should be enojying yourself!

Not to say we shouldn't try to get better, or keep goals etc...just to consider, martial artists spend alot of time beating themselves up, don't! Someone else is sure to do it for us.

Personally I think that part of excellence for many people is a drive to improve based on a self critical way of thinking, I too have never been particularly naturally talented, in my case at Judo. I'm regularly thrown hard, pinned and subbed, but that is because I still train, at age 42, at the highest level I can, at a top club where I can just about hold my own, under an Heavyweight Olympic silver medallist coach, and where some fighters are half my age and are elite competitors at both Judo and BJJ.

Many people would salve their ego by finding a club where things were easier, and they could dominate against more mediocre opposition, but that has never been my way. I would rather be a mediocre player at a good club than the other way around. And if I'm not, it's time to move to a harder club!