By: Talila Golan
My thoughts about competing at a disadvantage.
“Better be a Tail to Lions than a Head to Foxes”
I grew up hearing this saying from my father and other educators. The meaning of it is that, while being a head to foxes might feel good, it is a personal dead end. Being a tail to lions however, might feel lousy at times, but presents a path for personal development and a prospect of becoming a head to lions down the line.
I can relate this saying to Karate Do in a number of ways, most clearly to the first statement of the Dojo Kun: “Seek Perfection of Character” (of which I have already expressed my thoughts here). In this post I would however, like to put it in the context of sport karate and competing in tournaments.
Throughout the years I attended many karate competitions, run by different organizations. I attended as a competitor myself, as a parent, and since the reopening of Fremont Shotokan Karate, also as a coach and as a referee. My impression is that in general, most organizations do a fairly good job in grouping the competitors into the event divisions by gender, age, and rank or years of training experience. That said, it often happens that competitors find themselves in groups where they have to compete at a disadvantage. In other words, they find themselves as a tail to lions.
As examples: a newly ranked person that competes for the first time in the higher rank division. Or a person who has just celebrated a milestone birthday and now has to compete with older and more experienced competitors, at the older age division. Sometimes the disadvantage is even more blatant, like when grouping is done by years of experience, and a person who’s been slower in getting through the ranks competes against considerably higher rank people, or a competitor who happens to be the only one enrolled in his/her division and is added to an older, or higher ranked group so they could compete at all. At many times these competitors know what they are getting into, sometimes, they do not, and it comes as an unpleasant surprise.
Being at a disadvantage can be at the same time a humbling experience, and an empowering one. Most often, the new ‘tail to lions’ would not win their division, or even place within the top three. For competitors who used to be the best of their former grouping (i.e. being a head to foxes), this experience of not winning can be quite bitter and disheartening. It is normal to be disappointed, and very natural to express it. It is however, not very constructive to place any blame for it – not on the tournament organizers, not on the referees (unless of course, there was a blatant case of discrimination), and most importantly, not on one self (i.e. “I am terrible so I shouldn’t even bother to compete”).
Keeping in mind that being a tail to lions is a path to personal development, I have seen disadvantaged competitors go again and again to tournaments where they know they would not bring in any trophy. They keep training their karate, keep improving, keep working on their techniques, and keep looking ahead, until a tournament comes when they eventually stand on the podium.
Our dojo doesn’t focus on tournament training but we do support our members who wish to compete. It is my feeling that the attitude of competitors and their supporters toward competing at a disadvantage and not winning, says much about their general approach to challenges in life. It takes a true warrior to go into a competition as a tail to lions and suffer the bitter taste of not winning, and at the same time not seeing it as a failure, but as a lesson to learn from and a step forward on the path to becoming the head.
Dedicated with much love and appreciation to all the warriors, young and old, at Fremont Shotokan Karate.