Not every training day is a brilliant one. Not every tournament is your best. Not every performance shows all that you’re capable of. Sometimes things are just plain crappy. You can’t get in the zone, you’re in your head, or you feel sloppy, flat footed, slow, out of shape, etc.

Top performers are not devoid of bad days, they just have good strategies to deal with them. Top performers:

Practice in the present. They don’t waste time comparing this training day to the last one. If the strategy doesn’t suit the day, they change it.

Work on the Bottom When They Can’t Work on the Top. When a top performer is stuck working on an advanced technique, they switch to working on a fundamental one.

Focus on Facts -- Not Judgments. Your performance in a given moment is simply a collection of data points. The only thing that defines "good" and "bad" is a judgment in your mind. There is generally little value in value judgment.

Focus on the Long Game. It’s not the point that matters, it’s the match.

Overall, top performers are good at adapting and resetting. They don’t get derailed by bad days. In the 10,000 hours you put in towards achieving mastery, every hour counts. Your "bad" hour has a place as much as the "good" hours you have put in. It’s still taking you one step closer. Put it behind you and get on to the next "bad" hour.

Devon Boorman is the Co-Founder and Director of Academie Duello Centre for Swordplay, which has been active in Vancouver, Canada since 2004. Devon’s expertise centres on the Italian swordplay tradition including the arts of the Renaissance Italian rapier, sidesword, and longsword, as well as knife and unarmed techniques.
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