What are your thoughts on this?

To be a champion is not whether you win or not win, it's up to you and how you see yourself.

If you don't get back up and keep striving forward, and just give what? How would you see yourself then?

If you never give up keep on trying no matter how many time you lose, get beat up so forth. How do you see yourself then?

The point is it's not how others picture you it's how you picture yourself.

To you and you alone it maters how you think of yourself and how you want to think of yourself, it your goal that you are striving or not striving for.

So the saying:

"Being a champion didn't count on how many times you win, but it counts on the times you stood up and fight."

If you keep trying then you can look on yourself as a champion, one who does not give up will either die or win in the end. :)

Otherwise you get to be a carpet for other people..........People walk all over you if you give up,

Another Quote:

People learn more from their losing then they do from winning.

You learn your mistakes and as long as you don't give up you can use the new information you learned from losing the next time. So Forth...

Most people tend to associate the word "Champion" with sports competition and victory. But if you really look at the true meaning of the word, it means to fight for what one believes in. A Champion presupposes a cause, there is no champion without a cause. To Champion a cause is the true context in which the word is used in the old days, not winning a Championship. A Champion was chosen to represent his nation or Kingdom in the old days because he represents the best of that Kingdom and is tasked to defend it and it's people against it's enemies. So when a Champion runs into an obstacle or fails, a true Champion would not give up and would continue the fight even if it may seem hopeless, that's what a true Champion is, not someone who wins a plastic trophy, a belt or a medal and defends the right to keep it.

Well let me relate to you a few things I have found about competing and fighting and this is from someone that is very competitive and was very successful in competing in martial arts especially in sport karate. The more I won the less the trophies meant and instead the quality of my performance became what was important. I found that to be more of a driving and motivating factor in my training and competing. I still have about three hundred trophies today of the nine hundred or so that I won from competing during those years that I was heavily involved in competing so I certainly don't need any more trophies. It was much the same way for all those other guys that I would compete against also like Terry Creamer, Scorpion Burrage, Jessie Thornton, EJ Greer, and James Cisco and many of the others.

Don't misunderstand me as winning that trophy and getting nationally ranked was all important for me in the beginning but once that was accomplished to a larger degree then things like that took on less meaning. Instead how well I could or would do against those other guys was what became the driving force and how I judged myself and how they judged me as well. I think that can be just as powerful of a motivating factor for some people and is the reason why some continue to compete in their chosen sport or activity well beyond after they have made it in that sport or activity.

The important essence of a true champion is not about his number of victories nor his strength, it is about his strong courage and conviction to continue to struggle and to stand back up no matter how many times you are knocked down. Without courage you cannot use your full strength, and without courage you cannot execute your techniques properly. Thus a true champion's worth is measured through his courage and conviction, not his victories, strength or techniques. As long as you cling to these words, you will never walk astray from your road to championship

...That's what I think anyways. I probably said things that your instructor have already said to you, but I am just giving my view on this just like you asked =)

I wish you good luck in your tournaments and may you become a champion!

I like this quote, to me it really means that you're a winner when you have the courage to step into the ring or onto the mat. I think this is true to a degree, when you choose to compete you're proving that you're already more courageous than most. You've shown dedication, commitment and skill, by going out to a place where someone is legitimately trying to beat you. Many people couldn't do that so I think anyone that competes, winner or loser, is tougher than the average person by a mile.

That being said, a champion in my book has to win. You can't lose and still be the champion. Champion is defined as "A who person has defeated or surpassed all rivals in a competition." So yeah a champion's got to win.

I've won and lost matches and wining feels amazing but after losing and thinking about it, you realize that you had the balls to go out there when most guys would have sat on their couch.

My favorite quote of all times:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." Teddy Roosevelt

To me, this is a basic axiom of life. It's not just about competition, it's about conquering one's own fear of failure. There are those who participate in life and those who watch from the sidelines. The perfectionist is a classic example. A perfectionist will often get discouraged (interesting term, loss of courage) and quit when they encounter difficulty; if they can't do it perfectly, they won't do it at all.

To participate, do the best you can do and leave the results to God (or the judges) is a trait of a true champion. If you don't try, you have already failed.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

In my opinion, it acknowledges that you can't win every fight, but a true champion keeps trying despite losses and hardship. Keep training hard and giving it your all, that's what counts.

"Champions aren't men who never fail. Champions are men who never quit."

Even when you don't feel like you can get back up any more, get up anyway. It will make you stronger, it will make you better, it will strengthen your courage ... it will make you a champion.

I suggest buying some Ninja Info Cards