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As Martial Artists, we have all had learning experiences and mistakes that we wish we hadn't made. In this forum, I'd like to hear about those errors, and what exactly you learned from them. These can be purely mechanical mistakes (punching with the third and fourth knuckles instead of the first two, for instance) or they can be moral or ethical in nature.

For myself, I have made many, many mistakes on this long road. However, the primary of them happened a few years ago shortly after I had gotten out of the military. At the time, I was a fairly brash young man without any of the wisdom that a few years of hard living can pack onto you. It was one of those times in your life where you think you're invincible because you can swing a fist competently and you just know that you're the best of the best and there's nobody better.

The day that I met Sifu Liu was the day that I lost this illusion. A couple of my friends had been talking up the master, and happened to mention that they thought he was probably the best martial artist they had ever encountered. Knowing my friends as I did, I trusted their assessment, but my lack of humility resulted in the impulsive response that I could take him. I quickly found myself invited to attend a session of the Sifu's training, and in spite of the warnings of my companions I was determined to challenge the master.

When I showed up, I went through the motions, stretching and observing his teachings with the arrogance of a young idiot. Up until this point, my Tai Chi practice had been entirely for the relaxation of it and I didn't consider it a martial art. Martial arts were, after all, fast and powerful and involved smashing the opponent with overwhelming force.

Eventually, I ran off at the mouth as I was wont to do and challenged the master. At first he resisted, and for a month I kept showing up and challenging him to no avail. Finally, he consented to a demonstration of his abilities versus mine. Delighted that I would finally get to show my friends how much better I was than their sifu, I stepped up, and without preamble took my first (and only) swing at him.

To this day, I still don't know what happened exactly. One minute, I was confident in my fighting stance, firing a lightning fast straight punch at an old Chinese guy with all the respect I might have had for a fly. The next, I was lying flat on my stomach with an unhealthy tingling sensation in my forearm. The sifu, in my perception, had barely moved but I have flown a good ten feet from him in the direction of my punch's travel.

The lesson here was humility. There is no such thing as a master, that is only a term given to people by other, more experienced people. No matter how good you think you are, there is always, always someone better, faster, stronger, more skilled. I went on to become a disciple of Sifu Liu, humbled in his teachings until his death about a year and a half ago. His teachings and the humility he gave me with that one simple encounter color everything I do. So next time you decide to raise a fist in arrogance and confidence at another person, make certain you check yourself and determine if your confidence is justified, or you might just find yourself lying on the ground clueless.

I'm an amateur mixed martial arts fighter ... my current record is 25-6-3 ... but early in my amateur career ... I was good ... or maybe I let myself think that ... but I was undefeated and on a seven fight winning streak ... I thought I was invincible ... no one seem to be a challenge anymore ... then fight eight came ... I let myself get caught in a rear-naked coke ... I let myself panic ... and I was stubborn enough to not tap ... after the fight I though it was the end of the world ... I let myself fall into a hole ... about three weeks later ... my girlfriend at the time ... came and talked to me ... she told me "so you lost, oh well, learn from it" ... it took me another week to realize what she meant ... but afterwards I became much better ... lesson here ... don't think of it as loss ... think of it as a learning expeirence ... get better from it ...

Nice, 18oz gloves? The highest oz I've seen is 14. I used to wear 12oz gloves, but I wanted to strike harder so I got gloves with more padding/stuffing. What does 18oz feel like?