Winning is a habit that needs to be inculcated from an early age. Champions across sports have shown how they had a thing for winning from a very young age. Sports are as much about mental strength as it is about physical fitness. Ronda Rousey has talked about how she was pushed toward a winning habit by her mom when she was only 11 years old. In her book, My Fight/ Your Fight, Rousey talked about an incident from her first Judo tournament. She described how she was hesitant and overwhelmed by the tournament set-up that had happened soon after her father’s demise.
Ronda Rousey participated in a “little local tournament” with only a month of practice under her belt. She accepted that she knew only a couple of moves when she entered the Tournament. She was expecting a pep-talk from her mother, AnnMaria De Mars, before the tournament started. Her mother, however, told her “three life-changing words“.
Ronda Rousey won the tournament with her mother’s advice
In her book, My Fight/ Your Fight, Ronda Rousey described her first Judo tournament and the incidents around the landmark in her fighting career. It was the first time Rousey tasted victory. The experience was probably a major factor in her hunger for victory.
Remembering the message from her mother before she went in for her fight Ronda Rousey wrote, “The mats set up around the gymnasium seemed so much bigger than they did in practice. My eyes widened. I tugged nervously on the white belt that held my gi top closed. My mom sensed my hesitation. After she finished checking me in, she pulled me aside.”
‘The arm collector’ then added, “I expected a pep talk about how it wasn’t a big deal, about how it was just about doing my best, about how I should just go out and have fun. Instead, she looked me straight in the eye and said three life-changing words: “You can win””
Mother Mentor schooled Rousey after losing
It was not as if the winning train never stopped for Ronda Rousey. She suffered a loss in the finals in the very next tournament she played. While the opponent’s coach congratulated her and said she had done a “great job” as her opponent was a Junior National Champion, Rousey‘s mom was fuming. She later schooled her on how it didn’t matter who her opponent was.
She told her that tournaments were meant to find out who was the best. And ‘Rowdy’ should never let anyone tell her that she did a good job coming second. Rousey‘s mother also made it very clear to her that she was a “skinny blonde girl who lives by the beach” and that she will have to be an absolute force if she ever wanted people to take her seriously in sports. Do you have a mentor who made you better in life? Let us know.
Watch This Story: From impressive victory to awful Twitter Trend, Fire Ronda Rousey trends on Twitter after SmackDown Botch
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pr%2FSnqWtoZGhubq%2Fz6ipratemLyue9SfmmalnZZ6r7HWrGSwr5Viu6bD0maroaqVmnqttcWeZJygkaO0qrrGZq6oqpSoerex0bJknKSfqLJuwM5mrrCdXajBor6Mq6annJFiv7DB0p6wZqyYlsFuv8eeZKudk6S5rbHCrZydZZmjeqmx0WaZqKebYrq6ecWinqGsXa68tr6Mn6CgoKRk