When is the right time to quit competing? When you know you can't win anymore? When you feel you achieved anything you could? When you simply don't have fun with it anymore? The day I will stop, it'll be because I have plenty of one thing and none of another.
You know, for a long time I've been thinking fatigue was just a kind of pain. And I could endure it. In time, I have come to think pain is different, because pain can what fatigue cannot, that is depriving you of the joy of practicing the sport you love. When each moment of training comes with some ache, when every workout leaves you emptied rather than energized, you cannot but start questioning the point of it all. Speaking of meaning, the necessary outcome of training Poomsae is beauty. Albeit age divisions allow athletes to stay competitive in spite of the passing of time, Poomsae lose their reason to be when they are performed in a less than decent way. Low kicks, lack of balance, slow pacing. Sooner or later, all mature Poomsae players are affected by that. And when you realize your body cannot produce beauty through movement anymore, constantly generating pain in its spite, then it's time to take a decision.
