Before I was a black belt and instructor, I would purposely lose to my instructors because I thought it would make them feel good.

I was a child at the time, I'm not sure what my career trajectory at the time was, but I didn't want to be a black belt. I had been training in taekwondo for almost a decade. I had been a red belt for what felt like forever. I also just happened to age out of junior competitions by then, so tournaments were a lot tougher and required more training. I was also female, short, and level in ability with my fellow students. <br><br>Back then, we'd have tournament preparation black belt classes. It was basically all the black belts getting together to spar each other. So you'd see some really senior black belts sparring your instructor, then I'd come along. It was around that time that I purposely let myself lose to some of the instructors (I was afraid of the really senior black belts) because I thought I was good enough in the sport to do so without bringing them down a peg.