The Will to Win

So I was watching the hbo documentary, Thrilla in Manilla, and I was completely blown away with how flawed Ali and Frazier both were. Here you have two of the greatest champions in all of sports and it is so incredibly easy to forget that they are human beings with all the baggage that comes with being human. Pride, hate, prejudice, and fear only just scratches the surface when it comes to their three legendary fights. But, what struck me the most was their will to win. They literally pound into each other for 44 rounds to the point of DEATH and somehow still find a way to answer the bell...

Which got me to thinking about what it means to have the will to win in sports. I am relatively new to sports. In fact I can safely say that I never really played any competitive sports growing up. I spent most of my time reading comic books, practicing the violin, and later on just smoking a lot of pot. Only recently have I started competing in Jiu Jitsu and taking my training seriously...not because I plan on being the world's greatest Jiu jitsu player (we can all dream right?) but because I feel like it's a natural progression of my addiction to jits.

So the question is...how do you find the will to win when your entire body is screaming at you to just take a seat. To quit. To give up. Are certain people born with lion hearts? Do they develop this over time through their training? Or is it a product of their monumental hubris? Finally is it worth it to win when you could possibly lose the ability to walk and talk again ? a la Ali's parkinsons and Xande Ribiero's refusal to tap to an inverted heel hook at Grapplers Quest resulting in the most disgusting popping noise i've ever heard coming from a knee cap.