you need to be crushed in order to know what is possible. but you should also go against people who are similar/worse than you. ranking systems are good at th

you need to be crushed in order to know what is possible. but you should also go against people who are similar/worse than you. ranking systems are good at that. jiu jitsu is a good example of this. the belt rankings indicate experience/skill and give you an idea of where people are in training. if i just steamroll day-ones it is helpful to a degree. people of similar experience will give me a good fight that will allow us both to make mistakes that we can both capitalize on. but if i get manhandled by higher ranks i can see the possibilities and get ideas for piecing together holes in my game.